Gishwati Mukura National Park

The bigger Gishwati and smaller Mukura woods combine to form Gishwati Mukura, Rwanda’s fourth national park, which covers a total area of 34 square kilometers including a buffer zone.

The woods are located in the west of the nation along the extraordinarily biodiverse Albertine Rift, on the ridge that separates the Congo and Nile water catchment basins. 60 different species of trees, including native hardwoods and bamboo, are used to make it.

20 chimpanzees reside in Gishwati with golden monkeys, L’Hoest’s monkeys, and blue monkeys. There are 232 kinds of birds at Gishwati and 163 at Mukura, including endemic species of the Albertine Rift and forest specialists.

Currently, the park is a part of a comprehensive effort for landscape rehabilitation. The park will provide guided nature hikes, chimp and monkey tracking excursions, bird watching, and waterfall visits starting in 2019.

Resettlement, illegal mining in the mineral-rich forest, and animal rearing were the main causes of the area’s near-depletion.

In an effort to restore the balance, more trees will be planted in the park in 2015 to enhance soil fertility, stabilize slopes, and control stream flow.

Additionally, it will help the people living in the surrounding communities improve their quality of life, which will give the forest a greater chance of regeneration and possibly result in longer-term increases in living standards.

A farm stay, a live cultural dance, handcraft making, beekeeping, a visit of a tea plantation, and the opportunity to hear from traditional healers who utilize natural botanicals to supplement modern treatment and synthetic pharmaceuticals are just a few of the community-based activities available.