Rwanda to Reopen Major Primate Reserve

Gishwati-Mukura — Rwanda’s newest national park — is reopening after months of lockdown to protect the park’s primates and human staff from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Created in 2016, the park was recently upgraded to UNESCO Biosphere status owing to its incredible diversity — nearly 500 plant species including 60 different types of tree, over 130 bird species, 22 mammal species, and 23 kinds of amphibians.

Chimpanzees, golden monkeys, blue monkeys, L’Hoest’s monkeys, and white-and-black colobus monkeys are the park’s most celebrated inhabitants. But Gishwati-Mukura is also home to rare creatures like the African crowned eagle, white-backed vulture, and side-striped jackal.

Many of the plant and animal species are endemic to the region and only found in the Gishwati-Mukura Forest.

Located in the northwest near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the forest was devastated during the Rwanda genocide of the 1980s. With an estimated 90% of the forest destroyed by deforestation, erosion and subsistence farming, experts feared the flora and fauna would never recover.

But conservation efforts over the past 30 years have inspired a dramatic comeback to the point where the Rwanda government was able to declare the area a national park.

Contact Adventure Consults about arranging a visit to Gishwati-Mukura.