Itinerary

Description

Welcome to Gishwati Mukura National Park in Rwanda! From this guide, find the best things to see, things to do, where to stay, when to visit this park and how to get there, tour operators and so much more. Gishwati-Mukura National Park is the 4th and Rwanda’s newest National Park; famously known for its diverse plant species; over 60 species of trees like the bamboo and wood and a big number of Rwanda safari wildlife species; around 84 bird species. It is located in Ngororero and Rutsiro districts in the country’s Western province; covering an area of about 3,558 hectares. This park would have run extinct since during the 1994 genocide whereby most people left the country others went to the borders of the country; hence some ended up occupying the Gishwati and Mukura areas; they carried out farming, deforestation and illegal mining. Gishwati and Mukura are forests. In September 2015 a law was passed to have a joint National Park, hence the Gishwati-Mukura National Park. About the Park Gishwati Mukura National Park is one of the youngest national parks in Africa. On 1st of December 2020, Gishwati-Mukura National Park officially opened its doors to the public. Gishwati Mukura is now a National Park which means that parts of the vast montane forest that once stretched across much of central Africa now has permanent protection. The journey to save one of the last remaining central African montane rain forests of Gishwati Mukura has not come easy and there has been a long and hard journey leading up to the official opening of Gishwati Mukura National Park. Finally, visitors can now come and experience the forest the way it has been for thousands of years. The forests of Gishwati Mukura National park is a fragmented montane rainforest located in Rwanda’s Kivu Belt region. It is part of the Congo-Nile divide forest which originally stretched over the entire mountain range which divides the Congo Water Basin from the Nile Water Basin all the way from Congo to Burundi. Today’s remainders of these forest complex include Gishwati Forest, Mukura Forest and Nyungwe Forest National Park in Rwanda and Kibira National Park in Burundi.