Bwindi Forest national park

Bwindi forest national park  is located in Kanungu District in south-western Uganda. The park is part of Bwindi Impenetrable forest and is located along Democratic Republic of Congo and it borders the Virunga National Park and it is also on the edge of Albertine Rift. It is 331 square kilometres (128 mi) of both montane and lowland forest, it is easily accessible by foot.

Tourist may be trip the park any time during the year, although circumstances in the park are more difficult during rainy season, it is a remote location, and the roads are in poor state.

Tourists may use tented camps, lodges and the rooms owned by the community situated near Buhoma entrance gate.

BINP has a health care unit that provides health, facilities to the people surrounding the park who are around 40,000 and the tourists are also catered for.

Gorilla tracking  is the main tourist lure and it produces much revenue for Uganda Wildlife Authority.

The park has about 340 mountain gorillas known as Bwindi population which makes it almost half of the mountain gorillas in the world.

Mountain gorillas are vanishing species with an estimated total population of about 650 individuals, currently there are no gorillas in captivity.

For the tourist who wants to track the Gorillas should first seek for the permission , selected gorillas have been accustomed to human presence, and the number of visitors is securely well-ordered to prevent the risks of the gorillas ruin of the haunt. The gorillas occasionally react to tourists, strict rules have been set to minimize the risks of diseases passing from them to gorillas.

It is only Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo where it is possible to visit mountain gorillas.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is old multi part, diverse species are a feature of the park and it became UNESCO world Heritage site because of its ecological importance.

The park’s forests are Afromontane, which is a rare vegetation type on the African content, it is situated where plain and mountain forests meet. The park has a low altitude to high altitude primary forests.

Bwindi is said to have the richest faunal societies in East Africa. It has predictable 120 mammals in the park of which 10 are primates, and more than 45 are small mammals. The park is of more for the conservation of the Afromontane fauna, especially species endemic to the western rift valley’s mountains. The park also has common chimpanzee, L’Hoest’s Monkey, African green broadbill, black and white colobus, red-tailed monkeys, vertes, small antelopes and the giant forest hog. The park also has carnivores like side-striped jackal, African Civet and African golden cat.

The park has more than 350 bird species and more than 200 butterfly species, the fish species in the rivers that cross the park are not well known.