Dispatches
Nyungwe National Park: Ancient rainforest alive with primates – the next best thing to time travel
April 20, 2008
Truth be told, when we arrived in Rwanda, we hadn’t even heard of Nyungwe National Park. Fortunately, thanks to a lead from the folks at Rwanda Tourism (ORTPN), we learned about the little-publicized but grand-scaled gem in southern Rwanda and knew that our trip wouldn’t be complete without a visit.
At 1,000 square kilometers, Nyungwe is the largest mountain rainforest in Africa and one of the most ancient, dating back to before the ice age.
After traveling for days in Uganda and Rwanda’s heavily cultivated landscapes, crossing into Nyungwe was nothing short of a breathtaking. It was a journey into a rainforest primeval that, that in light of humanity’s powerful influence outside the park gates, evoked awe and inspiration. I knew there was an Africa that looked like this.
In recent history, Nyungwe provided sanctuary to more than just flora and fauna. Refugees from regional conflicts, including the 1994 genocide, fled into the park, living on Nyungwe’s resources until they could exit safely. During times of human crisis, the park has been profoundly taxed and it could have so easily been destroyed to meet the human population’s ever-burgeoning demands but it has, instead, been saved and protected - good news for all.
Rich in biodiversity with 240 species of trees and over 140 species of orchid, Nyungwe is a birder’s paradise, considered the most important ornithological site in Rwanda, harboring almost 300 species including the spectacular Blue Turaco, which was described as a “blue Elvis chicken”, as well as a “blue, red and green bird - flocks travel from tree to tree like a procession of streamlined psychedelic turkeys”. I’m not a birder but how can a description like that not pique your curiousity?
In a country made famous for the mountain gorilla, Nyungwe’s main tourist draw is the primate. Home to 13 species of primate (representing 1/5th of Africa’s primate species), Nyungwe National Park offers chimpanzee tracking as well as tours that visit troops of L’Hoest’s monkey, Angola Colobus and other habituated species including the Mangaby and Blue Monkey.
Organizations including ORTPN and USAID’s Destination Nyungwe Project are working to make lush but little-known Nyungwe a sustainable ecotourism destination by improving and extending the park’s network of trails and promoting it to gorilla trackers who want to experience the breadth of species and pre-historic beauty in this rugged, ecologically rich national treasure.
As the park visitor numbers increase, communities outside the park are able to benefit. Park employees are hired from the local population and communities near the park are developing tours to their villages that offer visitors a view into their traditions and culture.
Trail time in Nyungwe is a feast for the eyes: orchids dripping color under the thick canopy, monkeys chattering overhead, swinging their way through the treetops, hilltop vistas of Lake Kivu and into Burundi and Congo (DRC) - a unique hike through a landscape that time, thankfully, forgot.
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