Rwanda's primeval rainforest — the oldest forest in Africa, chimpanzee trekking through montane mist, the only canopy walkway in East Africa, and the source of the Nile's most distant tributary
Nyungwe Forest National Park (970 sq km, in the southwestern corner of Rwanda between Butare and Cyangugu on the Congo-Nile Divide) is the largest montane rainforest in Central-East Africa and one of the oldest forests on the African continent — the forest has persisted through the ice ages in this location because the Congo-Nile watershed ridge maintained sufficient moisture even during the driest glacial periods, allowing it to serve as a forest refugium (a 'Noah's Ark' of tropical species during drier climatic periods). The forest harbors 13 primate species (the highest concentration of pr…
The Nyungwe forest was formally protected by the Belgian colonial administration in 1933 (as the Forêt de Nyungwe forest reserve), making it one of the earliest protected areas in East Africa. The park was severely threatened during and after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide (an estimated 500,000 refugees camped in and around the forest in 1994-1996, creating significant deforestation pressure at the park margins) but the formal park boundaries were maintained and the wildlife populations — including the chimpanzees — survived. The 1994 period also created one of the most remarkable conservation rec…