Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve, located in western

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, is one of the protected forest reserves in Uganda which is found in

Rukungiri district Rukungiri District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda. The town of Rukungiri is the site of the district headquarters. Location The district is bordered by Lake Edward to the North West, Rubirizi District to the northeast, Mitooma Dis ...

. The Forest Reserve is situated near the villages of Bwambara and Kikongi. The forest reserve is endowed with natural herbs that are medicinal and cure ailments in the human body and managed by

National Forestry Authority The National Forest Authority is the body of the Ugandan central government that is responsible for managing the country's Central Forest Reserves. It was created as a semi-autonomous corporation through the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act ...

. The forest reserve was gazetted in 1965.

Setting and structure

Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve covers a total of 4.77 km^2. It i
located
at

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

0° 40' 0" South and

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

29° 49' 59" East.

Medicinal plants

Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve is well known for its medicinal purpose that it plays in the lives of local communities living around the forest. The forest covers communities like Bwambara, Kikarara, Rwenshama, Nyabubare and Kikongi. All these parishes are found in Bwambara sub-county in

, South Western Uganda. The plants found in this forest reserve include commonly used

medicinal Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

plants Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

such as Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae and Eurphobiaceae with 26, 21, 12, 21, 11 and 10 species cited respectively as documented in the research findings of Mbarara University for Science and Technology.

Language

The language widely spoken by communities around Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve is

Runyankole Nkore (also called Nkole, Nyankore, Nyankole, Orunyankore, Orunyankole, Runyankore and Runyankole) is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken by the Nkole people, Nkore ("Banyankore") of south-western Uganda in the former province of Ankole, as ...

/ Kiga.

Controversies

The key challenges facing the forest reserve are crosscutting. According to a study conducted by Mbarara University for Science and Technology, the challenges facing Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve include destruction for farmland, poaching, encroachment, human settlements, illegal extraction of park resources and political pressure to de-gazette park land, Hunting of bush meat, illegal harvesting of timber and other plant products, charcoal making, encroachment for farmland mining, political pressure to de-gazette or change the land use of forest reserves. The 108 km2 of the forest has been cleared for eucalyptus tree planting.

References

{{Protected areas of Uganda Rukungiri District Forest reserves of Uganda Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Setting and structure

Medicinal plants

Language

Controversies

See also

References