Rwenzori Mountains National Park is a

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 ...

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

and

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

located in the

Rwenzori Mountains The Ruwenzori, also spelled Rwenzori and Rwenjura, are a range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruwenzori reaches , and the range' ...

. Almost in size, the park has

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

's third highest mountain peak and many

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s, and

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s. The park is known for its beautiful plant life.

History

Rwenzori Mountains National Park was established in 1991. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 because of its outstanding natural beauty. Rebel militias occupied the Rwenzori Mountains from 1997 to June 2001. The park was inscribed on UNESCO's

List of World Heritage in Danger The List of World Heritage in Danger is compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through the World Heritage Committee according to Article 11.4 of the World Heritage Convention,Full title: ''Conv ...

between 1999 and 2004 because of insecurity and a lack of resources in the park.

Geography

Rwenzori Mountains National Park is located in south-western Uganda on the east side of the western (Albertine)

African rift valley The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. In the past it was considered to be part of ...

. It lies along Uganda's border with the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

(DRC) and borders the DRC's

Virunga National Park , iucn_category = II , iucn_ref = , location = Democratic Republic of the Congo , map = Democratic Republic of the Congo , relief = 1 , coordinates = , area = , established = , nearest_city = Goma , photo =Virunga National Park-107997 ...

, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for . It is situated in the

Bundibugyo Bundibugyo is a town in the Western Region of Uganda. It is the 'chief town' of Bundibugyo District and the district headquarters are located there. Location Bundibugyo is located approximately , by road, west of Fort Portal, the nearest l ...

Kabarole Kabarole District is a district in Western Uganda. Kabarole District is part of the Kingdom of Toro. Its main town was Fort Portal before 1st July 2020 when it was elevated to a city, separating it from Kabarole district Government. The new Kaba ...

, and

Kasese Kasese is a town north of Lake George in the Western Region of Uganda. It originally grew around the copper mine at Kilembe, while attention later turned to cobalt mining. It is the chief town of Kasese District, and the district headquarters ...

districts, from the small city of

. It is in size, 70 percent of which exceeds an altitude of . The park is long and wide. The park includes most of the centre and eastern half of the Rwenzori Mountains, a mountain range rising above dry plains located just north of the equator. Those mountains are higher than the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

and are ice-capped.

Mount Stanley Mount Stanley or Mount Ngaliema (, also , ) is a mountain located in the Rwenzori range. With an elevation of 5,109 m (16,763 ft), it is the highest mountain of both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, and the third highest in ...

is located in the park. Margherita Peak, one of Mount Stanley's twin summits, is Africa's third highest peak with a height of . Africa's fourth and fifth highest peaks (

Mount Speke Mount Speke lies in the Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda and is the second highest mountain in this range. Together with Mount Stanley and Mount Baker, it forms a triangle enclosing the upper Bujuku Valley. The nearest peak is Mount ...

and

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

) are also located in the park. The park has glaciers, snowfields, waterfalls, and lakes and is one of Africa's most beautiful mountain areas.

Conservation and tourism

The park is owned by the Ugandan government through Uganda National Parks. It is protected, although extraction may be sanctioned by a board of trustees. Kasese, 437 km (260 mi) west of Uganda's capital

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, is the gateway to the park. The town has hotels and lodges, while the park has camping, a good trail network, and huts for hikers. The park has trekking and climbing routes, several with unusual scenery. The most popular trek is a seven-day circuit of the park.

Biodiversity

The park has many species that are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Albertine Rift system, and there are several endangered species in the park. It has a high

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

of plants and trees. The park is noted for its botany, which has been described as some of the most beautiful in the world. There are five distinct vegetation zones in the park, which change according to changes in altitude. The park has 89 species of birds, 15 species of butterfly, and four

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

species. The park's wildlife varies with elevation, and its species include the

forest elephant The African forest elephant (''Loxodonta cyclotis'') is one of the two living African elephant species. It is native to humid forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It is the smallest of the three living elephant species, reaching a shoulde ...

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

hyrax Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Typically, they measure between long and weigh between . They are superficially simil ...

black-and-white colobus Black-and-white colobuses (or colobi) are Old World monkeys of the genus ''Colobus'', native to Africa. They are closely related to the red colobus monkeys of genus '' Piliocolobus''. There are five species of this monkey, and at least eight subs ...

L'Hoest's monkey L'Hoest's monkey (''Allochrocebus lhoesti'') or mountain monkey, is a guenon found in the upper eastern Congo basin. They mostly live in mountainous forest areas in small, female-dominated groups. They have a dark coat and can be distinguish ...

Ruwenzori duiker The Ruwenzori duiker or Ruwenzori red duiker (''Cephalophus rubidus'') is a stocky but small antelope found only in the Ruwenzori Mountains between Uganda and, probably, the Democratic Republic of Congo. They may be a subspecies of the black-fron ...

, and

Rwenzori turaco The Rwenzori turaco (''Gallirex johnstoni'') is a bird in the family Musophagidae. It is native to the Albertine Rift montane forests. The Rwenzori turaco is a herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted ...

Gallery

Landscape

File:Ruwenzori Lake Kitandara.jpg, Lake Kitandra File:Mt.Speke2008.jpg, Mount Speke

Fauna

File:Loxodontacyclotis.jpg, African Forest Elephant (''Loxodonta cyclotis'') File:Tree-hyrax.jpg,

Southern tree hyrax The southern tree hyrax (''Dendrohyrax arboreus''), also known as the southern tree dassie, is a species of mammal in the family Procaviidae. The southern tree hyrax is mainly found in the south central eastern side of Africa. Description The so ...

(''Dendrohyrax arboreus'') File:Gombe Stream NP Mutter und Kind.jpg,

Eastern chimpanzee The eastern chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii'') is a subspecies of the common chimpanzee. It is native to the Central African Republic, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania. Taxono ...

(''Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii'') File:Multi-male unit of Rwenzori colobus in Nyungwe .jpg, Black-and-white colobus monkeys (''Simia polycomos'') File:L'Hoest's monkey (Cercopithecus lhoesti).jpg, L'Hoest's monkey (''Allochrocebus lhoesti'') File:GallirexJohnstoniKeulemans.jpg, Ruwenzori turaco (''Gallirex johnstoni'')

Flora

File:Scadoxus cyrtanthiflorus B.jpg, ''

Scadoxus cyrtanthiflorus ''Scadoxus cyrtanthiflorus'' is a herbaceous plant endemic to the Rwenzori Mountains of east tropical Africa. Unusually for the genus ''Scadoxus'' its tubular blooms are pendant. It is sometimes grown as an ornamental plant in heated greenhouses. ...

'' (cultivated plant) File:Scadoxus cyrtanthiflorus A.jpg, ''Scadoxus cyrtanthiflorus'' inflorescence detail (

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus ''Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryllis fa ...

) File:1172 ruwenzori.jpg , ''

Dendrosenecio adnivalis ''Dendrosenecio adnivalis'' (synonym ''Senecio adnivalis'') is one of the giant groundsels of the mountains of Eastern Africa. ''D. adnivalis'' grows on the Rwenzori Mountains and on the Virunga Mountains in Uganda and the Democratic Republi ...

'' (

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

) File:Kosso-2.jpg, ''Hagenia abyssinica'' (tree) File:Hagenia abyssinica - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-208.jpg, ''

Hagenia abyssinica ''Hagenia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plant with the sole species ''Hagenia abyssinica'', native to the high-elevation Afromontane regions of central and eastern Africa. It also has a disjunct distribution in the high mountains of East A ...

'', anatomical detail (

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are ''Alchemilla'' (270), ''Sorbus ...

) File:Symphonia globulifera L. f.jpg, ''

Symphonia globulifera ''Symphonia globulifera'', commonly known as boarwood, is a timber tree abundant in Central America, the Caribbean, South America and Africa. This plant is also used as a medicinal plant and ornamental plant. Common names Common trade names of t ...

'' (tree) File:Symphonia globulifera L. f. - Flickr - Alex Popovkin, Bahia, Brazil (1).jpg, ''Symphonia globulifera'' inflorescence detail (

Clusiaceae The Clusiaceae or Guttiferae Juss. (1789) (''nom. alt. et cons.'' = alternative and valid name) are a family of plants including 13 genera and ca 750 species. Several former members of Clusiacae are now placed in Calophyllaceae and Hypericaceae. ...

) File:Hypericum revolutum.jpg, ''

Hypericum revolutum ''Hypericum revolutum'' is a shrub or small tree in the genus ''Hypericum'' native to Arabia and Africa. It is evergreen, with leaves opposite, closely spaced and crowded at the ends of branches, c. 20 × 5 mm, green to slightly glaucous, se ...

'' in bloom (

Hypericaceae Hypericaceae is a plant family in the order Malpighiales, comprising six to nine genera and up to 700 species, and commonly known as the St. John's wort family. Members are found throughout the world apart from extremely cold or dry habitats. '' ...

) File:Syzygium guineense 25188238.jpg, ''

Syzygium guineense ''Syzygium guineense'' ( bm, Kokisa) is a leafy forest tree of the family Myrtaceae, found in many parts of Africa both wild and domesticated. Both its fruits and leaves are edible; the pulp and the fruit skin are sucked and the seed discarded. I ...

'' (tree) File:Syzygium guineense 71895621.jpg, ''

'' fruits (

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

) File:La Palma - El Paso - LP-301 - Llano del Jable - Erica arborea 01 ies.jpg, ''

Erica arborea ''Erica arborea'', the tree heath or tree heather, is a species of flowering plant (angiosperms) in the heather family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin and Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. It is also cultivated as an or ...

'' mature specimen File:Erica arborea JPG1.jpg, ''

'', inflorescence detail, (

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

) File:Bamboo zone.jpg, Giant African bamboo species ''

Yushania alpina ''Oldeania alpina'', the African alpine bamboo, is a perennial bamboo of the family Poaceae and the genus ''Yushania''. It can be found growing in dense but not large stands on the mountains and volcanoes surrounding the East African Rift betwee ...

'' (

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

)

References

External links

Rwenzori Mountains National Park
Uganda Wildlife Authority * {{authority control Rwenzori Mountains National parks of Uganda World Heritage Sites in Uganda Bundibugyo District Kabarole District Kasese District Protected areas established in 1991 1991 establishments in Uganda Ramsar sites in Uganda Important Bird Areas of Uganda World Heritage Sites in Danger Albertine Rift montane forests