Nyungwe National Park – Rwanda’s Primate & Rainforest Haven
Nyungwe National Park, nestled among vast tea plantations, is the largest montane rainforest in East and Central Africa. From a distance, its sheer vastness is deceptive, but up close, Nyungwe reveals itself as one of Africa’s most preserved tropical forests. Often considered Rwanda’s top biodiversity hotspot, the park is home to over 1,000 species of flora and fauna, making it a must-visit destination for nature lovers and adventure travelers.
Top Things to Do & See in Nyungwe National Park
A highlight for those on a Rwanda safari, Nyungwe National Park covers over 1,000 square kilometers, extending into Kibira National Park in Burundi. The rainforest receives over 2,000mm of rainfall annually, serving as Rwanda’s largest water catchment area, supplying both the Congo River and the Nile River.
Visitors arrive via scenic winding roads through lush tea fields, greeted by Nyungwe’s breathtaking landscapes. Top activities include the famous Canopy Walkway—the only one in East Africa, chimpanzee trekking, birdwatching, and primate tracking, with 13 primate species, including L’Hoest’s monkeys, colobus monkeys, and occasional golden monkey sightings.
With over 300 bird species, countless orchids, and vibrant butterfly populations, Nyungwe is a paradise for eco-tourists, photographers, and wildlife enthusiasts. Given its vastness, planning your itinerary is essential to maximize your time in this unspoiled natural wonder. A trip to Nyungwe is often combined with gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park, creating the ultimate Rwanda safari experience.
Hiking in Nyungwe Forest National park
This national park is also a hiker’s paradise. There are also 13 hiking trails with over 130 kilometers of the trails through the forest. The visitors can also spend a good week as you are hiking the many trails, as you explore the ancient rainforest and discovering many habitants found in the forest.
The private hikes are also from one to eight hours in length and most can also be completed in case you are in reasonable physical shape. With your personal input, we can also arrange the hike that is right for you and will not be too active. Hiking in Nyungwe Forest is the time of discovering in a primal rain forest that will simply amazing may visitors with its fairy tale like appearance, its wildlife, birds, primates, plants, flowers, butterflies and the trees.
Chimpanzee Tracking in Nyungwe Forest
The park is also a good location where you can add chimpanzee trekking to your gorilla trek with in volcanoes national park without driving long distances. Chimpanzee trekking also starts in the morning and its best to carry a day pack where you have a couple of liters of water, have long trousers, the long sleeved shirt, rain jacket, the hiking boots and the hat. There will also be a maximum of over 8 people in your group that sets out to track the chimpanzees. These chimps at Nyungwe forest have been and are being habituated which means that they are used to human beings. Even though gorilla tracking, however, many set out to track these closest cousins as they play in Nyungwe forest national park.
Monkey Tracking
There are also over 13 primate species that are found in Nyungwe forest. There are also unconfirmed sightings of the golden monkeys that have also been reported. Apart from chimpanzee trekking, you can also trek the grey cheeked Mangabeys and Ruwenzori colobus Monkeys in Nyungwe Forest. These monkeys can also be seen in large groups of up to 300 colobus monkeys.
Also as you track any of the primate group, you will likely see some other monkeys along the trek. These might include; L’ Hoest’s monkey, the Owl faced monkeys, Mona monkey and the blue monkeys. The forest is also a primate country and you can also trek the chimps, the gray cheeked and the Colobus monkeys in the ancient forest.
About Nyungwe Forest Canopy walk and the Hike
This canopy walk is also the first tree top forest canopy walk in East Africa and the third in all Africa.this walk is also an activity not to be missed in Rwanda. In case you are coming to Rwanda to trek the mountain gorillas, you can add on some days and include Nyungwe forest and enjoy the canopy walk as part of your safari itinerary. This canopy walk is also 50 meters above the ground and this can also be dizzying heights for some people, you will see the monkeys move around in the tree tops, the birds that are flying above you and below you and a beautiful view of the huge Nyungwe forest. It’s also an amazing sight. This canopy walk is also 90m long which is not a long distance, however, it’s when you are 50 m above the ground.
Birding in Nyungwe forest
Nyungwe Forest has 300 bird species and 27 of them are endemics and are part of the species that are found in the forests of the albertine rift. For example the Grauer’s Warbler which is an albertine rift endemics hat can be found within the mountain swamps like the Kamiranzovou with in Nyungwe Forest .you can also find both the Rwenzori Turaco and the large blue Turaco. The sun birds of many types like the purple breasted and the blue headed sun bird and can be found in flowering trees. Nyungwe is also birder’s paradise and you will see many other things from the orchids to the primates during your birding walks with in Nyungwe Forest.
It has some amazing and breathtaking scenery and is a vantage point for picturesque views of the Virungas and the Congo. Nyungwe is nature at its very best. It is lush and beautifully green, often seen with cooling mists in the early mornings and late evening.
One of its exciting attractions besides all the animals and birds and trees, is the 50m high , 200m long canopy walk. This is a thrilling experience for many and this canopy walk is the only one of its kind in East Africa. There is also Mount Bigugu found inside the park.
History & facts
Brief history
Nyungwe forest has been in existence for thousands of years. But its more recent history is what we can speak of.
In 1903, during the colonial era, Nyungwe which was Colonial crown land was declared a forest reserve by the German colonial government. There was a period between 1958 and 1973, when the area reduced by due to fires, woodcutting and poaching of animals, the sq. km coverage of the forest reduced by a whole 150 sq. km. But the elephant population was still quite large. In 1974, the last of the buffaloes was killed. Fast forward to 1984, some biodiversity studies conducted in the area by the Wildlife conservation society revealed a vast population of Colobus living in groups of up to 400 members! Tourist and research facilities were later set up in Uwinka, but most of these were destroyed during the genocide in 1994.
Then the restoration work began in 1995, in an environment that was still riddled with paranoia and uncertainty. But the work went on and in 2005 Nyungwe forest was declared a national park and officially a protected area. The designation of “National Park” is the highest protection level in Rwanda in terms of nature conservation.
Nyungwe Forest National Park was established as a national park in 2004. This happened at a time when Rwanda was on the list of top ten tourist destinations according to Lonely Planet ratings. The country was also decidedly looking to expand its tourism sector and determined to grow tourist numbers at the time. Clearly establishing Nyungwe was a good decision for Rwanda.
Nyungwe is an important water catchment for Rwanda and contains many natural resources that are quite useful to the Rwandan people.
The beautiful green forest is also quite important to two of Africa’s great rivers. Rain that falls on the east side feeds the Nile and on the west runs to the Congo.
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