Brief information about Volcanoes national park
The park’s official English name is Volcanoes National Park, and its official French name is Parc National des Volcans. Volcanoes National Park is located in Rwanda’s Ruhengeri area, about a two-hour drive from Kigali, the country’s capital. This area is made up of 160 square kilometers of bamboo and rain forest. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park and Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park border Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park.
Mountain gorillas are exclusively found in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, which also shares five of the eight volcanoes that make up the Virunga massif. The volcanic mountains Gahinga, Muhabura, Sabyinyo, Karisimbi, and Bisoke surround this park. These volcanoes were formerly active, but they are now extinct and dormant.
Volcanoes National Park was gazetted in 1925, consisting of the land masses of Mounts Bisoke, Karisimbi, and Mikeno, with the purpose of preserving mountain gorillas from difficulties such as poaching, making it Africa’s oldest national park. In 1929, the Park’s limits were increased to encompass additional territory in Rwanda and the Congo, and its name was changed to Albert National Park.
The mountain gorilla is the only ape species on the planet that is still gravely endangered. Only a few rare, protected, and conserved afro-montane forests remain, notably those in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Volcanoes National Park in northwest Rwanda, and Bwindi Impenetrable.
Volcanoes National Park currently has 11 habituated gorilla families, one of which is allocated for research and from which the young gorillas for the Kwita Izina coronation ritual are chosen.
Volcanoes National Park is located northeast of Rwanda, near the borders with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The national park is accessible by air and road. The Park is a two-hour journey from Kigali via Musanze town on a calm road and offers spectacular views of Rwanda’s countryside. Charter flights with Akagera Aviation, which offers speedier helicopter flights to Kinigi airfield and then to the Park’s headquarters, can be arranged