Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Kabale District (Southwest Uganda), Uganda

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Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in Uganda's Kabale District in the southwest near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, spans 321 square kilometers of ancient montane and lowland rainforest along the Albertine Rift, earning UNESCO World Heritage status for its extraordinary biodiversity.

Home to nearly half the world's endangered mountain gorilla population—around 400 individuals across 14 habituated groups—it also shelters 120 mammal species including chimpanzees, forest elephants, and colobus monkeys, over 350 bird species with 23 Albertine Rift endemics, 310 butterflies, and more than 1,000 flowering plants amid steep ridges, deep valleys, and rivers feeding Lake Edward. 

Established as a forest reserve in 1942 and upgraded to national park status in 1991 to combat poaching, it offers gorilla trekking from sectors like Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga, and Nkuringo, though its dense undergrowth demands foot access and displaced the indigenous Batwa people from traditional lands.