Bwindi Impenetrable National Park: Visitor and Heritage Guide

Bwindi is a fragment. UNESCO describes it as the remnant of a very large forest that once covered much of western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and almost half the world's mountain gorillas now live in what is left.

The numbers, and what they mean

The property covers 32,092 hectares and was inscribed in 1994 under criteria seven and ten. It runs from 1,160 to 2,706 meters in altitude, which is why so much lives in it.

UNESCO records over 200 tree species including ten endemics, some 104 ferns, 202 butterfly species, which is 84 per cent of Uganda's total, and over 347 forest bird species, among them 22 of the 36 Albertine Rift endemics. It holds about 340 mountain gorillas, almost half the global population of a critically endangered animal.

It also sits inside farmland at more than 350 people per square kilometer, one of the highest rural population densities in tropical Africa. There is no buffer zone except four square kilometers donated by communities at the southern end. UNESCO's own assessment is blunt about what follows: community benefit from gorilla tourism "may be the only hope for the future conservation of this unique site".

Tracking

Gorilla tracking is by permit from the Uganda Wildlife Authority, in small groups, with a ranger, to a habituated family. Numbers are strictly limited and permits should be secured well ahead in the dry months.

The walk is genuinely hard. Bwindi is steep, wet and thick, the name is not marketing, and there is no guarantee about how long you will walk. Porters are available at the trailhead, are usually from the surrounding communities, and hiring one is both sensible and the most direct way your money reaches a neighbor of the park.

Bwindi has four tracking sectors and they are hours apart by road. Booking a permit for the wrong sector for your lodge is the commonest and most expensive mistake made here.

The rules exist because gorillas catch what we catch

Mountain gorillas are close enough to us to be threatened by our diseases, and UNESCO names disease transmission from tourism as a specific threat to the property. The distance rule, the time limit and the exclusion of anyone visibly ill are not formalities.

Keep the distance you are given, do not eat or drink in front of the animals, turn away to cough, and use no flash. If you are unwell on the morning, say so.