Conservation Areas in Uganda of Significant Interest To Travelers
Uganda’s list of gazetted conservation areas encompasses 10 national parks, 8 wildlife reserves, 4 wildlife sanctuaries, and 9 Ramsar sites.
National parks get a higher status and conservation priority than other reserves. From the visitor’s point of view, they are generally better developed for tourism.
Bureaucratic considerations aside, the most meaningful way to categorize Uganda’s various national parks and reserves is based on the type of habitat they protect. We occasionally refer to some national parks as game or savanna reserves, forest reserves, and montane reserves.
In this sense, the term ‘game reserve’ applies to any reserve or national park that protects a savanna habitat and supports typical plains animals. In contrast, the term ‘forest reserve’ refers to any reserve or national park covering a forest environment and associated animals.
In some circumstances, the three montane conservation areas considered national parks in Uganda can be forest reserves. They all support montane and bamboo forests up to an altitude of about 3,000 meters above sea level. At this point, the habitat gives way to Afro-montane moorland at higher altitudes.
National Parks Found in Uganda
1. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a 331-sq-kilometer (128 sq mi) UNESCO World Heritage Site of montane and lowland forest accessible only on foot. It is located in southwestern Uganda, on the border with DRC at the edge of the Albertine Rift, in the Districts of Kanungu, Kabale, and Kisoro, respectively, all under the management of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
The park is a sanctuary for many Old Wold Monkeys like colobus monkeys, chimpanzees, and unique birds such as turacos and hornbills.
Its most notable inhabitants are the 459 Bwindi gorillas, almost half of the world’s population of endangered mountain gorillas. Bwindi has 19 habituated mountain gorilla groups open to tourism in four different sectors of Buhoma, Ruhijja, Rushaga, and Nkuringo.
2. Kibale National Park
Kibale National Park is 766 square kilometers (296 sq mi) of moist evergreen protected rainforest containing both lowland and montane forests. It sustains the last significant expanse of pre-montane forest in East Africa.
It is an important research and ecotourism safari destination in Uganda. Kibale is well-known for its concentrated population of fifteen primate species and, most notably, the habituated chimpanzees. Kibale is the best conservation area in Uganda (and Africa) for watching primates up close and chimpanzee trekking safaris.
Kibale forms a continuous forest with Queen Elizabeth National Park creating a 180-kilometer (110 mi) wildlife corridor for animals to move between the two parks.
3. Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth National Park, a 1,978-sq-kilometer (764 sq mi) game reserve in southwestern Uganda, is the country’s most popular tourist destination, with the highest number of visitors of all conservation areas in Uganda.
The game reserve is known for its abundant wildlife, including elephant, buffalo, Ugandan kob, hippo, topi, waterbuck, warthog, giant forest hog, Nile crocodile, leopard, spotted hyena, chimpanzee, and lion. Overall, it’s home to 95 mammal species and over 600 bird species.
In the park’s south is Ishasha Sector, famous for its tree-climbing lions, whose males often sport black manes. The area is a potential lion stronghold in Central Africa with an impressive resident lion, hyena, and leopard population.
4. Rwenzori Mountains National Park
Rwenzori Mountains National Park is a 1,000-sq-kilometer (386-sq-mi) UNESCO World Heritage Site in western Uganda. The conservation area comprises the more significant part of the Rwenzori mountain chain, which includes Africa’s third highest peak (Mount Margherita: 5,109 m).
The park’s glaciers, waterfalls, and lakes make it one of Africa’s most beautiful alpine areas. It also protects many natural habitats for endangered species and rich and unusual flora, including giant groundsels, heather, and lobelias.
The Rwenzori Mountains National Park provides stunning views of the glacier and snow-capped mountains just kilometers from the equator. The mountains are the highest and most permanent sources of the River Nile. Their multitude of fast-flowing rivers, magnificent waterfalls, and stratified vegetation make the conservation area exceptionally scenic and beautiful.
5. Lake Mburo National Park
Lake Mburo National Park is a 260-sq-kilometer (100-sq-mi) small game reserver and Ramsa site in southwest Uganda. The conservation area used to be a controlled hunting area, and the government upgraded it to a game reserve in 1963.
Lake Mburo is the smallest of Uganda’s National Parks but hosts a healthy wildlife population, including zebra, common eland, impala, warthog, African buffalo, hippopotamus, and over 300 bird species. Though there are no common sightings, predators include hyenas, leopards, genets, civets, serval, and jackals.
The red-tailed monkey
Semuliki National Park, is one of the most peculiar monkeys found in Uganda.
6. Semuliki National Park
Semuliki National Park is a 219-sq-kilometer (85-sq-mi) forest reserve of East Africa’s only lowland tropical rainforest in western Uganda bordering the Rwenzori Mountains and Lake Albert.
The conservation area borders the Semliki and Lamia Rivers and has two hot springs in a hot mineral-encrusted swamp. These hot springs provide salt licks for many animals and attract many shorebirds.
Semuliki National Park is one of Uganda’s top birding places with more than 400 bird species, including rare ones like the lyre-tailed honey guide. Two hundred sixteen of these species (66 percent of the country’s total bird species) are resident forest birds, including the rare Oberländer’s ground thrush, Sassi’s olive greenbul, and nine hornbill species.
The park provides habitat for over 60 mammal species, including buffalo, leopard, hippo, bush baby, civet, elephant, the Pygmy scaly-tailed flying squirrel, duiker, and many primates.
7. Murchison Falls National Park
Murchison Falls National Park is a 3,893sq-kilometer (1,503 sq mi) game reserve in northwestern Uganda bisected by the Victoria Nile and famed for its powerful waterfall on the edge of the Albertine Rift Valley.
The park, together with the adjacent Bugungu Wildlife Reserve and the Karuma Wildlife Reserve, form the Murchison Falls Conservation Area (MFCA).
Murchison Falls National Park supports four Big Five game animals, not the rhino. There’s a healthy population of buffalo, elephants, lions, and leopards, many antelope species, including Uganda kob, oribi, Jackson’s hartebeest, defassa waterbuck, grey duiker, and bushbuck. The Victoria Nile abounds with Nile crocodiles and hippos.
8. Kidepo Valley National Park
Kidepo Valley National Park is a 1,442-sq-kilometre (557-sq-mi) game reserve in the Karamoja region in the extreme northwest of Uganda. The park features a rugged savannah landscape, the dominant 2,750 meters (9,020 ft) Mount Morungole, and the Kidepo and Narus rivers meander through its valleys.
Kidepo has an authentic wilderness feel great for adventurous travelers. It is extremely rich in predators, including leopards, lions, cheetahs, bat-eared foxes, and jackals. It has large herds of buffalo and antelope species, including Jackson’s hartebeest, Uganda kob, oribi, eland, and klipspringer.
The park is excellent for nature walks, Lonyii summit hikes, guided night game drives, and bird watching.
9. Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is a 33.9-sq-kilometer (13.1 sq mi) forest reserve in the corner of southwestern Uganda, bordered by the Republic of Rwanda to the south and the DRC to the west.
Mgahinga is contiguous with Virunga National Park in the DRC and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, all forming the transboundary Virunga Conservation Area covering 434 sq kilometers. It encompasses Mt Muhabura (4,127 m), Mt Gahinga (3,474 m) from which the park derives its name, and Mt Sabyinyo (3,645 m).
Mgahinga’s most famous inhabitants are the endangered mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. But the park has about 89 mammal species, including buffalo and elephant, golden cat, serval cat, leopard, spotted hyena, side-striped jackal, black-fronted duiker, bushbuck, and giant forest hog. Seventy-nine bird species also find refuge in Mgahinga, including several endemic species.
Wildlife Reserves
Although the list of conservation areas in Uganda includes wildlife reserves, most are merely adjuncts to one of the extensive savanna national parks. The only ones that have any tourist facilities at present are:
- Toro Semliki Wildlife Reserve, 542 sq km in Western Uganda
- Katonga Wildlife Reserve, 207 sq km in Western Uganda
- Bugungu Wildlife Reserve, 473 sq km part of the Murchison Falls Conservation Area
- Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve, 2043 sq km in the Karamoja subregion of northeastern Uganda
- Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve, 87 sq km, Western Uganda
- Kyambura Wildlife Reserve, 156 sq km found in Queen Elizabeth NP
Forest Reserves
Also, conservation areas in Uganda of interest to tourists are forest reserves. The Budongo and Kanyiyo Pabidi forest reserves south of Murchison Falls National Park have well-established tourist sites offering camping facilities, bandhas, and guided forest walks.
The Lake Victoria region supports large tracts of forest. The most accessible are Mpanga Forest Reserve near Mpigi and the Mabira Forest Reserve near Jinja, and both reserves offer reasonable accommodation and guided walks.
Kalinzu Forest Reserve between Mbarara and Queen Elizabeth National Park is also developed for tourism. Chimpanzee tracking in Budongo and Kalinzu forests is significantly cheaper than in the national parks.
Ramsar Sites in Uganda
Uganda has 9 Ramsar Conservation areas that BirdLife International recognizes as Important Bird Areas and provides a vital habitat for other threatened plants and animals.
Ramsar sites offer extra protection to the habitats of endangered species, such as the globally vulnerable Shoebill, the Papyrus Gonolek, and the Sitatunga, which attract several tourists to the country.
These wetlands’ cultural and socio-economic value is also crucial because local communities depend on them to survive. Locals get fish, construction materials, medicines, flood protection, water filtration, grazing, and much more.
Ramsar sites in Uganda include:
- Lake Bisina Wetland System, 542 sq km in Kumi, Katakwi, Soroti
- Lake Mburo-Nakivali Wetland System, 268 sq km in Mbarara
- Lake Nakuwa Wetland System, 911 sq km in Kamuli Soroti
- Lake Opeta Wetland System, 689 sq km in Nakapiripirit, Sironko, Katakwi, Kumi
- Lutembe Bay Wetland System, 0.98 sq km in Wakiso
- Mabamba Bay Wetland System, 24 sq km in Mpigi
- Murchison Falls-Albert Delta Wetland System, 17 sq km in Masindi, Gulu
- Nabajjuzi Wetland System, 17 sq km in Masaka, Sembabule, Mpigi
- Sango Bay-Musambwa Island-Kagera Wetland System (SAMUKA), 151 sq km in Masaka, Rakai
Prominent Birding Sites
For birders, in particular, it is easy to view Uganda, with its lush natural vegetation and dense tropical cultivation, as nothing less than one giant nature sanctuary.
There are extensive forests on Buggala and other islands in Lake Victoria’s Ssese archipelago. In contrast, the small relic forest protected in the Entebbe Botanical Garden offers an excellent introduction to Uganda’s forest birds. It is an ideal place to look closely at black-and-white colobus monkeys.
Even a leisurely walk around Entebbe offers the opportunity to see such colorful species as Ross’s turaco, woodland kingfisher, white-throated bee-eater, and a variety of robin-chats and weavers.
Other Conservation Areas in Uganda
Several other conservation areas in Uganda are also of interest for their natural history. These include
- Lake Nkuruba, near Kibale Forest
- Amabere Caves in Fort Portal near Kibale National Park
- Bigodi Wetland near Kibale Forest National Park
- Lake Bunyonyi in Kigezi en route to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
- Echuya Forest in Kigezi,
- Sipi Falls near Mbale, Mount Elgon National Park
