Unexploited tourism attractions in Nyungwe park

By Elias Hakizimana

Located in Nyamagabe and connecting to the neighbouring districts, Nyungwe National Park is at the heart of domestic tourism in Rwanda, the forest as the mother, home to hundreds of animal species, trees and traditional herbs.

With almost 1000 years, the forest was recognized as the national park between 2005-2020, but presently it has many features that remain unexploited.

An example is ‘Ndambarare waterfall, a newly revealed and recognized among the services that attract tourists from two years ago onward.

The water comes through Congo water catchment, passes through Bugarama river to Rubyiro and Ruhwa rivers in Rusizi district.

During the high season, from June to the beginning of September, Ndambarare waterfall attracts many tourists from other continents, contrary to the low season starting from February to April, October and November.

The canopy walkway and chimpanzees are the most visited features according to the park management. In the low season, these features attract 60 people, while 200 to 300 people can visit them during high season. This walk is an exhilarating experience done in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park on a suspended bridge of 70m high above the great Nyungwe forest and it is guided on a 160m long walkway that takes about 2 hours.

Other features to visit.

According to Protais Niyigaba, park manager, African Parks that manages Nyungwe National Park, there are many other features forest wide, that are not yet put on the list of Nyungwe tourism attractions. “Much efforts are needed to explore more places in the forest that can make part of the visited features in the park,” Niyigaba said. 

“The park rangers found many features in the forest, some are considered special for them, every day they get new things there, the waterfall was not hidden, it was known, but there was no idea to think of how it can attract people as a tourism feature inside the forest. Additionally, there are other many attractive features in Nyungwe,”

In line with the forest conservation, Niyigaba says that they let some features to remain there as the beauty of the nature in the forest without a necessity to make them special features that people can visit.

“We have many waterfalls, but it cannot be compulsory to make them special features for tourism, in the new tourism development plan, we will have diversified features for tourist visits,” he said.

Presently, in domestic tourism, canopy walkway is the most loved feature in Nyungwe park that attracts Rwandans and Africans.

“We are planning many items similar to the canopy, like zipline that will have around 1 kilometer, we hope that Rwandans will like it. We also plan to build a lodge inside the forest this year to help people rest and relax during their visit.

The 3 Day Trail Walk

Niyigaba said that they will boost a three-day walk in Nyungwe, where visitors will make around 40 kilometers in the forest and stay in the campsites when they get tired.

“Tourists will manage to stay at the campsite when they get tired, at they stay, they will rest, find hot water for shower, food and beverage and resume the walk the following day. This will help some people who want to temporally quit the modern world to the nature, listening to the birds’ songs and the fresh air from the trees,” he said.

The 3 days walkway with two campsites in Nyungwe forest is expected to be completed so that visitors can enjoy it by February 2023.

“There is another 3 days walkway that will come from ‘Uwasenkoko’ trail to reach Nshili, the way is very interesting as it passes at the place which is home to chimpanzee of IGIHINYAGE specie, which is special and currently, these chimpanzees live in rare countries, like in Eastern Congo, Nyungwe national park and Uganda,” Niyigaba noted.

The Congo Nile Trail

The journey in this way also lasts for three days, it passes on the climaxes of the hills that divide the Nile and Congo catchments.

Rubyiro valley walkway

This way will pass at Nyabitimbi place, and it has a branch at Tangaro, that finally reaches to Bweyeye. All the trails are surrounded by beautiful features that attract visitors.

The trails are constructed gradually and strategically, leaving the wilderness space for the beauty of the nature and ensure privacy of the animals.

Entirely, Nyungwe national park has twenty activities and trails, that attract tourists from all over the world.

Nyungwe is one of the oldest rainforests in Africa, giving water to 8 million people (70 percent). It is the largest expanse of forest in Rwanda, covering 1,019 km2 of dense.

Nyungwe park is home to 1,068 recorded plant species, 322 bird species, 75 known mammal species and 13 different primate species. It is managed by African Parks since 2020, through a 20-year agreement with the Government of Rwanda through Rwanda Development Board (RDB).

Plans ahead to sustain the park  

African parks believes that, with adequate conservation and the optimization of tourism and other sustainable revenue-generating activities, people will benefit from the terrestrial ecosystems in the future. There is also a target to restore and protect wildlife and engaging with the local communities to implement an effective law enforcement strategy to ensure the long-term ecological, social and economic sustainability of the park.

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