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Rwanda Rwanda forest

Nyungwe Forest

Jonkmania · CC BY-SA 4.0

  • trees within 3 km96%
  • wild within 10 km100%
  • species recorded185
  • Altitude2,442 m

The forest around

96% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 99%Shrubland 1%Trees 96%Shrubland 4%Grassland 0%Trees 96%Shrubland 3%Grassland 1%Trees 93%Shrubland 6%Grassland 1%96%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km99%
  • 1–3 km96%
  • 3–6 km96%
  • 6–10 km93%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees96%
  • Shrubland4%
  • Grassland0%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

185 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Carapa procera
Carapa proceraCarapa procera6 recordsUnknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Wild loquat
Wild loquatOxyanthus speciosus5 recordsSAplants · CC BY-SA 4.0
Black wattle
Black wattleAcacia mearnsii4 recordsUnknown author · CC BY 2.5
Coleus autraniiColeus autranii11 records
Lobelia petiolataLobelia petiolata9 records
Kuloa michelsoniiKuloa michelsonii8 records
Faurea wentzelianaFaurea wentzeliana8 records
Erica kingaensisErica kingaensis8 records
VU
Globimetula kivuensisGlobimetula kivuensis7 records
Agelanthus krauseiAgelanthus krausei7 records
Peperomia fernandopoianaPeperomia fernandopoiana7 records
Cynorkis anacamptoidesCynorkis anacamptoides6 records

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

87out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 96%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 100%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 185Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 2,442 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking from May to July.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan23°15°137 mm
  2. Feb24°15°125 mm
  3. Mar24°15°178 mm
  4. Apr23°15°176 mm
  5. May22°14°108 mm
  6. Jun23°13°50 mm
  7. Jul24°12°28 mm
  8. Aug25°13°65 mm
  9. Sep25°15°106 mm
  10. Oct24°15°157 mm
  11. Nov23°15°224 mm
  12. Dec23°15°152 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Nyungwe Forest.

National park located in southwest part of Rwanda

Nyungwe Forest is a forest in Rwanda, 2,442 m above the sea.

Seen from space, 96% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 100% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

185 species have been recorded around it: 101 plants, 9 fungi, 69 birds and 6 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Carapa procera, Wild loquat and Black wattle.

The best time to walk is from May to July.

Sunrisenyungwe
Jonkmania · CC BY-SA 4.0

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Nyungwe Forest seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 1marked trails within 5 kmNyungwe Traverse
  • 3campsites within 10 kmUwinka Campsite, Unwinka Visitor's Centre, Banda Community Campsite
  • named and notable trees within 6 km
  • picnic sites within 4 km
  • shelters and huts within 6 km
  • viewpoints within 5 km
  • visitor centres within 6 km
  • car parks within 3 km
  • places to stay within 10 km
  • restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Nyungwe Forest.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas62 mountains within 25 km
Rutagara2,589 m · 1.6 kmBigazi2,437 m · 3.6 kmBunyangurube2,568 m · 4.9 kmRukwekwe2,476 m · 8.2 kmNyabihu2,581 m · 9.1 kmBigugu2,954 m · 10 kmNgabwe2,763 m · 12 kmKibuye2,441 m · 16 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

RwandaNyungwe
BluesyPete · CC BY-SA 3.0
Ibiti birebire bya Nyungwe
Alain Vick · CC BY-SA 4.0
A guide leading a hike through Nyungwe National Park
travelmag.com · CC BY 2.0

Other forests nearby.

Nyungwe Forest

Rwanda

  • 87Forestyas Score
  • 96%Trees
  • 100%Wild
  • 185Species

Cyamudongo Forest

Rwanda · 32 km

  • 61Forestyas Score
  • 54%Trees
  • 73%Wild
  • 131Species

See the guide

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Uganda · 169 km

  • 86Forestyas Score
  • 88%Trees
  • 100%Wild
  • 512Species

See the guide

Gishwati Forest

Rwanda · 84 km

  • 30Forestyas Score
  • 22%Trees
  • 78%Wild
  • 7Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q1356828) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species1,078 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Birdyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.