Albertine Rift Ecoregion Conservation Programme
Geographical location:
Africa/Madagascar > Central Africa > Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaïre)
Africa/Madagascar > East Africa > Burundi
Africa/Madagascar > East Africa > Rwanda
Africa/Madagascar > East Africa > Tanzania
Africa/Madagascar > East Africa > Uganda
Summary
The Albertine Rift region straddling along the borders of DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania, and stretching over a North-Ssouth distance of 1,000 km, supports one of Africa's unique montane forest biome with a very high degree of endemism. On the Western side it drops down to the lowland rain forests and in the East it borders on four major Rift Valley lakes (Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward and Albert) resulting in a rich transitional fauna and flora.
The Albertine Rift forests are most famous for their population of mountain gorillas protected in a number of national parks (Virunga, Bwindi, Mgahinga, etc), some of which have been subject of WWF projects for a long time. The region is one of the most densely populated areas in Africa and therefore suffers from a high degree of direct and indirect threats to the entire ecosystem, such as unsustainable timber extraction, general forest clearance and conversion to agricultural land, grazing, hunting and firewood collection.
Objectives
Ensure the long-term conservation of the Albertine Rift forests and other important ecosystems in DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania.
