Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located in South western Uganda, Kanungu district. The nearest city is Kanungu town with coordinates 01°01S29°41S. it covers the total area of 331km2, established in 1991 and the governing body is Uganda Wildlife Authority designated in 1994.
The park is part of the impenetrable forest and is situated along the Democratic Republic of Congo boarder next the Virunga national park and on the edge of the Albertine rift Valley.
This forest is believed to be a mere remnant of a very large forest which covered much of Western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Democratic of Congo.
It is both Afromontane and lowland forest, and is accessible on foot due the thickness of the forest as its name suggests (Bwindi Impenetrable Forest). It was designated as a World Heritage by the United Nations Scientific and cultural organisation.
Bwindi forest had two blocks designated as crown forest reserves in 1932, and these were; the Northern block was designated as the Kayonza crown forest reserve and Southern as Kasatora crown forest reserve. These reserves had a total area of 207km2.
These two reserves were again combined and named as the Impenetrable Central Crown Forest in 1942 and this covered 298km2 and was controlled by the Ugandan Government game and forest departments.
In 1964, the Impenetrable Central Crown Forest Reserve was designated as an animal sanctuary to provide and tighten protection for its Mountain Gorillas and again given another name Impenetrable Central Forest Reserve. Two other forest reserves became part of the reserve in 1966 with the sub total area of 321km2. Here, the management was both as a forest reserve and game sanctuary.
Mgahinga gorilla, the Rwenzori Mountains and impenetrable Central Forest reserves were designated as a national park and called as Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in 1991. It was declared to protect a range of species in it and the most notably is the Mountain Gorillas and the tree species.
Gorilla tracking has become a popular tourism destination in the region since April 1993, because of this; in 1994 10km2 was combined to the park and the park’s management changed to Uganda Wildlife Authority. In 2003 another piece of land was purchased near the park by the Government of Uganda measuring an area of 4.2km2.
