Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

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Summary

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• Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) & Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are present in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
• It has been estimated that 459 gorillas occur in the site; the chimpanzee population size is unknown.
• The gorilla population trend is increasing.
• The site has a total size of 321 km².
• Key threats to great apes are linked to high human presence, which poses some risk of disturbance and disease transmission.
• Conservation activities have focused on ecotourism programs and regularly monitoring the health of habituated gorillas.
• The park is a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.

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  Mountain gorilla infant © Dirck Byler
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  Mountain gorilla © Dirck Byler
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  Mountain gorilla © Dirck Byler

Site characteristics

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located in southwestern Uganda, on the edge of the Albertine Rift Valley. The area is one of Uganda's oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests, which dates back over 25,000 years (Uganda Wildlife Authority). Encompassing a series of steep ridges and valleys, Bwindi is the source of five major rivers, which flow into Lake Edward. The park is famous for being home to almost half of the world's mountain gorilla population (Uganda Wildlife Authority). The site is a designated Important Bird Area, with 347 bird species documented in the forest, including 23 endemic species to the Albertine Rift (BirdLife International 2020). Bwindi was gazetted as a National Park in 1991 and declared a (UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site) in 1994.

Table 1. Basic site information for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Species	Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, Gorilla beringei beringei
Area	321 km²
Coordinates	-1.017254, 29.671192
Type of site	Protected area (National Park)
Governance type	Governance by government
Habitat type	Subtropical/tropical moist montane forest, subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest

Types of sites ⋅ Governance types ⋅ Habitat types

Ape status

The park is home to one of the two subpopulations of mountain gorillas in the world, the Bwindi-Sarambwe subpopulation (Hickey et al. 2018). Increases in both the Virunga Massif and the Bwindi-Sarambwe subpopulations led to a change in the IUCN Red List classification from Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2018 (Hickey et al. 2018). In spite of this increase, the overall population size is still small.

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Species	Year	Occurrence	Encounter or visitation rate (nests/km; ind/day)	Density estimate [ind/ km²] (95% CI)	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Survey area	Sampling method	Analytical framework	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Gorilla beringei beringei	1997	Present			292	Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (321 km²)	Reconnaissance walk	Spatial mapping	McNeilage et al. 2001	Sweep method, with high density of reconnaissance trails covering the forest.
Gorilla beringei beringei	2002	Present			320	Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (321 km²)	Reconnaissance walk	Spatial mapping	McNeilage et al. 2006	Sweep method, with high density of reconnaissance trails covering the forest.
Gorilla beringei beringei	2011	Present			400	Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (321 km²)	Genetic (dung/hair)		Roy et al. 2014
Gorilla beringei beringei	2018	Present			459	Bwindi-Sarambwe ecosystem	Reconnaissance walk	Spatial mapping	Hickey et al. 2018	Sweep method, with high density of reconnaissance trails covering the forest.

Sampling methods ⋅ Analytical frameworks

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2. Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
3. Energy production & mining		Unknown
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use	5.1.2 Unintentional effects (species is not the target)	Low	Poaching as a non-target species; e.g., as a result of infant gorilla trafficking, snares are set up for other animals. Retaliatory killings are rare. Habituated gorillas are more vulnerable to poachers (Hickey et al. 2018).	Ongoing (2018)
6. Human intrusion & disturbance	6.3 Other human disturbances	Present (unknown severity)	Human presence due to tourism, conservation and scientific work, camps for security forces, etc., all of which pose some risk of disturbance and disease transmission (Hickey et al. 2018).	Ongoing (2018)
7. Natural system modifications		Unknown
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases	8.4 Pathogens	High	Vulnerability to human pathogens, and outbreaks of respiratory virus diseases and gastrointestinal parasite infections (Hickey et al. 2018).	Ongoing (2018)
9. Pollution		Unknown
10. Geological Events		Absent
11. Climate change & severe weather	11.1 Habitat shifting & alteration	Present (unknown severity)	Increased temperatures and modified rainfall patterns likely to cause changes in food availability and habitat quality (Hickey et al. 2018).	Ongoing (2018)
12. Other options		Absent

Threats

Conservation activities

The site is managed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The management of the site has developed ecotourism programs that support the livelihoods of local communities (UNESCO). Nine groups have been habituated for tourism; the first one was the Mubare gorilla group, since 1993. Conservation Through Public Health work on reducing human-gorilla conflicts in and around the park, and avoiding the transmission of diseases.

Table 4. Conservation activities in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization	Year of activity
1. Development impact mitigation	Not reported
2. Counter-wildlife crime	Not reported
3. Species health	3.11 Implement continuous health monitoring	The (Gorilla Doctors) who work at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park regularly monitor the health of habituated gorillas.		Ongoing (2024)
4. Education & awareness	Not reported
5. Protection & restoration	5.2 Legally protect ape habitat	The site was declared a National Park in 1991.		1991-Ongoing (2024)
6. Species management	6.1 Habituate primates to human presence to reduce stress from tourists/researchers			Ongoing (2024)
7. Economic & other incentives	Not reported
8. Permanent presence	8.2 Run tourist projects and ensure permanent human presence at site			Ongoing (2024)

Conservation activities

Conservation implementation challenges and enablers

Table 5. Challenges reported for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Category	Challenge	Source	Year(s)
1. Site management	Not reported
2. Resources & capacity	Not reported
3. Engaged community	Not reported
4. Institutional support	Not reported
5. Ecological context	Not reported
6. Safety & stability	Not reported

Challenges

Table 6. Enablers reported for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Category	Enabler	Source	Year(s)
1. Site management	Not reported
2. Resources & capacity	Not reported
3. Engaged community	Not reported
4. Institutional support	Not reported
5. Ecological context	Not reported
6. Safety & stability	Not reported

Enablers

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Ape behaviors reported for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

Exposure to climate change impacts

As part of a study on the exposure of African great ape sites to climate change impacts, Kiribou et al. (2024) extracted climate data and data on projected extreme climate impact events for the site. Climatological characteristics were derived from observation-based climate data provided by the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project ([www.isimip.org ISIMIP]). Parameters were calculated as the average across each 30-year period. For future projections, two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) were used. RCP 2.6 is a scenario with strong mitigation measures in which global temperatures would likely rise below 2°C. RCP 6.0 is a scenario with medium emissions in which global temperatures would likely rise up to 3°C by 2100. For the number of days with heavy precipitation events, the 98th percentile of all precipitation days (>1mm/d) was calculated for the 1979-2013 reference period as a threshold for a heavy precipitation event. Then, for each year, the number of days above that threshold was derived. The figures on temperature and precipitation anomaly show the deviation from the mean temperature and mean precipitation for the 1979-2013 reference period. The estimated exposure to future extreme climate impact events (crop failure, drought, river flood, wildfire, tropical cyclone, and heatwave) is based on a published dataset by Lange et al. 2020 derived from ISIMIP2b data. The same global climate models and RCPs as described above were used. Within each 30-year period, the number of years with an extreme event and the average proportion of the site affected were calculated (Kiribou et al. 2024).

Table 8. Estimated past and projected climatological characteristics in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

	1981-2010	2021-2050, RCP 2.6	2021-2050, RCP 6.0	2071-2099, RCP 2.6	2071-2099, RCP 6.0
Mean temperature [°C]	16.6	17.8	17.5	17.9	19.1
Annual precipitation [mm]	1272	1288	1422	1293	1411
Max no. consecutive dry days (per year)	19.4	28.4	28.9	31.6	25.8
No. days with heavy precipitation (per year)	5.6	6.9	8.1	7.5	9.5

Table 9. Projected exposure of apes to extreme climate impact events in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

	No. of years with event (2021-2050, RCP 2.6)	% of site exposed (2021-2050, RCP 2.6)	No. of years with event (2021-2050, RCP 6.0)	% of site exposed (2021-2050, RCP 6.0)	No. of years with event (2070-2099, RCP 2.6)	% of site exposed (2070-2099, RCP 2.6)	No. of years with event (2070-2099, RCP 6.0)	% of site exposed (2070-2099, RCP 6.0)
Crop failure	5	0.28	4	0.72	5.5	0.38	6	0.18
Drought	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Heatwave	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
River flood	1	1.98	3	2.77	1.5	1.74	3.5	2.88
Tropical cyclone	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wildfire	30	1.11	30	0.88	29	1.13	29	0.75

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  Precipitation anomaly in xxxxxx
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  Temperature anomaly in xxxxxx

External links

UNESCO Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Uganda Wildlife Authority
Bwindi Forest National Park in Uganda

References

BirdLife International. (2020). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 30/12/2020.
Hickey, J.R., Basabose, A., Gilardi, K.V., Greer, D., Nampindo, S., Robbins, M.M. & Stoinski, T.S. (2018). Gorilla beringei ssp. beringei. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T39999A17989719. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T39999A17989719.en
Roy, J., Vigilant, L., Gray, M., Wright, E., Kato, R., Kabano, P., Basabose, A., Tibenda, E., Kühl, H.S. and Robbins, M.M. (2014). Challenges in the use of genetic mark-recapture to estimate the population size of Bwindi mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). Biological Conservation 180: 249–261
McNeilage, A., Plumptre, A. J., Brock-Doyle, A., & Vedder, A. (2001). Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda: Gorilla census 1997. Oryx, 35(1), 39-47. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.2001.00154.x
McNeilage, A., Robbins, M. M., Gray, M., Olupot, W., Babaasa, D., Bitariho, R., Kasangaki, A., Rainer, H., Asuma, S., Mugiri, G., & Baker, J. (2006). Census of the mountain gorilla Gorilla beringei beringei population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. Oryx, 40(4), 419-427. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605306001311
Kiribou, R., Tehoda, P., Chukwu, O., Bempah, G., Kühl, H. S., Ferreira, J., ... & Heinicke, S. (2024). Exposure of African ape sites to climate change impacts. PLOS Climate, 3(2), e0000345.
Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., ... & Frieler, K. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8(12), e2020EF001616.

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 14/01/2021