Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park occupies the partly forested slopes of three extinct volcanoes in the Virunga Conservation Area - an important mountain gorilla conservation area.

Covering an area of only 33.7km² (3,300 hectares), Mgahinga is Uganda’s smallest national park. The park covers the northern slopes of the three northernmost Virunga volcanoes: Muhavura (4,127 m), Gahinga (3,474 m), and Sabinyo (3,645 m). The park is bordered to the south by the Volcanoes National Park of Rwanda and to the west by the Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park has great biological importance because, throughout the climatic changes of the Pleistocene ice ages, mountains such as these provided a refuge for mountain plants and animals, which moved up or down the slopes as the climate became warmer or cooler