Travel Guide Réserve Naturelle Forestière De Kigwena

Kigwena Forest is one of the country's oldest protected reserves (1950 s). Originally, it covered an area four times more important, which continued to shrink under human pressure (wild cuts and upgrades for food and industrial crops, such as the oil palm). Today, only 500 ha of rare plant formations still remain and remain protected.The plant environment. Located on the western piedmont of the ridge, on flat ground between the lake and the road (800 m altitude), the Kigwena reserve is the only sample of mesophilic périguinéenne forest in Burundi (same ecosystem as edges of Congolese toilet, or Gombe in Tanzania). It is a dense forest where the spread tops of the trees lie over 30 m high. The dominant species are those of albizias (zygia or gummifera), ilombas (Pycnanthus angolensis), and Newtonia buchananii for the upper tree stratum, and sterculias (Sterculia tragacantha) and tree of Africa (Spathodea campanulata) for the lower stratum. Procedurally cling to trees and ferns on the ground. A physionomie of the different park arose with the appearance of a tropophile forest in Brachystegia, and the birth of shrub trees in Dracæna and bread trees. In such an environment, fungi are numerous (over 60 species: russules, chanterelles, vintages, etc.), and the local population knows how to use this complementary nutritional resource.Wildlife. It includes monkeys, including baboons as in Rumonge, but birds and butterflies are the greatest richness of the reserve. Without comparing it to that of Kibira, the variety of butterflies is famous. The best time to admire them is the rainy season, especially at the beginning when outbreaks occur at a sustained pace.Characteristic bird species are the touracos of Lady Ross (Musophaga rossae) and especially the calaos (grey cheeks, Bycanistes subcylindricus), superb with their colourful huppe. Finally, here the snakes are legion, the black femur (Dendroaspis polylepis) and the serpent serpent (Thelotornis capensis) are the most frequent (fatal bites).