Travel Guide Kalinzu Central Forest Reserve

Adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth National Park, and more particularly to the Maramagambo Forest with which it forms a vast forest continuum, the Kalinzu Central Forest Reserve has gained a certain notoriety in recent years. This forest reserve, established under the British protectorate and managed by the National Forestry Authority (NFA), is almost 150 km2 in size and is visited for its 378 species of birds, 262 butterflies and 414 trees, a handful of which are endemic, but it is above all the chimpanzees that attract amateur naturalists and knowledgeable primatologists, such as Jane Goodall. Studied for three decades by scientists, mainly Japanese, several dozen of our close cousins, out of the 200 to 300 populating the forest, have been accustomed to humans. Chimp tracking has thus become a popular activity here, especially because it is less expensive than in national parks and the probability of seeing our close cousins is not less than in Kyambura Gorge, 20 km further north. Kalinzu Forest had, at the time of our visit, only a very rudimentary campsite (10,000 Ush). For the time being, you will have to sleep in Ishaka or in Kichwamba. The entrance to the reserve is very easy to reach as the NFA offices are located along the Kasese-Mbarara national road. Snakes, moths and other galagos are waiting for you!