About us
About Mountain Mgahinga
Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Trust (BMCT) was established in 1994 under the Uganda Trustees Laws. Its mission is to foster conservation of biodiversity of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (MGNP) and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) through investments in community development projects, grants for research and ecological monitoring, funding park management, protection and programmes that create greater conservation awareness.
Mount Gahinga is a dormant/extinct volcano in the Virunga Mountains on the border between Rwanda and Uganda. Gahinga lies between Muhabura and Sabyinyo, but is the smallest of these three. Mount Gahinga, also known in the local Kinyarwanda/Rufumbira dialect as “a small pile of stones”, has a swampy caldera on its peak. The caldera is believed to be about 180 m (591 ft) wide.[2] Mgahinga Gorilla National Park also got its name from this volcano. Mount Gahinga, whose elevation is 3,473 m (11,394 ft), is part of a chain of eight volcanic mountains of the Mufumbiro ranges. The volcano chain spans across Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The vegetation across the mountain can be described as afro-montane with bamboo composing the main vegetation. Like Muhabura and Sabyinyo, the bamboo forests on Mount Gahinga are a habitat of the endangered mountain gorilla. There are several other species of animals and birds that form part of the Mount Gahinga ecosystem. The golden monkeys are notable to these.