I’m currently in Africa, about to go gorilla trekking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a large primeval forest located in south-western Uganda on the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I’m looking at it out of my window as I write and it’s breathtaking: 207sq km of rainforest and one of the most biologically diverse places on earth. In addition to 220 species of butterflies, 348 species of birds and more than 1,000 flowering plant species, it’s home to about half the world’s population of mountain gorillas.
The Ugandan government cordoned off this area in the early 1990s to create the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, along with a section of the nearby Virunga mountain range, now the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. The idea was to create two safe habitats for these endangered creatures, as well as to promote high-end eco-tourism.
Gorilla trekking isn’t cheap: a permit costs $600 dollars a day, with the revenues going to the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
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