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Rwanda Rwanda forest

Gishwati Forest

Antoinetorrens · CC BY-SA 3.0

22% trees around it and 7 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km22%
  • wild within 10 km78%
  • species recorded7
  • Altitude2,624 m

The forest around

22% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 37%Shrubland 1%Grassland 62%Trees 20%Shrubland 3%Grassland 74%Cropland 3%Trees 26%Shrubland 10%Grassland 56%Cropland 8%Built-up 0%Trees 32%Shrubland 4%Grassland 34%Cropland 30%Built-up 1%22%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km37%
  • 1–3 km20%
  • 3–6 km26%
  • 6–10 km32%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees20%
  • Shrubland3%
  • Grassland74%
  • Cropland3%
  • Built-up0%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

7 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Aerangis ugandensis
Aerangis ugandensisAerangis ugandensis2 recordsUser:BotBlnIBotBln · CC BY-SA 3.0
Rytigynia bugoyensisRytigynia bugoyensis3 records
Polystachya bicarinataPolystachya bicarinata2 records
Angraecum moandenseAngraecum moandense2 records

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

30out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 22%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 78%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 7Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 2,624 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking from June to July.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan24°17°126 mm
  2. Feb24°18°132 mm
  3. Mar24°17°191 mm
  4. Apr23°17°191 mm
  5. May22°16°141 mm
  6. Jun22°16°61 mm
  7. Jul23°15°38 mm
  8. Aug24°16°80 mm
  9. Sep24°17°118 mm
  10. Oct24°17°164 mm
  11. Nov23°17°196 mm
  12. Dec23°17°149 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Gishwati Forest.

Protected area

Gishwati Forest is a forest in Rwanda, 2,624 m above the sea.

Seen from space, 22% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 78% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

7 species have been recorded around it: 4 plants, 0 fungi, 3 birds and 0 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Aerangis ugandensis, Rytigynia bugoyensis and Polystachya bicarinata.

The best time to walk is from June to July.

Collines de Gishwati 3
Antoinetorrens · CC BY-SA 3.0

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Gishwati Forest seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 2campsites within 10 kmBitenga Base Camp, Karumbi Base Camp
  • 9places to stay within 10 km
  • marked trails within 5 km
  • named and notable trees within 6 km
  • picnic sites within 4 km
  • shelters and huts within 6 km
  • viewpoints within 5 km
  • visitor centres within 6 km
  • car parks within 3 km
  • restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Gishwati Forest.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas21 mountains within 25 km
Rutare2,626 m · 3.2 kmMatyazo2,373 m · 7.0 kmMarenga2,770 m · 9.3 kmMount Nyamidjima15 kmKilimbogo2,736 m · 17 kmIbere rya Bigogwe17 kmRubare21 kmNyamateke21 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Gishwati Forest
Rasse2 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Forest Of Hope Guest House
Rasse2 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Collines de Gishwati 1
Antoinetorrens · CC BY-SA 3.0

Other forests nearby.

Gishwati Forest

Rwanda

  • 30Forestyas Score
  • 22%Trees
  • 78%Wild
  • 7Species

Nyungwe Forest

Rwanda · 84 km

  • 87Forestyas Score
  • 96%Trees
  • 100%Wild
  • 185Species

See the guide

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Uganda · 84 km

  • 86Forestyas Score
  • 88%Trees
  • 100%Wild
  • 512Species

See the guide

Cyamudongo Forest

Rwanda · 99 km

  • 61Forestyas Score
  • 54%Trees
  • 73%Wild
  • 131Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q1465883) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species65 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.