What is the Albertine Rift?

The Albertine Rift and its protected areas (yellow). Map produced by the University of Maryland and NASA. Landsat images provided by the INFORMS project. For more information visit www.whrc.org/africa or contact Dr. Nadine Laport at nlaporte@whrc.org.

Stretching from the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern end of Lake Tanganyika and extending through the countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Tanzania, the Albertine Rift is one of Africa's most important sites for the conservation of biodiversity. Its huge diversity of habitats incorporates the ice fields on top of the Rwenzori mountains at 5,000 metres (16,000 feet), active volcanoes, hotsprings, bamboo, alpine vegetation, montane forest, savanna and down to the lowland forests of Semuliki at 600 metres (1,800 feet). 

The Albertine Rift has been identified as an Endemic Bird Area by Birdlife International, an Ecoregion by the World Wildlife Fund, and a Biodiversity Hotspot by Conservation International. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been working in this region since the 1950s, supporting the conservation and establishment of national parks.

WCS's own George Shaller was the first person to succeed in studying the Mountain Gorilla in the wild. His work was built upon by Bill Weber and Amy Vedder who established gorilla tourism in Rwanda which reversed the decline in the population of this endangered species. WCS has since established the WCS Albertine Rift programme to focus on the conservation of this region.

The Albertine Rift is very high in "species richness," which means it has a very high total number of species and a large number of endemic species (species that are only found in this region of the world). WCS has been working with scientists around the world to compile lists of these endemic species for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and plants with the aim of promoting their conservation.  We have also been compiling lists of species for each of the large protected areas in the Rift, and have shown that more mammals, birds and amphibians occur here than anywhere else in Africa. For this reason, investing in this region's conservation provides the most 'bang for the buck' - prtotecting more species for the same input of funds than any other site in Africa. Recognized as a significant wildlife region, the Alberine Rift is already the site of a number protected areas, but only recently have conservationists been able to understand the breadth of its importance.