Volcanoes National park
Volcanoes National Park springs in the southern part of the Volcanoes range which comprises of the Rwanda northern border with fellow East African countries of Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Presently, the Volcanoes National Park covers a surface of 12,760 ha and it is believed to be the oldest National park on the African Continent harboring endangered mountain gorilla species which makes Rwanda another country other than Uganda where Mt Gorillas are safely visited by tourists who are interested in them.
It’s believed that many years past, the Volcanoes National Park was very wide with 30,000ha, but constant encroachment and land reclamation reduced it to half of what it was in around 1924 when it was established. Volcano National park also is known as Parc National des Vulcans was first gazetted in 1925, as a small area restricted by Karisimbi, Bisoke and Mikeno, as a move to conserve endangered the gorillas from poachers.
Successively, in the year 1929, the borders of the park were extended further into Rwanda and into the Congo, to create Albert National Park, an enormous area of 8090 km2, run by the Belgian colonialist. During the early 1960s, the park was divided as Rwanda and Congo gained their independence and by the end of that decade, the park was almost half of its original size.