Exploring the Akagera National Park in Rwanda-Rwanda Safari News

Akagera national park is situated in the Eastern part of Rwanda along the border of the Neighboring country Tanzania. The park was gazzetted in the year 1934 to conserve and protect various flora and fauna mainly in the three Eco-regions i.e. Savannah as well as Mountains and swamps which are the main habitat providing shelter to different wildlife species in the park and these stunning flora and fauna are mainly  the reasons as to why many safaris to Rwanda are increasing now and then. The popular Akagera Park was named after the Kagera River that flows along the boundaries of  the park supplying water to various lakes like Lake Idea which is the largest.
Akagera National Park covers an estimated total area of 1,120km² and it is one of Africa’s oldest national parks and hence exploring one of Africa’s oldest parks is very rewarding to travelers who take safaris to Rwanda. The park in the northern parts are mainly occupied by fairly low-lying grasslands and savannah plains which makes the park similar to other traditional safari areas of East African region. On the western part of the park its surrounded with rolling hills and valleys whereas on the eastern side, the Akagera River feeds or supplies a series of lakes, papyrus swamps, marshes that forms the largest protected wetlands in the central and eastern Africa.
In the year 1994, Akagera National Park was settled with refugees who were displaced by Rwanda’s civil wars and because they never had where to stay, they had to occupy some part of the park’s land since it was the only option. The return of these Refugees affected tourism resources in the park and also contributed to the decline of Rwanda safaris because the unique wildlife in the park was killed and some tourism facilities captured by refugees. In the year 1997, the western boundary of the park was regazzetted and some part of the park’s land was allocated to the Refugees and hence the park area was reduced in size from the first gazzated total area of 2,500square kilometers to the current area covered by the park today. Despite of all what happened, Akagera park s regaining its wild life and even the safaris to Rwanda particularly to Akegera are increasing hence expressing that the park is safe to be visited by any traveler interested in having wildlife encounter in the land of thousand hills.
Currently the famous Akagera National Park is managed by Rwanda Development Board together with the conservation organization African Parks, which is playing avital role of restoring the park back to its first state when it was first found in the year 1934.The management of the park has introduced New perimeter fences as well as anti-poaching mechanisms and these have made a huge change to the park’s animal populations and the national park is now well on the way to being restored. The increase in wildlife in the park has captured the attention of many tourists, some of which have reacted by confirming safaris to Rwanda. Akagera is the only protected savannah region in whole of Rwanda and as such it’s the only park which is acting as a refuge for savannah adapted plants and animals on a national scale.
Rwanda Safaris/Rwanda Safari News
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