Akagera National Park was named after the river that runs along its Eastern boundary, Akagera National Park is Rwanda’s answer to the famous Savanna reserves of Kenya, Tanzania and the like. In contrast to the rest of the country, the area is relatively warm and low-lying, and its undulating plains support a cover of dense, broad-leafed woodland interspersed with lighter acacia Woodland and patches of rolling grassland studded evocatively with stands of the superficially cactus-like Euphorbia candelabra shrub. To the West of the plains lies a chain of low mountains, reaching elevations of between 1,600m and 1,800m. The Eastern part of the park supports an extensive Wetland, a complex of a dozen lakes linked by extensive papyrus swamps and winding water channels.
In terms of game-viewing, it would be misleading to compare Akagera to East Africa’s finest Savanna reserves. Poaching has greatly reduced Wildlife populations in recent years, and what was formerly the North of the park has been settled by that much returned refugees. The intense human pressure on Kagera is reflected in the fact much of the Northern and Western territory together with the adjoining 300km Mutara wildlife Reserve was de-gazetted in 1997, reducing its total area by almost two-thirds from around 2,500km to 1,085km. Even after this concession to local land requirements, the lakes that remain within the national park are routinely used to water domestic cattle indeed, the long-horned cattle cow is far and away the most commonly seen large mammal in Akagera.
For all that, Akagera is emphatically worth visiting. There are plenty of animals around, with the likes of buffalo, elephant, zebra, giraffe, hippo and various antelope all reasonably visible, and they aren’t as skittish as one might expect. The lakes support some of the highest concentration of hippo you will find anywhere in Africa, as well as numerous large crocodiles , while lion and leopard are still present in small numbers, and there are plans to restock the park with black rhinos after the last one died in 2006. What’s more, the birdlife is phenomenal- the checklist of 550 species includes the sort of rarities that will have ardent birdwatchers in raptures, alongside a surprising density of raptors and some of Africa’s most impressive concentrations of water birds.
As big an attraction as the animal life is the sensation of being in a genuinely off-the-beaten-track chunk of bush, this is one African game reserve where you can still drive for hours without passing another vehicle, never knowing what wildlife encounter might lie around the next corner. Akagera is also among the most scenic of savanna reserves, with its sumptuous forest-fringed lakes, tall mountains and constantly changing vegetation. Akagera is a good game reserve. It could, with improved management and a bit of time, once again become a truly great one. Equally, it could well be that Akagera will simply not be able to withstand the clamour for land from outside its already reduced boundaries. Which way it goes, one senses , will depend largely on its ability to generate serious tourist dollars and employment opportunities in a country whose population is doubling every 20 years. The pressure on Akagera will only increase with time, yet in the context of this rapid population growth, forsaking a vast tract of not particularly arable game reserve to grazing will not address the heart of the land issue but merely alleviate a short-term problem.
The survival of Akagera is not simply an esoteric conservation concern, but one that has implications for the country’s development as a whole. Prior to 1994, Rwanda’s fledgling tourist industry was one of its three main sources of foreign revenue. To a large extent, Rwanda has rebuilt that industry over the past few years, but it now consists mainly of pit-stop or cross-border gorilla tracking by tourists who spend one or two nights in one small part of the country as an extension of a safari elsewhere in East Africa. If the country is to develop a self-contained countrywide tourists circuit , then it desperately needs a savanna reserve to make it work.
The good news is that, after years of marginalization, Akagera finally looks set to realize its potential as a safari destination. Akagera is notable for protecting an unusually wide diversity of habitats within a relatively small area. Prior to the civil war, it was regarded as one of the few African savanna reserves to form a self-sustaining ecological unit, meaning that its resident large mammals had no need to migrate seasonally outside of the park boundaries. Whether that is still the case today is an open question, roughly two-thirds of the original park was de-gazzeted in 1997, and while some of this discarded territory is still virgin bush, it is probably only a matter of time before it will all be settled, putting further pressure on Akagera’s diminished wildlife populations.
The modern boundaries of the park protect an area of 1,085km, stretching along the Tanzania border for approximately 60km from North to South, and nowhere wider than 30km. The Eastern third of the park consists of an extensive network of wetlands, fed by the Akagera River, and dominated by a series of small to medium sized lakes. Lake Ihema, the most Southerly of the lakes to lie within the revised park boundaries, is also the largest body of open water, covering about 100km. The lakes are connected by narrow channels of flowing water and large expanses of seasonal and perennial papyrus swamps. The Eastern wetlands are undoubtedly the most important of the habitats protected within the park. Not only do they provide a permanent source of drinking water for the large mammals, they also form an important water bird sanctuary while harboring a number of localized Swamp dwellers.
Akagera’s dominant terrestrial habitat is dense broad-leafed woodland , though pockets of acacia woodland also exist within the park, while some of the Lake fringes support a thin belt of lush riparian woodland. Ecologically, the savanna of Akagera is in several respects unique, a product of its isolation from similar habitats by the wetlands to the East and mountainous highlands of Central Rwanda to the West. The floral shows strong affinities with the semi-arid zones of Norther Uganda and Kenya, but the fauna is more typical of the Mara-Serengei ecosystem East of Lake Victoria. Akagera’s geographical isolation from similar habitats is emphasized by the natural absence of widespread plains animals such as rhino and giraffe, both of which were subsequently introduced and thrived in their adopted home though rhino are nolonger present. Much of the bush in Akagera is very dense, but there are also areas of light acacia woodland and open grassland, notably on the Mutumba Hills and to the NorthEast of lake Rwanyakizinga.