The Impenetrable Forest~Primeval East Africa

Our Spirit & Sustainability group continues this week with another discussion about George B. Schaller's exploration into the high mountain forests of the Virunga Volcanoes, looking for gorillas. We'll get through chapters 2 and 3. And we'll talk about the "impenetrable forest", which is not exactly in the Virungas. You can compare its status when Schaller wrote this book and its status today by clicking on the link for BIGAPE in the next paragraph.

The Bwindi-Impenetrable Great Ape Project (BIGAPE) exists near the Virunga gorilla areas. BIGAPE is in the only area where both the gorillas and chimpanzees live in the same ecosystem. From Gorilla Journal, June 2006:

Bwindi Impenetrable forest, located in southwest Uganda, is perhaps best known as home to half the world's remaining population of mountain gorillas. It was initially gazetted as a forest reserve in 1932, and was managed as both a game reserve and forest reserve from 1961 to 1991. With increased pressure and illegal use and in order to protect the gorilla population and rich biodiversity, the forest was gazetted as a national park in 1991. It was also inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

Below is a map of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, an area that is truly an African jungle.