Akagera National Park, Rwanda. Lake Ihema.


From Wikipedia: Akagera National Park covers 1,200 square kilometres (120,000 ha) in eastern Rwanda, along the Tanzanian border. It was founded in 1934 to protect animals and vegetation in three ecoregions: savannah, mountain and swamp. The park is named for the Kagera River which flows along its eastern boundary feeding into several lakes the largest of which is Lake Ihema. The complex system of lakes and linking papyrus swamps makes up over a third of the park, and is the largest protected wetland in Eastern-Central Africa. Much of the savannah area of the park was settled in the late 1990s by former refugees returning after the end of the Rwandan Civil War. Due to land shortages, in 1997, the western boundary was regazetted and much of the land allocated as farms to returning refugees. The park was reduced in size from over 2,500 square kilometres (250,000 ha) to its current size. Although much of the best savannah grazing land is now outside the park boundaries, what remains of Akagera is some of the most diverse and scenic landscape in Africa. In 2009 the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and the African Parks Network entered into a 20-year renewable agreement for the joint management of Akagera. The Akagera Management Company was formed in 2010 as the joint management body for Akagera National Park. Over the next 5 years a $ 10 million expenditure was carried out in the national park area, with financial help from the Howard Buffett Foundation. The aim was to increase the security of the national park and to reintroduce locally extinct species. Security measures that were taken include: the construction of a western boundary fence which measures kilometres ( miles), deploying an air surveillance helicopter, training of an expert rhino tracking and protection team and a canine anti-poaching unit.[1] In July 2015, 7 Transvaal lions from South Africa were introduced and released in the park, making them the first lions in Rwanda for 15 years. AndBeyond d


Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Akagera Road, Rwanda
Photo credit: © Bert de Ruiter / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: None

Keywords: africa, african, akagera, animals, bert, biotope, de, hazy, horizontal, ihema, lake, landcape, national, natural, nature, palm, park, reserve, ruiter, rwanda, travel, tree, vegetation, wild