Gishwati-Mukura is Rwanda's fourth and newest national park, formally established in 2015 by merging the remnants of two separate forest reserves.
At roughly 34 square kilometres, it is by a wide margin Rwanda's smallest national park, and its story is as much about restoration as wildlife: both forests lost the great majority of their original cover to settlement, agriculture and illegal mining in the decades following 1994, before conservation and reforestation efforts — led in part by the Forest of Hope Association and a Wilderness Safaris tourism concession — began reversing that decline.
Tourist activities began only in 2019, and Gishwati-Mukura remains by a considerable margin the least visited of Rwanda's four national parks — precisely what makes it appealing to travellers who have already experienced Volcanoes or Nyungwe.
The restoration story in full →
Chimpanzee trekking at Gishwati
The forest holds a small habituated community of approximately 20 eastern chimpanzees, alongside golden monkeys, L'Hoest's monkeys and blue monkeys. The experience is markedly more intimate than Nyungwe's — smaller visitor numbers, a smaller area to search, and a genuine sense of discovery that larger parks can no longer offer. Guided nature hikes, birdwatching (232 recorded species in Gishwati alone) and waterfall visits round out the offering.
Mukura, the smaller component reserve, remains considerably less developed for tourism, with limited trail infrastructure. Most visitor activity concentrates in the Gishwati sector.
Should you go?
This is not a destination that competes with Volcanoes or Nyungwe on scale or wildlife density — it is a genuinely different kind of experience, suited to travellers specifically interested in conservation storytelling, a lower-density encounter, or Rwanda's ongoing restoration work. We recommend it selectively, for repeat Rwanda travellers or those with a specific conservation interest, rather than as a first-time visitor's primary itinerary anchor.
Access
Gishwati-Mukura sits within reach of both Volcanoes National Park and Lake Kivu, making it a plausible addition to an itinerary already passing through the region rather than requiring a dedicated journey.