Rwanda is home to 3 national parks of great importance

Akagera National Park

The Akagera National Park covers 2,500km² in north eastern Rwanda, against the Tanzanian border. It was founded in 1934 to protect animals in three ecoregions: savannah, mountain and swamp. It includes lakes including Lake Shakani and Lake Ihema. 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, but the other regions remain relatively remote. Animals which fled during the upheavals are now returning. The park is named for the Kagera River which flows through it.

Nyungwe National Park

Nyungwe Forest National Park is a national park in southwestern Rwanda, located south of Lake Kivu on the border with Burundi. The park was established in 2004 and covers an area of approximately 970 km² of rainforest, bamboo, grassland, swamps, and bogs. The nearest town is Cyangugu, 54 km to the west. Mount Bigugu is located within the park borders. Nyungwe has a wide diversity of animal species, making it a priority for conservation in Africa. The forest is situated in a region where several large-scale biogeographical zones meet and the variety of terrestrial biomes provide a great span of microhabitats for many different species of plants and animals.

The park contains 13 different primate species (25% of Africa's total), 275 bird species, 1068 plant species, 85 mammal species, 32 amphibian and 38 reptile species. Many of these animals are restricted-range species that are only found in the Albertine Rift ecoregion in Africa. In fact, the number of endemic species found here is greater than in any other forest in the Albertine Rift that has been surveyed.

Volcanoes National Park

Volcanoes National Parc is located in the north-west Rwanda, on the joint border with Uganda and DR Congo, where it is contiguous with Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (UG001) and Virunga National Park (CD010). The park contains eight Pleistocene volcanic peaks which form part of the watershed between the Nile and Congo river systems, and includes Karisimbi (4,507 m). The terrain is often difficult and broken, with steep slopes. The vegetation varies considerably with altitude; at lower elevations (2,400-2,500 m) there is montane forest with Neoboutonia, above which there is a zone of bamboo Arundinaria alpina between 2,500 and 3,200 m, replaced on more humid slopes in the west and south by Hagenia-Hypericum forest. Some open areas are occupied by montane bogs. Subalpine vegetation with lobelias, evergreen bushland and thicket occurs between 3,500-4,000 m, while above 4,000 m there is an Afro-alpine vegetation of heath and thicket grassland. Average annual rainfall at Karisoke (3,100 m) is c.2,000-2,400 mm.