The
Akagera National Park covers 1,200km² in eastern Rwanda, against
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 1/3 of the park and is the largest protected wetland in
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
