Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve
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Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve, located in western
Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
, is one of the protected forest reserves in Uganda which is found in
Rukungiri district Rukungiri District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda. The town of Rukungiri is the site of the district headquarters. Location The district is bordered by Lake Edward to the North West, Rubirizi District to the northeast, Mitooma Di ...
. The Forest Reserve is situated near the villages of Bwambara and Kikongi. The forest reserve is endowed with natural herbs that are medicinal and cure ailments in the human body and managed by
National Forestry Authority The National Forestry Authority (NFA) is the body of the Ugandan central government that is responsible for managing the country's Central Forest Reserves through demarcating, re-surveying and maintaining them. It was created as a semi-autonomou ...
. The forest reserve was gazetted in 1965.


Setting and structure

Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve covers a total of 4.77 km2. It i
located
at
latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...
0° 40' 0" South and
longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...
29° 49' 59" East.


Medicinal plants

Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve is well known for its medicinal purpose that it plays in the lives of local communities living around the forest. The forest covers communities like Bwambara, Kikarara, Rwenshama, Nyabubare and Kikongi. All these parishes are found in Bwambara sub-county in
Rukungiri district Rukungiri District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda. The town of Rukungiri is the site of the district headquarters. Location The district is bordered by Lake Edward to the North West, Rubirizi District to the northeast, Mitooma Di ...
, South Western Uganda. The plants found in this forest reserve include commonly used
medicinal Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
plants Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...
such as Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae and Eurphobiaceae with 26, 21, 12, 21, 11 and 10 species cited respectively as documented in the research findings of Mbarara University for Science and Technology.


Language

The language widely spoken by communities around Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve is
Runyankole Nkore (also called Nkole, Nyankore, Nyankole, Orunyankore, Orunyankole, Runyankore and Runyankole) is a Bantu language spoken by the Nkore ("Banyankore") of south-western Uganda in the former province of Ankole, as well as in Tanzania, the DR ...
/ Kiga.


Controversies

The key challenges facing the forest reserve are crosscutting. According to a study conducted by Mbarara University for Science and Technology, the challenges facing Ihimbo Central Forest Reserve include destruction for farmland, poaching, encroachment, human settlements, illegal extraction of park resources and political pressure to de-gazette park land, Hunting of bush meat, illegal harvesting of timber and other plant products, charcoal making, encroachment for farmland mining, political pressure to de-gazette or change the land use of forest reserves. The 108 km2 of the forest has been cleared for eucalyptus tree planting.


See also

* Mabira Forest *
Budongo forest The Budongo Forest in Uganda is northwest of the capital city Kampala on the way to Murchison Falls National Park and is located on the escarpment northeast of Lake Albert (Africa), Lake Albert. It covers parts of Hoima and Kikuube. It is known fo ...
* List of central forest reserves in Uganda


References

{{Protected areas of Uganda Rukungiri District Forest reserves of Uganda Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests