Country

Rwanda: 3 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Rwanda's three ecoregions map its rise from lake basin to volcano rim. The Victoria Basin forest-savanna covers the warm eastern half of the country, the Albertine Rift montane forests hold the cool, wet western highlands along the Congo-Nile divide, and the tiny Rwenzori-Virunga montane moorlands, a Half Protected unit, cap the Virunga volcanoes in the far northwest. Elevation moderates everything: even the savanna country sits high enough for a mild, equatorial-highland climate with two rainy seasons, and the montane forest zone is cooler and mistier still. Gardeners work in near-ideal highland-tropics conditions across most of the country. Both larger ecoregions carry a Nature Imperiled rating, so the remaining natural forest and savanna, much of it in the national parks, is a small and valuable fraction.