Trip to the Top
Expedition to the Rwenzori
Update March 4th - the team has arrived safely back. Having taken photographs to document the further recession of the glaciers, they also saw signs of chimpanzees and leopards at altitude, and rehabilitated trails and mountain huts. Detailed reports to follow shortly...
Update: February 25th - the teams have reached the summit of Mount Stanley
From the 19 to 29 February, 2008 WWF will organise 2 parallel expeditions to the Rwenzori Mountains.
One team will set out from the Mutsora on the Congolese side at 1,200m.The other will leave from Nyakalengija on the Ugandan side at 1,646m.
The 2 teams will meet at the summit of Mount Stanley on the 25th of February at 5,109m. They will stay there for 3 days to carry out research.
The aims of the expedition are to:
- Further document the changes to the Rwenzori ice fields and glaciers
- Cement the designation of the Ugandan part of Rwenzori as a Ramsar site. The mountains glaciers, high altitude lakes and rivers are a critical source of freshwater for hundreds of thousands of people.
The WWF team will be accompanied by staff from Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN). These 2 agencies are WWF’s principal conservation partners in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) respectively.
The yellow trail shows the path that will be taken by the Congolese expedition. The red that taken by the Ugandan expedition. And the purple, the descent by both teams into Uganda.
© WWF
© WWF
