Wildlife of Burundi

Wildlife of Burundi includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Burundi was home to 2,500 species of plants, 597 birds, 26 amphibians, 80 mammals, and 116 reptiles.

Environment

Uncontrolled cutting of trees for fuelwood coupled with agricultural clearing and grazing lands has resulted in nearly complete deforestation of the country. Widespread ethnic civil war and the subsequent collapse of government conservation efforts further reduced forest areas and resulted in increased poaching of wildlife. Before the savage civil war, high population density (450 people per square kilometer) on mountain slopes resulted in heavy soil loss and damage to agriculture.

Due to habitat destruction, gorillas and elephants are extinct in Burundi and virtually all wildlife is threatened.

Officially just 5.4 percent of Burundi's land mass is under any form of protection. In 2005, the government of Burundi announced a ban on the harvesting of natural Christmas trees in an effort to slow deforestation. Since the Christmas trees are an introduced plantation species, the ban had little effect on the country's biodiversity.

Fauna

Animals native to Burundi:
*African Lemon-dove
*Handsome Francolin
*Shoebill
*Trumpeter Hornbill

Birds

Flora

References

External links