evidence: This park, sometimes referred to as Bwamba forest, lies in the Albertine Rift Valley, north-west of the Rwenzori mountains, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Lamia and Semliki rivers bound the park to the west and north, and the Fort Portal–Bundibugyo road forms part of its boundary to the south. The Park is contiguous with the DRC’s Virunga National Park (IBA CD010) and with the small North Rwenzori Forest Reserve in Uganda. Much of its flat to gently undulating landscape is poorly drained and floods during rainy seasons. Much of the park (c.19,500 ha) is covered by forest, which is classified as moist semi-deciduous and which is dominated over large areas by a single tree species, Cynometra alexandrii. Swamp-forest communities occupy about 7% of the area, dominated by Mitragyna, oil-palm Elaeis and Ficus. The breakdown of law and order in the 1970s and early 1980s resulted in about 30% of the original forest cover being cleared for agriculture and settlement. However, the encroachers were evicted in 1988 and 1990, and the forest is now slowly regenerating.The Semliki forest is cut off from the rest of East Africa by the natural barrier of the Rwenzori massif.