Photographer: Andy Rouse
Where: Virunga Mountains, Rwanda
Publication: Rio Conventions Calendar
The Virunga Mountains are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, along the northern border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda and are home to half of the world’s 700-some remaining mountain gorillas.
Mountain environments directly support more than a fifth of the world’s population who live within mountain regions and provide freshwater for more than half of humanity.
Key for maintaining biodiversity, these forest ecosystems are threatened by the expansion of agriculture and unsustainable methods of timber harvesting, such as clear cutting and the establishment of forest monocultures.
The Rio Conventions Calendar is published annually by Entico in partnership with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).