The low-lying Semliki forest stretches across the rift valley floor ranging at 670m-760m from the northern foothills of Rwenzori to the southern edges of L. Albert and on its western franks, the Semliki river marks the international border with the DRC. Locally named as Bwamba Forest, this lowland  unique forest has close affinities to the great Ituri forest of Congo and most popular to bird watchers for its Guinea-Congo species of which a handful occur in other similar western forests, the forest also protects several mammals including some rare primates like the Mona Monkey only known from here in Uganda. Within this forest’s mineral encrusted swamp is a pair of magnificent hot springs, with a 1m geyser spilling where temperatures reach u to 90⁰C.

Originally occupied by Africa’s oldest tribe the Pygmies, the 220km² the park was gazzetted in 1993 as a protected NP for its biodiversity.