The Park is 220km in size with an altitude of 670-760m above sea level. Semuliki forest reserve was created in 1932 and ungraded to National Park status in 1993. This is the only tract of true lowland tropical forest in East Africa hosting 441 recorded bird species and 53 mammals. The large areas of this low lying park might flood during the wet season which is a reminder of the time when the entire valley lay at the bottom of a lake for seven million years. The distinct ethnic groups that live near the park, Bwamba farmers live long the base of the Rwenzori while the Bakonjo dig the mountain slopes. The Bakutu cattle keepers live on the open plains and Batwa pygmies are traditionally hunter gathers and live on the edge of the forest.

Semuliki National Park stretches across the floor of Semliki valley on the remote western side of the Rwenzori. The National Park is dominated by the eastern most leeway of the great Ituri forest of the Congo Basin. This is one of Africa’s most ancient and bio diverse forests; one of the few to survive the last ice age 18000 years ago.

The Semliki Valley contains many features associated with central rather than eastern Africa. The Thatched huts are shaded by west African oil palms, The Semliki River is a miniature version of the Congo River, the central African Wildlife species, and the local population that includes the Batwa Pygmy community that came from the Ituri. The park contains evidence of even older processes. The Hot springs fizz up from the depths to demonstrate the powerful subterranean forces that have been shaping the rift valley during the last 14 million years.