Tanzania's fourth-largest park protecting Miombo woodlands and Lake Victoria's third-largest lake
Burigi-Chato National Park
Burigi-Chato National Park is a vast protected area in northwestern Tanzania, spanning the districts of Karagwe, Biharamulo, Muleba, and Chato across the Kagera and Geita regions. Established as a national park in 2019, it covers approximately 4,707 square kilometers, making it Tanzania's fourth-largest national park. The park stretches from the eastern shores of Lake Victoria to the Rwandan border in the west, encompassing a largely uninhabited landscape of Miombo woodland, rolling savanna, and a network of lakes and wetlands.
The park is named after Lake Burigi, the third-largest freshwater lake in Tanzania, which serves as a central geographic and ecological feature. The landscape is diverse, combining long ridgelines, rocky escarpments, forested valleys, open grasslands, and extensive flood plains. This variety of habitats supports a range of wildlife and provides critical ecological functions within the Lake Victoria basin. The region's relative youth as a protected area means it remains less visited than Tanzania's more established parks, offering a sense of remoteness and wilderness that distinguishes it from the country's well-touristed northern circuit.