Mt. Elgon

The Mount Elgon Transboundary Ecosystem in Uganda was brought forward to the Tentative World Heritage Site list in 2024. The region is part of the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot, which also includes existing World Heritage Sites such as Mount Kenya, Rwenzori Mountains National Park, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Mount Elgon itself is an extinct volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya. I visited the Mount Elgon region in the summer of 2014, traversing the eastern slopes around Suam, at the Kenya-Uganda border, on the first part of my trip, and the western slopes up to Kapchorwa later on the trip. I was visiting the region with members of my church from Hawaii, and spent most of my time in villages, but was able to do a little bit of hiking on the mountain slopes near civilization, enjoying some beautiful views across the Ugandan and Kenyan countryside. 

Mount Elgon is incredibly lush, but the nature of my visit meant that I wasn't as focused on searching for wildlife. Still, I was able to see some monkeys, such as the mantled guereza, a black-and-white colobus, in the trees, as well as many birds (though not the endangered Sharpe's Longclaw or the Elgon Francolin, specifically referenced in the nomination package). I would like to have seen the elephants on the mountain, since Mount Elgon is well known for its elephants that burrow into caves to dig up salt. On a darker note, it was in one of …