Despite its dense population Burundi still has a wildlife remnant that includes hippopotamus, buffalo, waterbuck and bushbuck, crocodiles, monkeys and many birds, especially water birds. But there are no nature reserves, and there is no legal protection. Now the Government has commissioned wildlife surveys, including one by the author, and there are plans to create a 50,000-hectare national park in the Ruvubu Valley, as well as some smaller reserves, and to preserve the surviving forest on the Zaire–Nile watershed.