Virunga, the smallest and easternmost of the nine USAID-supported landscapes lies along the northeast border of the DRC, extending into northwest Rwanda and southwest Uganda.
The landscape lies within the Albertine Rift, a crescent-shaped collection of mountains covering parts of Uganda, DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, forming the western branch of the East African Rift. The rifts, caused by the slow separation of two tectonic plates, have also created the major lakes in the region, including Lake Edward, which nearly cuts the landscape in half and has some of the most productive fisheries in Africa.