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Report on Climate Change, Glacier Retreat, and Cultural Transformation in Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains
The Rwenzori Mountains often called the “Mountains of the Moon” are one of Africa’s most climate-sensitive landscapes. Once home to vast tropical glaciers, the range has lost more than 95% of its ice in just over a century due to rising temperatures.
This research explores how climate change is transforming the Rwenzori Mountains as a connected socio-ecological system. Drawing on climate science, glacier studies, lake records, and community knowledge, it shows that warming not declining rainfall is driving glacier retreat, reshaping water sources, ecosystems, and livelihoods.
Beyond the physical impacts, the study highlights how glacier loss intersects with floods, landslides, displacement, cultural identity, and indigenous knowledge systems. Sacred sites, traditional weather indicators, and local conservation practices remain vital but under-recognised tools for adaptation.
The findings call for community-centred, culturally grounded climate action that recognises the Rwenzori as both an ecological hotspot and a living cultural landscape. As the glaciers disappear, justice-based responses are urgently needed to support the communities who have contributed least to climate change but face its most profound consequences.
