Straddling the borders of 5 countries, the Albertine Rift volcanic mountain chain supports an afromontane forest of global importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services. But these forests have been severely degraded under the pressure for new agricultural land and are highly threatened. Most famously home to the mountain gorillas this region is home to a globally outstanding assemblage of small mammals. With 132 small mammal species this SMSG Key Region is second only to the Mexican dry forests in terms of overall species richness. Dominated by murid rodents (57 species ) and shrews (36 species) but it is also home to 9 other small mammal families. For example, of all the Key Regions, it supports the highest number of nesomyids (Nesomyidae, 9 species), dormice (Gliridae, 5 species), anomalures or scaly-tailed squirrels (Anomaluridae, 5 species), blesmols (Bathyergidae, 2 species), cane rats (Thryonomyidae, 2 species). Sixteen globally threatened species are found in the Albertine Rift Key Region, including 7 species of murid, 2 nesoymids and an important assemblage of 7 Vulnerable or Endangered shrew species. Among these threatened shrews, is the Ruwenzori Shrew Ruwenzorisorex suncoides, which belongs to a monotypic genus, the Moon Forest Shrew Sylvisorex lunaris, and the Montane Mouse Shrew Myosorex blarina. One of the SMSG’s Key Species occurs in this region, the Critically Endangered Mount Kahuzi African Climbing Mouse Dendromus kahuziensis.

The main threat to the region’s habitats and wildlife is from subsistence agriculture, poaching and bushmeat hunting. Recently, proposed oil operations threaten the flagship protected area in the region, the Virunga National Park.

Much conservation action, including forest protection and anti-poaching patrolling, is geared around the mountain gorilla as a flagship of the region. The extent to which these forest protection measures are congruent with the distributions of threatened small mammals is unclear.

Like many regions of Africa, knowledge of the biodiversity of the Albertine Rift is lacking. For the small mammals, basic surveys of distribution and habitat associations are needed for many species. This region has 6 Data Deficient species.