The Albertine Rift is known to be one of the most biodiverse regions on the African continent, having been designated an endemic bird area (Stattersfield et al.1998), a Global 200 Priority Ecoregion (Olson and Dinerstein, 1998; Burgess et al., 2004) and part of the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot (Brooks et al.,2004). The richness of vertebrate and plant
taxa have been documented in the past (Plumptre et al. 2003; 2007a) and in 2003 we estimated that there were about 5,793 plant species and 1,757 terrestrial vertebrate species known for the region. More thorough surveys, identification of new species and the finding of additional records for plants have increased these numbers to 6,568 plants and 1,833 terrestrial vertebrates and more species are being discovered and described every year, particularly amphibians, reptiles and plants. This plan summarises the state of knowledge for terrestrial vertebrates and plants for the Albertine Rift.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has had a dedicated program to conserve the Albertine Rift region since December 2000 but had been active in this region at several sites for many years prior to that date, going back to 1957. 
Conservation planning for the Albertine Rift started in 2001 with MacArthur Foundation support and a strategic framework plan was developed by 2004 which identified six core landscapes. More detailed planning subsequently occurred at each
landscape to generate 10 year landscape plans that are all currently being implemented.  The conservation targets, threats analysis, visions, goals and objectives are presented here for each landscape. The landscape planning however, 
looked at the conservation needs at this scale but did not assess the specific requirements of each of the conservation target species known from the Albertine Rift.