The montane forest, which occupied nearly 33 to 50% of the country in the past, is mostly denuded and only a patch of  of closed forest is recorded on the banks of Lake Tanganyika. Lake Tanganyika, the second-deepest lake in the world, has a water spread of only 8% in Burundi.
The mountainous woodland that once dominated the nation's landscape has been significantly reduced, leaving behind only a small remnant of closed forest near Lake Tanganyika. In contrast, Lake Tanganyika occupies a relatively tiny fraction of Burundi's territory.