Located in the southern and eastern regions of Burundi, open forests occupy localities in the provinces of Bururi, Makamba, Ruyigi and Cankuzo. They occupy the coastal escarpments of the western and southern part, starting from Rumonge to Nyanza-Lac and then go up to the extreme north of Kumoso-Buyogoma against the Tanzanian border. The area covered by open forests was only 1400 km2 in 1959, or 0.1% of the total area covered by open forest in the Zambezian region.

Currently, around 20,000 ha still exist in the form of scattered shreds. Of these 20,000 ha, 8720 ha are preserved in 5 protected areas, or about 44%. Thus, for all protected areas in Burundi, with about 120,000 ha, protected open forests occupy about 7.2%. Burundi's open forests are Miombo type open forests. They are in fact dominated by species from the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia, Isoberlinia and Uapaca and thus meet the definition of Miombo. These plant formations occupy the high peaks of Burundi and the altitude is between 1000 and 1600 m. In these forests, more than 17 species of ectomycorrhizal aboriginal trees belonging to the above genera have been identified. The ectomycorrhizic fungi associated with these essences are in particular of the genus Cantharellus, Amanita, Amanita, Rubinoboletus, Boletus, Xerocomus, Lactarius, Russula, Dendrogaster, Dendrogaster, Afroboletus, Strobilomyces, etc.