The Ministry of Education last week convened a meeting to check the progress made so far in setting a center of excellence on biodiversity and management of natural resources.

The National Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Biodiversity and Natural Resources Management is a knowledge management centre consisting of a network of local higher learning institutions and research centers, called Nodes. It is coordinated via its Hub at  University of Rwanda (Huye Campus).  

Dr Marie Christine Gasingirwa, the Director General in charge of Science, Technology and Research (STR), Ministry of Education, said "the centre will impact positively not only on Rwandans but also the entire Albertine Rift Valley region inhabitants like it was initially conceived”.

Lamin Manneh, the UN country resident coordinator, said, "It’s one of our responsibilities as UN to support such programmes that enable stakeholders to generate and also apply knowledge on biodiversity and natural resources for sustainable development.”

The project is supposed to facilitate research, enhance education in Biodiversity and improve information sharing mechanisms on biodiversity and natural resources management.

The Albertine Rift Region members include, Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.