The Rwanda National Police’s Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) has launched an awareness programme in a bid to prevent wildfires that tend to be common in the dry season, destroying national parks and forest reserves.

The campaign was launched yesterday in Kayonza District, one of the districts affected by bush fires in the recent past.

The EPU, operating under the Criminal Investigation Department, is mandated to protect the environment in all aspects, including air space, forestry and biodiversity, as well as the enforcement of different legal instruments.

According to IP Emmanuel Kayigi, the Police spokesperson for the Eastern region, at least 327 hectares of vegetation cover, including parts of the national park, has been burnt in the region in the last one-and-half months.

About 184 hectares of the burnt area in the Eastern Province was in the eight sectors of Kayonza, Kayigi explained.

Speaking to residents of Ndego Sector in Kayonza, where the official launch was held, CIP Corneille Murigo, the director of the Police’s Environmental Protection Unit, urged residents to desist from reckless acts like burning dry grass in gardens and bee harvesting, which lead to wildfires.

"Something done by one person affects the entire nation. It should be the responsibility of everyone to take precautions against such incidents, and in case it occurs, urgently alert the Police and mobilise the community to respond before the fire spreads,” Murigo said.

One of the residents, Samuel Ndayisenga, expressed concern over the rate at which trees were being cut down in the district.

"If everyone doesn’t stand up against cutting of trees and embrace mass planting, we will be running to neighbouring districts to fetch firewood in a few years,” Ndayisenga said. "But again, planting trees in areas that have been burnt could be a futile exercise because wildfires also kill nutrients in the soil.”

Another resident, Leo Ntirampeba, blamed the fires on pastoralists, who believe that burning their farms in the dry season gives way for fresh pasture to grow.

At the same event, the Police received complaints from residents through the Mobile Police Station service.

Most of the complaints rallied around incidences of gender-based violence, land disputes and baboons that jump the Akagera National Park fence and destroy their crops.

The Mobile Police Station service was introduced last year to extended policing services to citizens residing or working in places located far away from Police stations.

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