Residents of Burera District have been urged to plant more trees and ensure that those planted are protected to control soil erosion.

Fatou Harerimana, the Senate vice-president in charge of Legislation and Government Oversight, made the call during monthly Umuganda community work in Gahunda Sector, on Saturday.

Senators and other government officials joined residents in Umuganda in Gisizi Cell where they planted more than 8,700 Alnus and Grevillea tree seedlings on the 58 hectares of land.

Harerimana urged the residents to plant as many trees as possible.

"Today, we have launched the tree planting season in Rwanda. We urge Rwandans to plant trees to fight erosion,” she said.

Harerimana  called for the country to be rallied in tree planting to meet the national target of 30 per cent of forest cover by 2020. Currently, only 28 per cent of Rwanda is covered by forests.

Officials said to achieve this goal, more needed to be done at both the individual and national level.

Burera is part of fertile volcanic region of Northern Rwanda, which is the food basket of the country.

But Harerimana said the residents needed to practice modern farming using manure and applying other best practices to boost agricultural output.

She also challenged them to promote a culture of hygiene by ensuring everyone has pit latrines and no child suffers from hygiene-related diseases.

She also urged them to avoid domestic conflicts and gender-based violence saying that no development would be achieved if domestic violence and gender-based violence are not eliminated.

Residents expressed their commitment to increase forest cover by planting more trees saying they understood the role trees played.

"We live in volcanic area which is prone to disasters especially rock fall and land slides. This can be controlled by planting more trees among other measures, we are committed to planting more trees and we will work closely with local leaders to ensure that we seeds are provided,” said Burera resident Jean de Dieu Bazansanga.

The residents also appealed for more  infrastructure saying that the lack of roads and electricity was affecting their living conditions and hindering tourism.