EASTERN PROVINCE

Conservationists in Nyagatare District have started the use of banana fibres for planting tree seedlings in an attempt to stop the use of polythene papers in the nursery beds.

The programme is supported by experts from the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (Rema) and Oxfam International.

The project was started with about one million seedlings which are about to be transplanted throughout the district.

According to, Alice Nshimiyabarezi, the district environmental officer, the nursery trees are being hand-pollinated to give them the best chance to multiply.

"Over the last ten months a million seedlings have germinated but we need to generate  up to ten million across the district,” said Nshimiyabarezi on Thursday.

The district adopted the use of banana fibres in 2008 and collected seedlings from selected sites in partnership with REMA and Oxfam International.

Nshimiyabarezi said that at the end of 2008, the district’s environmental experts’ team set the target of ten million nursery trees which are needed for reforestation in the whole district.

From the millions of seeds expected to be planted, she explained that mechanisms have been set for mass tree planting as part of the national policy to boost the forest coverage.

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