Rural communities involved in forestry business are upbeat about production following a recent move to restore degraded forests.

Studies show that, between 1990 and 2010, Rwanda lost 37 per cent of its forest cover due to forest degradation.

Augustin Benimana, a native of Murambi Sector in Rulindo District told Business Times that thanks to the income from forestry business, he set up a decent housing for his family and has paid school fees for all  his seven children  including the latest one  who has recently graduated from university.

However, while he used to generate over Rwf2 million from only one of the five forest plantations, the production had started to decrease to less than a half due to degradation.

"In a forest plantation where I used to generate Rw2 million by making charcoal, I was only getting Rwf600,000. This is very little income considering that the charcoal prices have even increased but the income decreased as forest production decreases,” he said.

While government says it has reached the target of 30 percent forest cover across the country, different communities have set their own target to increase forest production and sustain the profits.

Benimana is upbeat as his forest plantations have been saved from degradation.

He is one of the 37 forest farmers that have pooled their efforts together to maintain the restored forests with target to double harvest for market in the near future.

The farmer, who owns at least five forest plantations believes that sustainable management of forests will ensure profitable business.

"My forest plantation had lasted for long time and therefore it was in need of restoration. My trees were planted in 1976.It was no longer providing good produce  but having restored and planted new tree seeds, we expect good production in the next five years,” he said.

"As community, we have combined our forest plantations together for sustainable management and surveillance as long as each knows their own demarcated forest plantation. Once the forests grow up, we will harvest together and seek market together,” he said.

He explained that, after harvesting, each farmer will contribute between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of their income to the cooperative to run other community projects such as beekeeping inside the forests.

"With members’ contributions, we are also mulling over rearing domestic animals such as pigs, cows and others” he said.

The farmers recently inspired a delegation of participants who were in a regional climate change conference that took place on 15-18 October 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Forest experts speak out

Jerome Tuyisingize, the forest specialist at Rwanda Water and Forestry Authority (RWFA) said that one hectare of degraded forest requires between Rwf500,000 and Rwf1 million depending on characteristics of the land.

"The community’s forests that have been restored were planted between 1970 and 1980 and they had since aged. But also when trees are harvested at early stage, it leads to quick forests degradation,” he said.

 He said that eucalyptus tree planted for planks purpose is harvested between 20 years and 30 years but while when it is for electric poles, it is harvested between 15 years and 20 years and between  seven and ten years when it is for wood fuel.

Community’s forest plantations, he said, make 67 per cent of all forest cover across the country while state owned forests make 27 per cent while the rest is owned by districts, private institutions with 2 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

"This means that community forest plantations contribute a lot to national economy and people’s welfare in terms of wood fuel, wood for construction. We have introduced new approach to manage such forests by engaging the cooperatives. We urge them to run other projects so that they stay together to increase forest production,” he said.

The forestry expert explained that the new approach will help to increase forest production to between 300 and 400 cubic metres of wood per hectare from between seven and twelve cubic metres as indicated by an assessment.

Efforts to fight against forest degradation have been boosted by an incoming Rwf5 billion programme to promoting clean cooking in Rwanda.

The project will increase the use of improved or clean cooking stoves among Rwandan population through local production and dissemination of efficient cooking devices and the production of sustainable local biomass fuel.

Coletha Ruhamya, the Director-General of Rwanda Management Authority (REMA) recently said that the initiative targets to reduce the number of wood and charcoal fuel used by the population as government targets to reduce the use of firewood and charcoal from 83.3 per cent to 42 per cent by 2024.

Meanwhile the government is also looking to restore degraded land by 2020.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com