Over the last couple of decades, Rwanda has made gains in preserving and protecting the environment, achieving the 30 per cent forest cover.

The country has embarked on a new strategy to preserve and increase the current forest cover.

The private sector is also playing its role in conservation. Globally, the East African region is leading the continent in a global effort to restore 350 million hectares of the world’s forests by 2030, and we can do better.

However, these gains could be eroded by human activity.

Latest reports show that over 280,000 hectares of Rwanda’s natural forests face extinction due to agriculture, wood exploitation and settlement.

Now, environmentalists say there is need for urgent action to restore and protect them.

They suggest that there are different natural forests that have to be protected by establishing buffer zones and in those buffer zones, there should be planted medicinal plants or medicinal trees

It’s a responsibility for us all to limit human-induced degradation of the environment and work towards leaving behind a better world for posterity.

In addition to being a source of oxygen, these forests are also home to the greatest diversity of plants and animals.

Replanting forests is costly and difficult, but it’s not the only alternative for restoring biodiversity.

Research has found that allowing trees to grow back naturally without intervention could offer a cheaper alternative.

Natural forest regrowth involves simply stepping back and letting the forest recover.

It could also involve removing factors that prevent regrowth, such as grazing cows, aggressive weeds or unnatural fires.

According to the World Economic Forum, natural forest regrowth may also better promote the re-establishment of local tree species that are best equipped to survive in a given location and support the many organisms that eat them or dwell amongst their branches and roots.

Remnant trees, hedgerows and living fences in pastures, WEF says, can especially hasten biodiversity recovery and enhance colonization of species more typical of mature forests.