Rwanda has joined the 'green list' of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to acquire higher standards of conservation of nature and wildlife.

This derives from a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Rwanda Development (RDB) Understanding (MoU) and IUCN on July 22.

The IUCN Green List programme is the first global standard of best practice for area-based conservation.

It aims to recognize and globally increase the number of protected and conserved areas that are fairly governed, effectively manages and achieve their conservation outcomes.

Zephanie Niyonkuru, Deputy CEO of RDB, said the move paves a way for the country to benefit from the standards in terms of conserving biodiversity and ensuring the continuous maintenance of national parks and other protected areas.

"We’ve been putting special attention to conservation and we entered into some partnerships including one with African parks to make sure that we effectively manage some of our parks and also leverage the technologies in terms of tracking animals and relocation of some animals that we didn’t have before.”

In November 2021, thirty white rhinos were released into the wilderness of Akagera National Park in Eastern Province, in a move to create a secure new breeding stronghold for the species in Rwanda.

According to him, the tourism sector being the major contributor to the country’s economy generated $500 million in 2019 and the numbers went down due to the pandemic, however, the sector is picking up as economies recover.

Luther Anukur, the Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, IUCN, said the partnership shows the commitment of Rwanda to its conservation efforts.

"Signing the MoU is one thing but doing the real work is another, but I think our commitment has always been there like we did other programs in Rwanda. So, we don’t doubt that the future will only be better,” he added.

According to Anukur, the Green List allows countries trying to attract private financing to have a gauge that determines where they stand on their journey towards the future of conservation.

IUCN says that Africa is not trying to catch up but leading in the space of the Green List programme.

The signing of this partnership took place on the margin of the African Protected Areas Congress that convened 2000 delegates in Kigali for discussions on the current state of wildlife and wild range conservation in Africa, policy making, and financing of protected areas, among others.