Rwanda seeks to allocate 48,803 hectares or 80 percent of state forests to private operators for management by 2024, the acting Director General of Rwanda Forestry Authority, Spridio Nshimiyimana told The New Times.
He was speaking in line with the observation of World Nature Conservation Day.
The day is an annual event held on July 28, which aims to create awareness about the need to preserve the environment and natural resources in order to keep the world healthy.
Nshimiyimana said the revenues from the forestry sector have been increasing thanks to various investments and interventions in managing forests. They have increased from Rwf164 billion in 2007 to Rwf609 billion in 2021.
A segment of a conserved forest known as Arboretum at University of Rwanda Huye Campus. Forests currently occupy 30.4% equivalent to 724,662 hectares across the country. Dan Nsengiyumva.
"We are in the process of privatising management of state forests and this is one of the contributors to increasing revenues from the forestry sector. So far we have allocated 38.45 percent of state forests to private operators. This will improve management of forests to benefit both government and private operators,” he said.
Numbers show that the government owns 27% of the total forests equivalent to 65,000 hectares without considering national parks.
Forests currently occupy 30.4% equivalent to 724,662 hectares across the country.
Of these 53% of the country’s forests are plantations, 21% wooded savannas in the east, and 19% natural mountain rainforests while 6.2% are shrubs.
"In total 61,000 hectares must be managed by private operators to help increase revenues from the forestry sector,” he said.
Restoring natural forests
As part of boosting biodiversity conservation, the Forestry Authority said it is also restoring degraded natural forests.
According to figures, at least 7,000 hectares of small natural forests in different parts of the country are under threat related to human activities—agriculture, poaching, settlement, wood pilfering and fires.
Rwanda has committed to restore two million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2030.
Currently, over 900,000 hectares are being restored.
The country has invested $652 million in forest landscape restoration programmes, according to the Ministry of Environment.
Native tree species
To restore natural forests, currently there is the Tropical Montane Forests in a Warming World (TMF) project which is conducting an experiment to assess the suitability of 20 native tree species for forestry plantation in Rwanda and their sensitivity to warmer climate.
Bonaventure Ntirugulirwa, Forest Productivity and Improvement Researcher in Rwanda Forestry Authority, said the primary goal of this study is to identify the different native tree species that will be affected and unaffected by rising temperatures.
"As the temperature rises, we have seen that several native tree species are in jeopardy of extinction; through research, we would like to identify some of them that will survive and what kind of management for these that are threatened by increased temperature,” he said.
Ibanda-Makera gallery forest is one of the degraded natural forests where the tree species are being tried.
The 169-hectare natural forest is home to several types of wild animals.
It also consists of a marshland connected to River Akagera.
In two decades, it had been severely degraded, losing 80 per cent of its original size.
The activities of restoring this forest that was said to be home to several types of wild animals like lions, monkeys, snakes, chimpanzees, wild pigs, antelopes, leopards and birds are undergoing.
"Native tree species are so important in life because some of them are a source of medicine, but not only that, trees and forests provide fresh air for breathing, and they are a source of rain which makes crops grow as well as biodiversity conservation.
"As you have seen, the Government has invested more in this project in order to identify the trees that will be suitable for this area,” added Nshimiyimana.