HUYE - Environmental degradation and climate change have been recognized at the highest political level, as one of the main barriers to achieving Rwanda’s medium and long-term development aspirations, Environment Minister, Stanislas Kamanzi, has said.

Speaking during the inauguration of the World Agroforestry Centre’s Country office at The Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRST) in Huye District Tuesday, Kamanzi said that this recognition has been translated into a resolve by the government to effectively control pollution, conserve biodiversity, and restore productive ecosystems.

The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is an experienced research organization whose vision is rural transformation in the developing world where households strategically increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve their food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, energy resources and environmental sustainability.

Kamanzi hailed the partnership between IRST and ICRAF; he said that research institutions have a big role in providing new technologies and technical support to local people.

"I, therefore, expect from this partnership that many achievements, especially those which are related to Forestry, Agroforestry, Land rehabilitation and Biodiversity conservation, will be obtained,” said Kamanzi.

"Researchers from IRST and ICRAF will have a major role in informing the country’s population, for example, on what species to plant, where to plant them, and for what purpose”.

According to Dr Dennis Garrity, the Director General of ICRAF, the centre will emphasise three main areas; building up of rain water harvesting, dairy farming and the development of tree fertilizer systems.

Gritty said: "Our expectation is that this will increase by a large measure the work that we are doing with our partners to develop and scale up Agroforestry systems for farmers all over Rwanda.”

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