KIREHE – The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Forestry and Mines, Antoine Ruvebana, has urged Rwandans to adopt the culture of tree planting.

The PS was, yesterday, officiating at the occasion to mark the end the national tree planting week at Cyanjuna hill in Mushikiri Sector, Kirehe District.

Ruvebana said that every individual family and institution should get involved in tree planting to tackle the consequences of deforestation.

Participants at yesterday’s function planted over 25,000 trees.Ruvebana called on Rwandans to continue planting trees and to maintain them until they mature.

"It’s high time people owned the tree planting programme…our country spends at least Rwf5 billion on tree planting; this shows the government’s commitment..”

"Some parts of Kirehe, for instance, risk turning into semi-desert if the bare hills continue the way they are. Residents of this area should take it upon themselves to sustain the trees the what district has planted,” he said.

Protais Murayira, the Mayor of Kirehe District, announced plans to that plant over 23 million edible fruit trees in the district.

He reiterated the need to plant trees on a number of hills in the district that are threatened by erosion and desertification.

"We have earmarked several hectares to plant trees on. The population slowly understands the importance of trees. We, however, have a problem of rocky hills and ant-hills that destroy trees,” he said.

Martin Rudakubana, a resident of the area, said that although the population understands the theimportance of trees,  few people were still committed to their protection.

"Now that they have allowed people to do some agricultural activities where trees are planted, I am sure someone will be answerable until the trees grow old enough,” he said.
The ceremony was attended by a number of government officials.

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