All districts’ environment and infrastructure officials have been advised to pay more attention to the national tree planting exercise or risk failing the programme.

Lands and Environment minister Christophe Bazivamo told district officials on Thursday to have proper district plans for annual tree planting exercise to avoid chaos.

He was speaking to over thirty officials during a one-day meeting held in the ministry’s boardroom at Kacyiru.

He warned that unruly actions during tree planting exercise are generally caused by poor prioritisation of what to do.

"It’s a shame for some of you who vowed to accomplish this year’s tree planting target without showing actual places where to carry it out," the minister charged.

Bazivamo’s caution comes after the 2008 quarterly survey of the national afforestation exercise that showed a number of districts with inappropriate forestation plans. He warned that trees planted improperly will not restore the lost country’s greenbelt but risk to be viewed by the people as a threat to their agricultural activities. He said that the formulation of the national forestry plan is underway, and those ready for the required afforestation exercise will be helped. Already, aerial maps showing types and locations of the country’s available forests have been taken, and only await officials to put them into use.

"They (maps) need your consolidating responsibilities to make sure they provide tree planting guidance to the right people to put in the right places," Bazivamo said.

The aerial maps where made available by the Huye District-based Centre for Geographic Information System (CGIS) under the patronage of the Institute of Agriculture and Scientific Research (ISAR). Of the expected 545,000 hectares of forests nationwide, Bazivamo said the maps show at least 200,000 hectares are covered by forests and that is commended at international standards.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) stipulates minimal global standard size of a forest to be at least a hectare.

Bazivamo said that substandard forest size is not a problem but people’s awareness about its restoration by preventing forestation obstacles is more important.

Tree planting exercise needs local touch in order to enable the number of forests cover multiply around the country, he adds.

Over the last ten years, afforestation in the country has become a familiar act to the public, earning Rwanda a sixth place in a 2007 global ranking among nations committed to the exercise.

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