The national forest conservation exercise has been boosted by a $300,000, (approx. Frw150m) grant to save the country’s greenbelt.

This is contained in the grant agreement signed on Thursday between the Minister of Natural Resources, Stanislas Kamanzi, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) country representative, Elizabeth Balepa.

The pact is set to cover the whole country for a period of two years. It will be integrated into the ongoing national tree planting and protection exercise launched five years ago.

"It is going to supplement on what the government, through local communities, has been doing, especially in devising ways of reducing the rate of firewood consumption," said the minister.

Balepa resolved to provide technical assistance through the FAO funded project for rational use of forests as human demand for their products continue to increase.

The project will involve widespread development of alternative energy saving stoves and reforestation of deforested areas to stimulate the natural habitat regeneration.

Surveys of both natural and planted forests will also be carried out and further training for local communities to protect them will continue.

Experience gained through the project will be shared with similar schemes throughout the country and the Ministry of Infrastructure will develop other sources of energyfor domestic use.

Forests have been threatened by human activities which include massive tree cutting for building, charcoal burning and the decline in management efforts.

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