150 face eviction from Gishwati

Evictees demand cultivatable plots WESTERN PROVINCE RUTSIRO — Scores of residents in Ruhango Sector, Rutsiro District, have called upon the government to allocate them new cultivatable land before they are evicted from Gishwati forest. They were responding to an announcement made by the Minister of Natural Resources, Stanislaus Kamanzi, last week that over 152 families that had illegally settled in Gishwati forest near River Sebeya, would be relocated to Bitenga. “0ur lives depend on agriculture. We had cultivatable fertile plots here, we have visited and know where they want us to go, it’s a good place but with very limited cultivatable land,” Jean Marie Hategekimana, one of those to be relocated said. He added, “ how shall we survive in such a barren location which would barely be enough to accommodate all of us?” They accused district authorities of failing to allocate them cultivatable land within their new settlements. “We are not against the eviction but the district authorities have not allocated what one would call cultivable plots in Bitenga. And we all know that Bitenga is too small to accommodate all the 152 households,” Confiance Mukamana one of the evictees said. The move, she added, would drastically affect their agricultural work and lead to food shortages. Unlike Bitenga, Ruhango is said to have fertile land with high agricultural yields which has always ensured food security for residents. Previously, Ruhango residents have resisted attempts geared towards relocating them by various environmental management organisations. Last month, some residents physically chased away workers of the Association pour la sauvegarde de l’environnement est sa Conservation ‘ASEC’ who had gone to plant trees in the area. Minister kamanzi had last week warned residents not to resist the eviction, saying it’s the only way to protect Gishwati as a gazetted forested territory which is at the verge of extinction. The minister further said that soil erosion and the 2007 Bigogwe floods that killed seven people in Nyabihu District, were linked to continuous degradation of Gishwati forest. He noted that there is need to regenerate the vegetation in the forest rea to avoid similar disasters in future. Kamanzi promised that the government will do it s best to ensure that the welfare of the relocated residents is catered for during the eviction exercise. In 1980, Gishwati had over 28,000 hectares under forest vegetation, according to the Minister. However, after the Genocide, many Rwandans formerly living in exile set up settlements, and Gishwati’s forest cover was reduced to only 4,000 hectares. Ends