The youth who are learning about the environment through the GreenGoal Rwanda Initiative (GGRI) and the people of Gasabo District in the City of Kigali, planted 9000 trees on seven hectares of land that used to be affected by erosion and erosion.
These trees were planted on Saturday, November 26, 2022, in a month-long community focused on tree planting and erosion control. It was carried out in Uwaruraza village, Ngara cell, Bumbogo sector and in the area near the Kami military base.
Wooded areas are places where a lot of rainwater passes through and sometimes even through deserts. When you look at it, you see that the few trees that were there are breaking down so that there is no action that continues to cause danger to the residents, including erosion and erosion.
Anne Micomyiza, a representative of the GreenGoal Rwanda Initiative (GGRI), which aims to preserve the environment by focusing on preserving the land and the ecosystem by planting traditional trees to prevent them from falling, explained that as young people it is their responsibility to take care of the environment.
He said, “As young people, we must take the first place where we live so that someone else can take care of us. We are young people who are learning about the environment, we must take the first to use the knowledge we have, to be able to share it with our colleagues”.
The planted trees are of five species including; smart, smart, smart, smart. The goal is that in the next five years there will be different types of trees. Kigali is a place where there are many industries, many cars, planting trees that improve the air quality of the city, attract biodiversity and can create a place for research in the area of biodiversity.
Micomyiza said that they want this area to be a model that will inspire other young people. He said, “We expect that in the next five years there will be benches where people can talk, relax and do tourism. “The residents say that these trees will be the answer to the erosion that has taken away their land, and they are determined to protect and preserve them.
Ngiruwonsanga Emmanuel said, “These trees that we plant will protect the environment from water, the people who live there will have peace, the wind will be better”. Nyirahakizimana Velena said that the digging of anti-erosion will solve the problem that the crops grown on the land were carried away by erosion and the yield was low.
He said, “This tree planting activity will make our land less waterlogged during heavy rains. It affects us who live there and it would cause us to lose our lives and suffer a lot of poverty because we are not allowed to live on that land”.
The trees planted are traditional but there is a plan to plant fruit trees. People say that it will help them in improving the proper nutrition for their children. In 2011, the world set a goal to plant forests through the so-called Bonn Challenge on an area equal to 150 million hectares until 2020, Rwanda is determined to restore forests on an area of two million hectares.
In 2016, Rwanda joined African countries in restoring an area equal to 100 million hectares by 2030 in a program called [African Forest Landscape Restoration, ARF 100]. Rwanda has a goal that by 2024 it will have 30% of the area covered with forests and that goal has been achieved even though it is an ongoing process.
