Rural communities involved in forestry business are upbeat about production following a recent
move to restore degraded forests.
Studies show that, between 1990 and 2010, Rwanda lost 37 per cent of its forest cover due to forest degradation.
Augustin Benimana, a native
of Murambi Sector in Rulindo District told Business Times that thanks to
the income from forestry business, he set up a decent housing for his
family and has paid school fees for all his seven children including
the latest one who has recently graduated from university.
However, while he used to
generate over Rwf2 million from only one of the five forest plantations,
the production had started to decrease to less than a half due to
degradation.
“In a forest plantation
where I used to generate Rw2 million by making charcoal, I was only
getting Rwf600,000. This is very little income considering that the
charcoal prices have even increased but the income decreased as forest
production decreases,” he said.
While government says it has
reached the target of 30 percent forest cover across the country,
different communities have set their own target to increase forest
production and sustain the profits.
Benimana is upbeat as his forest plantations have been saved from degradation.
He is one of the 37 forest
farmers that have pooled their efforts together to maintain the restored
forests with target to double harvest for market in the near future.
The farmer, who owns at
least five forest plantations believes that sustainable management of
forests will ensure profitable business.
“My forest plantation had
lasted for long time and therefore it was in need of restoration. My
trees were planted in 1976.It was no longer providing good produce but
having restored and planted new tree seeds, we expect good production in
the next five years,” he said.
“As community, we have
combined our forest plantations together for sustainable management and
surveillance as long as each knows their own demarcated forest
plantation. Once the forests grow up, we will harvest together and seek
market together,” he said.
He explained that, after
harvesting, each farmer will contribute between 5 per cent and 10 per
cent of their income to the cooperative to run other community projects
such as beekeeping inside the forests.
“With members’ contributions, we are also mulling over rearing domestic animals such as pigs, cows and others” he said.
The farmers recently
inspired a delegation of participants who were in a regional climate
change conference that took place on 15-18 October 2019 in Kigali,
Rwanda.
Forest experts speak out
Jerome Tuyisingize, the
forest specialist at Rwanda Water and Forestry Authority (RWFA) said
that one hectare of degraded forest requires between Rwf500,000 and Rwf1
million depending on characteristics of the land.
“The community’s forests
that have been restored were planted between 1970 and 1980 and they had
since aged. But also when trees are harvested at early stage, it leads
to quick forests degradation,” he said.
He said that eucalyptus
tree planted for planks purpose is harvested between 20 years and 30
years but while when it is for electric poles, it is harvested between
15 years and 20 years and between seven and ten years when it is for
wood fuel.
Community’s forest
plantations, he said, make 67 per cent of all forest cover across the
country while state owned forests make 27 per cent while the rest is
owned by districts, private institutions with 2 per cent and 3 per cent
respectively.
“This means that community
forest plantations contribute a lot to national economy and people’s
welfare in terms of wood fuel, wood for construction. We have introduced
new approach to manage such forests by engaging the cooperatives. We
urge them to run other projects so that they stay together to increase
forest production,” he said.
The forestry expert
explained that the new approach will help to increase forest production
to between 300 and 400 cubic metres of wood per hectare from between
seven and twelve cubic metres as indicated by an assessment.
Efforts to fight against
forest degradation have been boosted by an incoming Rwf5 billion
programme to promoting clean cooking in Rwanda.
The project will increase
the use of improved or clean cooking stoves among Rwandan population
through local production and dissemination of efficient cooking devices
and the production of sustainable local biomass fuel.
Coletha Ruhamya, the
Director-General of Rwanda Management Authority (REMA) recently said
that the initiative targets to reduce the number of wood and charcoal
fuel used by the population as government targets to reduce the use of
firewood and charcoal from 83.3 per cent to 42 per cent by 2024.
Meanwhile the government is also looking to restore degraded land by 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment