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Program

Plant trees in Rwanda

Rwanda is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley, where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge. It is highly elevated, giving it the soubriquet "land of thousand hills", with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. It is the most densely populated mainland African country.

Rwanda’s forests support a wealth of biodiversity and natural resources. The Gishwati-Mukura forests of Rwanda once spanned 253,000 hectares, covering the land with over 60 species of trees and providing habitat to chimpanzees. Due to illegal mining and the resettlement of households after the genocide in 1994, overgrazing and tree cutting reduced the forests to a mere 3,558 ha. Smallholder farmers feel the impacts of that degradation and understand the importance of landscape restoration for water, energy and food security. This project will help a women’s cooperative, led by local farmer Agnes Uwifashije, to revive land in Mukura.

Impact

For this project, our amazing partners at ARCOS (Albertine Rift Conservation Society) will mentor and build the skills of 2,000 farmers to restore land while improving community livelihoods. Planting trees will help add nutrients to soil while controlling run-off and erosion. When properly managed, these trees will provide the local farmers with firewood, climbing bean poles, and fodder for their animals. For food security and income generation, farmers will plant avocado, lemon, and tree tomatoes.

Species

This community-led initiative will plant a variety of trees including Grevillea, calliandra, Markhamia, Ficus, Erythrina, and Myriantus. Farmers will also plant Avocado, Lemon, and Tree tomatoes for food security and income generation.

Partner

OneTreePlanted is a non-profit organisation based in Vermont with a mission to make it simple for you to plant trees around the world. Started in 2014, they have more than doubled the number of trees planted year over year. Fast-forward to today, they now work with awesome reforestations partners in North America, South America, Asia, and Africa who help them get trees in the ground to restore forests after fires and floods, create jobs, build communities, and protect habitat for biodiversity.

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