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By Annonciata Byukusenge
Rwanda’s Minister of Environment, Dr. Valentine Uwamariya, led the official launch of the 2024-2025 National Tree Planting season in Rwamagana District with a community work known as “Umuganda”. The theme for this year’s tree planting season is “Plant a tree, Nurture it and save the planet.”
Since 1975, Rwanda has been celebrating tree planting day as a way to increase forest cover, protect the landscape from soil erosion, and meet global demands. With the world facing severe climate change impacts such as floods, droughts, and food insecurity, there is an urgent need to plant more trees to enhance resilience against these challenges.
Rwanda has achieved a 30% forest cover, but there is still much work to be done. The Ministry of Environment plans to plant more than 65 million trees during this planting season, including forest trees, agroforestry trees, native species, fruit trees, and ornamental trees.
Dr. Uwamariya emphasized the importance of investing in research, quality seed resilience to climate change impacts, new technologies, value addition to forest products, and alternative renewable sources of energy to reduce dependence on biomass and avoid deforestation.
The Minister thanked public institutions and partners for their contributions to the event, including Rwamagana District, One Acre Fund Tubura, Enabel, ARCOS Network, IUCN, Delagua, Prime Insurance, and MTN. The Embassy of Israel in Rwanda also offered fruit tree seedlings for planting during the event.
In conclusion, Dr. Uwamariya reiterated the Ministry of Environment’s commitment to working with stakeholders to mobilize funds and address sector priorities. She encouraged everyone to join in planting and maintaining trees to help combat climate change and protect the planet.
