Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The purpose of our project is to reconnect people with nature and empower local communities to engage in the protection of natural habitats for mutual benefit and long-term change. Our aim is to restore degraded wetland and plant indigenous trees throughout Rwanda, resulting in the sequestration of carbon, through use of restoration ecology. Creative ways to restore wetlands for sustainable use, such as our Umusambi Village‚ project - 25 hectares of transformed wetland established as a nature reserve, create community jobs and generate revenue from visitors, which in turn contribute to our community conservation projects across the country.

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

In addition to the conservation and community benefits, habitat protection and restoration activities are also contributing to both emissions reductions and removals, as well as increasing capacity to adapt to climate change. A rapidly growing population with livelihoods dependent on subsistence agriculture and energy extraction has put significant pressure on the country's natural resources. It is estimated that between 70-95% of households practise traditional subsistence agriculture on small plots that have degraded soil structure and fertility due to continuous cultivation (1), while urbanisation and growth in built-up areas increased by over 300% in the period from 1990 to 2016 (2), placing further pressure on forested areas. Furthermore, over 95% of the rural population in Rwanda relies on wood for fuel, and the national dependency level is over 85%, despite efforts to reduce this through investment in renewable sources of energy and clean cooking technologies (3). There is a severe and increasing gap between wood supply and demand, which is more than twice the sustainable supply (4). Shortage of fuelwood drives forest degradation in public forests, while private forests are often seriously overcut. Since 2017, our project has established an indigenous tree nursery and planted over 49,700 indigenous tree species across the country. The planting activities are improving the ecological and economic productivity of degraded lands by using assisted regeneration practices that allow native species to regenerate on degraded and deforested land, including poorly managed eucalyptus woodlots and plantations. In the case of eucalyptus trees, these are removed and replaced with native species. The timber from the eucalyptus trees that are removed is donated to local households for use in building houses or cow barns, thereby retaining the carbon stores in the wood. Increasing tree cover not only helps to offset Rwanda‚ growing emissions from transport and industrial processes (5) by acting as a carbon sink (increasing uptake), but also supports diversification out of agriculture (the country‚ most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions in 2015) (6) by providing alternative livelihoods and sources of income for local communities. By working closely with and rewarding local communities for their engagement in forest planting and conservation, tree-planting is increasingly viewed by local communities as an investment, and trees seen as an asset that need to be nurtured as they grow. RWCA provides full-time employment for 50 Community Rangers based at Rugezi Marsh and for those involved in both planting and maintenance, thereby promoting the survival rate of the trees. The project is also starting to engage in voluntary carbon markets whereby local communities who partake in forest restoration are rewarded for doing so through Conservation Agreements with companies interested in offsetting their emissions. To date, 30 individuals have entered into such Agreements. The survival and growth of trees results in increased and ongoing CO2 removals from living biomass sequestration and a reduction in CO2 emissions from forest degradation. This has been an important contribution to both Rwanda‚ ambitious goal to restore two million hectares of degraded land by 2020 under the Bonn Challenge on Forests, Climate Change and Biodiversity (7) and to the vision for Rwanda to be a developed climate-resilient, low carbon economy by 2050, as set out in the country‚ National Strategy for Climate Change and Low Carbon Development (8). Similarly, efforts to restore wetlands that had been drained and converted to agricultural use, with the goal of protecting core areas and promoting more sustainable management and use, is helping to reverse wetland degradation. Drained and degraded wetlands emit significant quantities of GHGs compared to flooded or saturated conditions that inhibit aerobic respiration. Recent research by Griscom et al (2017) (9) and Hermes et al (2019) (10) has identified the avoidance of wetland loss, along with wetland restoration, as one of the key land management actions for natural climate solutions. To date, the project has restored an area of 25 ha around Umusambi Village (within the Kitaguzirwa wetland) and plans to restore a further 75 ha within the next five years. By protecting existing carbon stocks and increasing vegetation cover, the rehabilitated wetlands will also support carbon sequestration and contribute to greenhouse gas emission reductions (11). Note ‚ numbers, i.e. (1), (2) etc., refer to footnotes which are listed in the additional comments section of this application.

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

As a non-governmental organisation founded and run by Rwandans, RWCA is paving the way for climate change initiatives led from within Africa. Both our reforestation and wetland restoration projects significantly benefit and empower members of the local community. We advocate for the importance of embedding conservation activities within communities, creating a sense of ownership and providing meaningful involvement in decision making and project implementation. 

One of the ways we do this is by creating community conservation jobs, with the role of protecting and monitoring important habitats and threatened species, as well as educating fellow community members. We have a team of 50 Community Rangers (50% of whom are women) at Ramsar protected Rugezi Marsh. We particularly focus on providing opportunities for women and allow for flexible working days and hours. Women Rangers have told us this facilitates equity, as they can balance their job role with other family and household responsibilities. We also have a network of 44 Community Conservation Champions across the country who are monitoring and protecting important biodiversity areas, including threatened wetlands and our reforestation sites. Community education is a central element to their role, allowing people to better understand the need to protect the environment. Our community teams reached 8,500 community members in 2020 (despite the impact of COVID-19 restrictions). 

In our reforestation work, community members are involved at all stages and benefit financially. We engage communities in activities from collecting seeds and preparing the ground, to planting and follow-up care for saplings. We strongly believe in the concept of ‚ growing trees‚ rather than just ‚ planting trees‚ to ensure that the trees thrive over the long-term. The reforestation project benefits local people, improving livelihoods and bringing knowledge opportunities, as well as empowering them to take ownership of and pride in their surroundings, fostering a sustainable legacy of community management. 

The wetland restoration project also achieves progress through engaging and empowering local people. We are currently working with community members and agricultural cooperatives, who have farming activities in wetlands, to protect crane breeding sites. RWCA implements the innovative idea of Conversation Agreements which provide a negotiated benefits package for community members, who in return commit to conservation actions. 

We also focus on youth engagement, inspiring a future generation of conservationists. We have an ongoing education programme holding interactive workshops with children at schools nearby key biodiversity areas. Over 20,000 school children have participated and pledged to protect their environment through these. We have 677 young people in youth environmental clubs, meeting to learn about the environment and take actions to protect their local habitat. 

As the current project seeks to scale up our work, we will develop deeper knowledge and produce associated resources relating to the natural capital created by our ecological restoration work and the ecosystem services flowing from it. We can then further educate and empower local communities to restore ecology in a way that provides them with immediate benefits and unlocks climate, carbon offsetting and international development funding for our nature-based solutions.

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