Over 43 million trees will be planted to green Rwanda by October next year, an official revealed to APA in Kigali on Tuesday.
The Rwandan Minister for Environment, Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya said that part of these efforts aim at fighting desertification as the country seeks to restore two million hectares of degraded land by 2030.
In 2011, Rwanda was the first country in Africa to pledge to restore land as part of the challenge.
The Bonn Challenge, launched then by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Federal German Ministry for the Environment, aims at 150 million hectares under restoration by 2020, and at 350 million hectares by 2030.
By adopting forest landscape restoration as a strategy to reverse widespread degradation and reanimate the natural power of ecosystem goods and services – such as improved water supplies and agricultural productivity – Rwanda garnered donor support as well as private investment to fulfill its border-to-border pledge.
Rwanda is with a commitment of 2 million hectares of deforested and degraded land –80 percent of its total land area.
Currently, the national annual wood deficit is estimated at 9.5 million m3 while soil loss is estimated at 1.4 millions of tons per year, accounting for a loss of $320 000, according to official estimates
CU/as/APA