Environmental Management and Sustainable Development
Senior 4 · General and Religious Studies
Environmental Management and Sustainable Development
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
Around 2003 and 2004 Rwanda suffered frequent electricity cuts. The cause was far from any power station: it was in the Rugezi wetland in the north. According to the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), the forested slopes above the wetland had been turned into farms, the marsh had been drained and farmed, and fishing was uncontrolled. By 2003 an estimated 56% of the wetland had been destroyed. Less water flowed from Rugezi to Lake Burera and on to Lake Ruhondo, where it drives the turbines at Ntaruka. The government had to buy diesel generators, paying almost 60,000 US dollars per day.
The government stopped drainage, farming and grazing in the marsh, and mobilised people to plant trees on the hills and bamboo and grass around the wetland. Because people who had lived from the wetland lost income, it introduced improved cookstoves and other sources of income such as beekeeping. By 2010, REMA reports, water levels had been restored, the electricity shortage had ended and the livelihoods of nearby communities were safeguarded. Degradation has effects far from where it happens; conservation can reverse them.
Definition
Ecosystem services: the benefits people receive from nature, such as clean water, fertile soil, timber, fish, pollination and flood control. Rugezi's service was a steady flow of water for electricity.
Conservation: the protection, careful use and restoration of the environment and natural resources so that they last.
Buffer zone: a protected strip of land around a river, lake or wetland in which some activities are forbidden.
Agroforestry: growing trees together with crops or livestock on the same farm.
Nature-based solution: protecting, managing or restoring ecosystems to solve a human problem, as at Rugezi.
| Area | Effects | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Economic | Lower crop yields; costly repairs; lost tourism and energy | Rugezi: diesel generators at almost 60,000 US dollars per day |
| Social | Hunger, poverty, migration in search of land; conflict over land and water | Families leaving exhausted land |
| Health | Polluted water causes disease; smoke from wood and charcoal harms lungs | Cooking indoors with firewood (76% of households in 2022) |
| Ecological | Loss of species and habitats; silted rivers and lakes | Loss of natural forest at Gishwati (Lesson 1) |
| Disasters and climate | Bare slopes and filled-in wetlands increase floods and landslides; fewer trees store less carbon | Rainwater running off built-up wetland at Gikondo increased erosion downstream (REMA, 2021) |
| Measure | How it works |
|---|---|
| Terraces, ditches and grass strips | Slow water on slopes and keep soil in place; often built through public works and Umuganda |
| Reforestation and agroforestry | Forest area rose from 618,000 ha (2011) to about 725,000 ha (2019) as part of a target to restore 2 million hectares of degraded or deforested land (REMA, 2021) |
| Protecting wetlands and riverbanks | Law N° 48 of 2018, Article 42, forbids building in a swamp or within 20 m of its boundary, and building farm or livestock installations within 10 m of rivers or 50 m of lakes |
| Restoring damaged sites | Rugezi (restored by 2010); the Gikondo industrial park moved out of the wetland so that it can be rehabilitated (REMA, 2021) |
| Reducing waste and pollution | Ban on plastic carry bags and single-use plastic items (Law N° 17 of 2019); sorting waste; community clean-ups |
| Saving wood | Improved cookstoves and alternative fuels reduce the cutting of trees |
| Community participation | Every person has the duty "to protect, safeguard and promote the environment" (Constitution, Article 53); environment protection committees exist at City of Kigali, district, sector and cell levels (Law N° 48 of 2018, Article 41) |
Warning
Conservation has costs, and someone pays them. At Rugezi, people who had farmed and fished in the wetland lost their income when it was protected. REMA's account shows that the restoration worked because it also offered alternatives: cookstoves, beekeeping and better farming methods. An answer that lists only "ban farming in wetlands" misses half of the solution.
Tip
Avoid, reduce, reverse. When you propose solutions, order them this way. Avoiding damage (keeping buffer zones, protecting forests) is cheaper than reducing it (terraces, cookstoves), which is cheaper than reversing it (restoring a destroyed wetland). Examiners reward the order and the reason.
Important
Discuss. A family farms beans on a riverbank, inside the 10-metre buffer zone, because it has no other land. The law forbids it. What should local leaders do? Propose a solution that protects the river and the family's income, using the Rugezi case as a guide.
Rwanda Environment Management Authority: "Landscape Approach to Forest Restoration and Conservation in Rwanda" (LAFREC project documentary), about 21 minutes. Watch how the project worked on the Gishwati-Mukura landscape, and list the measures that also gave local people new sources of income.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: Figure 2 (from REMA's hierarchy), the tables, the analysis and the exercises.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Put the Rugezi chain of events in order.
Tap the cards in the right order.
