Preserving Natural Resources

1Threats to natural resources

• Deforestation: cutting forests for farms, firewood and charcoal. Between 1958 and 1973, Nyungwe Forest lost more than 150 km² to fires, woodcutting, hunting and farming.
• Poaching: illegal hunting of wild animals.
• Soil erosion on bare, steep hills.
• Pollution of water and land by rubbish, plastic, sewage and chemicals.
• Overfishing with illegal nets that catch young fish.
• Draining and farming wetlands.
• Careless mining that leaves open pits and muddy rivers.
• A growing population sharing a small amount of land.

2How Rwanda protects its natural resources

• National parks: Volcanoes, Nyungwe, Akagera and Gishwati-Mukura. Nyungwe became a national park in 2004 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023. Rangers stop poachers.
• Tree planting and agroforestry, in the national tree planting season and during umuganda.
• Terraces and trenches on hillsides to save the soil.
• Protecting wetlands: no farming or building in them. Kigali turned the Nyandungu wetland into an eco-park.
• Keeping water clean: no rubbish in rivers and lakes, and toilets built away from water sources.
• Fishing rules about net sizes and fishing seasons.
• Rules for mines to fill pits and replant trees.
• The ban on plastic bags (since 2008) and recycling.
• Saving energy: improved cookstoves, gas and solar power instead of too much firewood and charcoal.
• Sharing tourism money with villages near the parks, so communities gain from protecting wildlife.

3What you can do

• Plant a tree at home or at school, and water it until it is strong.
• Turn off taps and lights you are not using; collect rainwater.
• Put rubbish in bins; reuse and recycle.
• Never buy bushmeat or wild animal products, and report poaching to an adult.
• Take part in umuganda and join your school's environment club.

Try it yourself