BamBu Project

Ms Dancilla Mukakamari

National Coordinator

ARECO-RWANDA NZIZA

Rwanda

Outline

Introduction

Context

Objectives of the project

Location of the project

Beneficiaries

Activities and key achievements

Benefits to communities

Synergies with other initiatives

Challenges faced

Some success stories and best practices

Conclusion and Recommendations

The project Bambou Burera “BamBu’’ was

funded by the European Union Delegation in

Rwanda

Project full title: Promoting bamboo for

environment protection, climate resilience

and livelihood improvement in the

Volcanoes National Park and Rugezi Wetland

Zones

Budget and period: 473.820 euros for 3

years from February 2012 to January 2015

Introduction

Implemented by Burera

District in partnership with

ARECO-RWANDA NZIZA

Burera District is one of the

30 districts of Rwanda or local

Government entities.

Burera is located in the North

Province of Rwanda and

borders with Uganda

Introduction, Cont’d

UGANDA

D

R

C

T

A

N

Z

A

N

I

Y

A

BURUNDI

ARECO “Association Rwandaise des Ecologistes’’is a national

environmental and development organization

ARECO seeks to promote sustainable development through

environment protection

It extends its activities all over the country with an emphasis on

protected area zones

It is involved in biodiversity conservation and community based

natural resources management

ARECO works with local communities especially women and vulnerable

groups

ARECO has signed MoUs with government institutions including Burera

District for better collaboration

Introduction, Cont’d

Bamboo development is one of the

government priorities;

Bamboo plays valuable role in economic,

social and ecological development especially

landscape restoration and climate adaptation

Rwanda has joined INBAR and works to

promote sustainable use of bamboo through

cooperation and partnership (CBAP)

Context of the project

Context, cont’d

District’s priority to address vulnerability of ecosystems and communities

due acute soil erosion and land degradation associated to mountainous

and volcanic landscape

Importance of upstream restoration

for sustainable conservation of

Rugezi Wetland

Rugezi Wetland has high global

importance as RAMSAR Site of

6,735 ha

Conflicts between the park and

communities due to illegal cutting of

bamboos

Threats to biodiversity especially

Mountain gorilla

Poor availability of bamboo within the

community

Context, cont’d

Need to enhance

previous initiatives on

propagation and

processing technology

facilitated by ARECO in

the District

Context, cont’d

Necessity to improve quality and to diversify local bamboo products

including handcrafts,fournitures and other materials;

Context, cont’d

The aim of the project was to promote bamboo for

environmental protection, poverty alleviation and

climate resilience in the Volcanoes National Park and

Rugezi Wetland in Burera District

The specific objectives were as follows:

to facilitate bamboo plantation for soil erosion control

and landscape restoration;

building local capacity in bamboo utilization and

climate resilience;

awareness raising and communication on bamboo

opportunities;

Project objectives

Location of the project

The project has covered 9 sectors adjacent to the Volcanoes National

Park(3) and Rugezi Wetland(6)

Location of the project

Direct beneficiaries/target group:

women, marginalized groups, land owners, former poachers

and bamboo cutters organized into cooperatives(CBOs)

3,144 members of cooperatives including 55% of women have

worked with the project;

Indirect beneficiaries:

Almost 15,720 family members who has shared the benefits

with cooperatives members;

Local residents, all rwandans and humanity benefiting from

ecosystem services

Beneficiaries

Official launching

at Burera on 27th

March 2012

Participatory

planning and

validation of

intervention

strategy

Processes and key achievements

Inception workshop

Baseline study

Proper

identification

and mapping

of sites to

restore

Planning

proposal of

nursery and

planting

activities

Setting smart

indicators for

verification

Identified sites for bamboo plantation and landscape restoration: areas of

320,63 ha:

Water gullies in VNP

Rugezi wetland

Watersheds

Boundary zone

Riverbanks,

81,10 ha on VNP

239,53 ha on

Rugezi wetland

Zones to replant

Burera lakeshowers

Identified sites, cont’d

Awareness and consultation meetings with communities

Consideration of community views

Sensitization and exchange on project

opportunities, ownership and

sustainability

Sensitization on cooperatives

Training on bamboo propagation

techniques Training of 240 members of cooperatives(42% of

women) by ARECO technicians and local trainers

selection of good quality of seeds for Bambusa

Vulgaris, Arundinaria alpina and Dendrocalamus

spp

propagation techniques: nursery management,

bamboo cuttings and layering techniques

Nursery management by cooperatives

Production and maintenance of 211,222

bamboo seedlings during 3 campaigns

Sale of mature bamboo seedlings to the

project at 500 rwf( equiv of 0.9 usd)

Plantation of bamboos and restoration of land

Planting organized into 4 campaigns from

November 2012 to April 2014

Official launching in November 2012 by the

Mayor of the district, EU officials, ARECO, park

authority and local partners

Planting processed through community works

(Umuganda);

Planting activities coordinated by cooperatives;

Plantation along water gullies, riverbanks,

wetland boundary and lakeshowers on 329,34ha

Plantation in public and private land(farmland)

Restored sites in April

Burera lakeshowers

Water gulley planted in VNP

in 2014

Restoration on Rugezi wetland

Other project activities

Training of local extension officers on bamboo

propagation and climate adaptation/mitigation

Training of members of cooperatives on bamboo

processing

Supporting establishment of Processing Center

Bamboo value addition

Off farm and green job for youth

and women

Training and

learning site on

bamboo

Potential tourism

site

Monitoring/evaluation

Daily monitoring by project staff

Supervision by project

coordination team

Steering committee

Community field volunteers(15)

appointed by cooperative to

monitor plantations and to report

during a period of 3 years

Final evaluation

Technical evaluation to

assess achievements, best

practices, challenges and

way forward

Participatory field

evaluation and validation

meeting including

communities representatives

Almost 300,000 usd transferred

to communities

through(nurseries, sale of seeds,

incentives for monitors,

trainings);

Cooperative members especially

women have efficiently used

money;

Money served to improve

education for children, health

care, improvement of housing

hygiene, etc

Benefits of the communities

Synergies with other projects and initiatives Initiative partners When Where What

BASOLI Project GVTC/DGIS 2009-

2011

Virunga/VN

P

-Training of BamBu beneficiaries

- Sale of seeds

COBAM Project PACEBCo/

BAD/CIFOR

2014 Virunga

/VNP

-Beneficiaries trained by BamBu

- Planting material from BASOLI

NTFP Project FAO COMIFAC Contribution to identification of

bamboo as first priority NTFP(Rda)

REFADD

(African

Regional

Network for

Women and

sustainable

Development)

Not yet found 2017-

2019

COMIFAC

countries

Technical support for

development of a project on

‘’Women and bamboo in CA’’

aimed at training on propagation

and processing techniques as

well as plantation

Strong competition between bamboo and crops on limited land (0.5

ha of household average)

Issue of community’s right to use bamboo resources planted in public

land

Destruction of bamboo by cattle

Issue of nursery watering and loss of seedlings during dry season

Poor performance of Arundinaria alpina in nurseries while it’s the

most preferred by local resident(craft, agriculture, housing,..)

Poor knowledge on economic and ecological benefit of bamboo

plantation

Challenges

Innovative partnership between State(District) and Non State

actor(ARECO)

Based on existing collaboration, the District (beneficiary of the grant)

has signed a contract MoU with ARECO for project implementation

Transfer of resources to ARECO for better implementation(financial,

human, materials and equipment);

Ownership by communities and tangible benefits

Women have showed more ownership in the project

Project sites have served visitors to learn

Some success stories/Best practices

Learning and community tourism sites

Bamboo is a high valuable and available resource that need more

attention in COMIFAC countries and Africa

Need to promote more research to increase knowledge on bamboo

opportunities

Necessity to promote bilateral and multilateral cooperation on

bamboo

CSOs(ARECO, ANDAFOR, REFADD,..) are ready to play a role in

dissemination of knowledge and best practices across the region

Need to link with private sector for more bamboo based opportunities

Importance of value chain development

Conclusion and recommendations