Deforestation is the process of cutting down trees in large number without leaving other trees planted as replacements for the cut ones hence leaving the land bare and the space as well.

Rwanda encountered this problem in the past 20 years whereby it was after the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.

Many people would come back from other countries that they were in as exile and as they came, hey could approach the country.s  forests and cut down trees for their settlements.

Others would cut down the trees for firewoods and others for other purposes. 

Rwandan deforestation was driven by the need for food, medicine, charcoal and timber especially for commercial products. But the loss of so many trees in a rainy mountainous country has had severe environmental consequences. The region also experiences the soil erosion degradation and landslides.

But through the Rwanda National Forestry Policy implemented in the 2018 and the conservation effort together with the public awareness, Rwanda has set a target to increase it's forest cover to 30% of the total country land area through afforestation and reforestation by 2020.

Currently, about 30% global forest cover has been cleared and further 20% has been degraded which is a good achievement.

It is therefore imperative that all the Governments through their ministries of land and forestry develop and implement a very competitive forestry policy to realize quick forestry contribution to economic development and resilience to the effects of climate change. The revised policy will always be expected to transform the forestry sector into a more opportune and vibrant sector which promote alternative sources of energy and significantly reduce pressure exerted on wood biomass. so as to ensure the country's progression through Forestry.

Green cheers!!