Emmanuel Ndaruhutse has been a secondary school teacher of Kinyarwanda and English ever since he was 18. The 29-year-old recently diversified into community-based tourism in Bugesera District as a tour guide and the Vice President of Bugesera Birding Club, locally known as the Terintambwe Tourism Cooperative. Moses Opobo had a chat with him.

What took you to tourism?

I became a community guide because I love nature. I’m a Seventh Day Adventist, and in the Adventist church we are taught the importance of nature. At home, while growing up, it was an offense to cut a tree in the compound. My mother used to tell us that it’s from trees that we get oxygen.

I also love birds for their beautiful colours and behavior. For instance there are birds that flock together, while there are birds that do not ‘commit adultery,’ such as doves.

Say something about your cooperative

It started in 2011 with 55 members, but only 20 are still active. The number went down because at the beginning we didn’t have many clients, so some members got discouraged. Others did not understand the whole concept of avitourism.

Prior to the creation of the cooperative, we experienced a long and destructive dry spell in Bugesera, peaking in the year 2000. During that year it was so bad that some families were forced to relocate to Nyagatare to get food and water.

To combat the drought, we tried to come up with environmental clubs. Rwanda Environment Management Authority helped people set up committees to manage water basins since there are eight lakes in the area.

The committees worked to plant a belt of trees near these lakes, and taught residents tree planting. The government set up a number of tree nurseries, and the committees oversaw the propagation of the trees.

Within just two years, Bugesera had become green again and Rwanda Development Board officially recommended avitourism in the area.

Three districts (Bugesera, Burera, and Nyabihu) were earmarked for this project. Burera was chosen because of Rugezi, an important birding area, while Bugesera was chosen because of the tireless efforts by locals to combat drought. Nyabihu was chosen because it has many artificial lakes caused by soil erosion. The area also has many tall trees.

The RDB and Rwanda Environment Management Authority brought us some specialists from South Africa, Uganda and the UK, who taught us the basics. We had good dialogue with them, and after it we sat down as COGEBAV and asked RDB how they could further help us. In turn, the RDB drew a master plan of how the cooperative should run.

We held our first meeting to chart the way forward. We agreed on a membership fee of Rwf10,000 per year. We agreed that we were going into the business of tourism as a group. RDB further helped us to train some community guides.

Talk about Ndaruhutse, a teacher

I’m a teacher at GS Kamabuye; I teach Kinyarwanda and English. I started teaching while I was 18 years old, at GS Umuka SS, in Ngoma District.

At GS Kamabuye, I founded a birding and nature conservation club for the students, and later founded another club at APEBU, in Nyamata. The clubs teach students basic nature conservation practices.

We keep the schools green, and we teach the students about the relation between fresh air and trees. We also take them on birding field trips, where we give them basics like how to use a binoculars, filed guides, and we show them the different bird species available.