Through Public-Private Partnership, the government is set to allocate 80% of state forests to private operators by 2024, according to the Minister for Environment, Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya.

She disclosed this as the country joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Forest, Water and Meteorological Days on March 23, 2021.

The sale of state-owned forests is part of the country’s seven-year National Strategy for Transformation, which runs through 2024.

"To date, 22.148 hectares equivalent to 36% of state forests are now managed by private investors for sustainable management and value addition. Forests currently occupy 30.4% equivalent to 724,662 hectares across the country,” Mujawamariya disclosed.

The minister made strong case for the restoration and conservation of forests, saying that they are a source of food, medicine, clean water and shelter.

Jean Pierre Mugabo, the Director General of Rwanda Forestry Authority, said that 53% of the country’s forests are plantations, 21% wooded savannas in the east, and 19% natural mountain rainforests while 6.2% are shrubs.

The government owns 27% of the total forests equivalent to 65,000 hectares without considering national parks.

Forests are among the major revenue generators in the country, fetching an annual income of Rwf67 billion, according to official figures.

Through privatisation of state-owned forests, the government hopes to make Rwf200 billion in annual revenues in case all the privatisation efforts go according to studies.

Forests restoration gap

According to Mugabo, a forest coverage map produced in 2019 showed that there was a more than 20% increase in forest coverage over the previous ten years, which is equivalent to a 5% afforestation rate over 10 years.

However, he said that the eastern and southern provinces have less forest cover, which requires efforts in afforestation.

In 2011, Rwanda committed to restoring two million hectares of degraded land, including natural forests by 2030.

Today, the country has 708,629 hectares under restoration, an effort which has created more than 22,000 jobs and resulted in 102,154,014 tonnes of carbon dioxide being sequestered.

Rwanda’s efforts are in line with the global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.

Studies show that, between 1990 and 2010, Rwanda lost 37 percent of its forest cover due to forest degradation.