As Rwandans, many of us begin our day in familiar ways. A farmer checks the sky before heading to the field. A parent prepares children for school. A commuter heads to the bus stop on their way to work. A business owner opens a shop, and a factory worker starts another productive day.

Few of us would describe these daily routines as environmental actions. Yet each depends on the quality of the environment around us.

The food we eat depends on healthy soils and reliable rainfall. The water we drink depends on protected watersheds. The air we breathe depends on how we manage our cities, industries, and transport systems. Our homes and infrastructure depend on landscapes resilient to floods, droughts, and erosion.

This is why Rwanda's Constitution recognizes a clean and healthy environment as a right for every citizen. The environment is not a distant concern reserved for scientists and policymakers. It is the foundation of our health, livelihoods, and prosperity.

Yet environmental issues are often misunderstood. Some reduce them to tree planting. Others see them as tomorrow's challenge, while today's priorities are putting food on the table, creating jobs, and growing the economy.

The reality is that these priorities are inseparable. Environmental stewardship is not separate from development; it increasingly enables it.

Rwanda's experience demonstrates this clearly. Through restoring landscapes, protecting ecosystems, and strengthening environmental governance, our country has shown that environmental protection and economic progress can advance together.

Today, three priorities guide our work in the environment sector.

The first is sustainable landscape management. Across Rwanda, degraded hillsides, riverbanks, wetlands, and catchments are being restored to improve water security, reduce erosion, and protect communities from climate-related disasters. The Green Gicumbi project alone established more than 2,500 hectares of agroforestry, rehabilitated over 2,200 hectares of degraded forest, and created more than 99,000 green jobs while benefiting more than 158,000 people.

The second is climate-smart agriculture. By combining climate information, improved seed varieties, irrigation, better soil management, and post-harvest practices that reduce losses, farmers can increase productivity while protecting the natural resources on which agriculture depends.

The third is building sustainable cities and communities. As Rwanda urbanizes, economic growth must be accompanied by cleaner air, sustainable transport, responsible waste management, and environmentally sound industrial development.

Together, these priorities are climate actions that strengthen resilience, improve public health, create jobs, and support economic growth.

This is where environmental regulation plays a critical role. Regulations are sometimes perceived as obstacles to investment and development. In reality, they help create the conditions for sustainable growth. By setting clear standards and encouraging responsible practices, they drive innovation and help ensure that today's development does not create tomorrow's costs.

Around the world, and increasingly in Rwanda, businesses are demonstrating that environmental responsibility and economic competitiveness can go hand in hand. Cleaner production methods reduce waste and increase efficiency. Modern technologies help industries grow while reducing pollution. Far from slowing development, these innovations are helping redefine how development happens.

Climate action is therefore not only about reducing emissions. It is about building a more productive economy, healthier communities, and greater resilience to future shocks.

Importantly, climate action also creates opportunities. Restoration projects create jobs. Recycling businesses generate income while cleaning our communities. Renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and environmental innovation are opening new pathways for entrepreneurship and growth.

These investments are helping us move beyond traditional ways of doing things. While many farmers still rely on experience and observation, our ambition is for every farmer to have access to reliable weather forecasts and climate information that improve productivity and reduce risk. As our cities grow, we are working to expand cleaner and more efficient mobility options that improve air quality and enhance quality of life.

In other words, Rwanda's development journey does not require us to choose between economic growth and environmental stewardship. Our challenge—and our opportunity—is to advance both together.

The greatest cost is not acting too soon; it is acting too late. The longer we wait to restore degraded land, adapt to climate change, and invest in sustainable solutions, the more costly those challenges become. We also risk missing opportunities in the rapidly growing green economy.

As we mark World Environment Day, we should recognize that climate action is not somebody else's responsibility. It begins in our homes, our farms, our businesses, and our communities.

Tomorrow morning, when a farmer uses weather information on a mobile phone to decide when to plant, when a commuter boards a clean and efficient bus to work, and when an entrepreneur develops a solution that creates jobs while reducing environmental impacts, they will be helping build the prosperous, resilient, and sustainable Rwanda we aspire to become.

The investments we make today—in our landscapes, our agriculture, our cities, and our people—will bring us closer to a more prosperous, resilient, and sustainable future.

And when millions of those actions come together, they become national transformation.

Happy World Environment Day.

Dr Bernadette Arakwiye is Rwanda's Minister of Environment.