3.2.9. THE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
People surveyed were proposing the following measures to be
undertaken in order to overcome or to manage the destroyed Gishwati area.
V' Rehabilitation of the Gishwati forest by using the
lost seeds of trees so that they get back their lost services by the forest
such as medicine
V' Hunting and firewood collection prohibition in
Gishwati forest for the survival of different species
V' Terracing around Gishwati forest and use of modern
farming systems in order to fight against the soil erosion and devastating
floods
V' Cultivation of selected seeds which do not
influence conflicts between forest animals and the local population
V' Planting trees on the high mountains surrounding
the forest for water retention and domestic use hence sustainability of the
forest.
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CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
4.1. GENERAL CONCLUSION
Land use change in Rwanda is a very serious phenomenon which
requires an urgent interaction. The direct impacts of this change are more
important and numerous, they affect dairy humans livelihoods and the whole
environment in general.
This change in land use could leads to serious poverty or to
the transfer of mass population towards the favorable regions for their
life.
The main objective of this research was to analyze the
environmental and socio-economic impact of Gishwati forest changes on the local
population. The results revealed that these impacts are more environmental than
socio-economic. Soil erosion and flooding are influencing negatively the
economy of local population and decline the quality of life of these later.
The most impacted part of Gishwati is that which was settled
by the returnees from DRC especially in Ruhango sector as indicated by the
table 4 showing that 25% of interviewees had parcels in the forest, even though
the change began before, it was worsen just after 1994 by the returnees.
A big number of populations have occupied illegally the forest
and use it for different purposes as they had no other enough land out of the
forest to support their life.
These changes had many social consequences linked to the
marginal economy of the population as almost of them practice agriculture. Thus
38% confirmed that effects of these are landslides, 28.3 % highlighted erosion
and flooding as results of forest change and 13.3% confirmed that there are
property losses including roads and houses.
The solution proposed by the population in order to overcome
this problem included tree planting on the steep slopes around the forest which
accounts for about 37, 21 % proposed the forest restoration for recovering the
lost biodiversity and 32 % proposed to do not cultivate in the regions closer
to the forest to prevent the conflicts between forest animals and local
populations.
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The family forestry also may result in the sustainable use or
conservation of Gishwati forest because if each family owns its own forest,
firewood collection will be reduced in this reserve, hence the sustainable
conservation of biodiversity as highlighted by 10% of the respondent.
During our research, the proposed hypotheses have been
verified and almost all of them have been confirmed.
In fact, our study has shown that the impacts which are faced
by the population around Gishwati forest particular but also to the whole
Rwandan environment as this has revealed to accelerate the speed of climate
change.
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