The national forests custodian, Rwanda Forestry Authority/ RFA in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and GIZ developed a revolutionary web-based portal that serves to effortlessly manage and monitor nursery beds and all tree planting activities remotely.   The portal dubbed Reforestation Tracker aims to ensure the assessment, monitoring and evaluation of all trees, forests and restored landscapes in Rwanda by providing adequate information from afar.

The national forests custodian in Rwanda hosted a two-day participatory training from the 6th to the 7th of February at the Digital Transformation Center based in Rwanda's capital city- Kigali.   

The gathering left participants including the staff of the Rwanda Forestry Authority, and their stakeholders equipped with the knowledge and skills to operate the system and familiar with tracking individual partner’s contributions to the forest and landscape reforestation during and after every tree planting period.

’’ I am impressed with this innovative approach that the Rwanda Forestry Authority has adopted so far. I could hardly identify forest areas that require urgent attention with ease, but with this creative notion, I am confident that I will triple my achievement in conserving forests within the upcoming seasons, ‘’ Aimable Nsengimana, a District Forest Officer at Nyanza District revealed his heartfelt after the training, adding that the technology will simplify the tracking of interventions areas for reforestation during and after planting season.

The reforestation tracker looks to facilitate the Rwanda Forestry Authority and the Ministry of Environment to track all nursery beds and production capacity within the country and perceive the progress of all tree planting initiatives across the country by verifying the available seedlings in the government and other partners’ nursery beds, and the planted areas in hectares across the country.

‘’Rwanda Forest Tree tracker is powered by a low code tool entitled Joget.  It allows quick deployment of all our operational activities. It is maintained by RISA (Rwanda Information Society Authority) frequently, and follows the digital registries building block of Govstack; an initiative with a mission to accelerate Government digital services,’’ Aime Munyaneza, a Digital Government Advisor at GIZ Rwanda, explained, adding that the system will ease tracking of the number of seedlings produced across the country from government agencies, partners, and other relevant stakeholders.  

'’We are working hard to halve gaps that impeded forest protection and growth in Rwanda over the past years by decentralizing our endeavors to districts and sector schemes.  I urge you to familiarize yourselves with this latest technology because this is the real investment that will lead us to provide an effective and efficient response.  At RFA, we make a democratic decision, notably, when it comes to our mandate for rekindling and safeguarding our natural ecosystem. Therefore, we anticipate your complete dedication and commitment to building a mega-bridge with us that will support us in this prestigious journey to save our mother earth planet,’’ Dr. Concorde Nsengumuremyi, Director General of Rwanda Forestry Authority concluded the training, adding that all stakeholders will be able to fill in their information regarding their intervention areas to be restored and total number of seedlings they intend to plant each year.   

Recall that Rwanda Forestry Authority was established to implement policies, laws, strategies, and Government decisions related to the management of forests, prepare programs of re-afforestation, forest promotion and appropriate management and support districts in the management of forest resources, advise the Government, monitor and coordinate the implementation of strategies related to the management of forests resources, assist public and private institutions in charge of management of forests in a bid to fight erosion.