BUJUMBURA, May 27th (ABP) – The national coordinator of the Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project (PRRPB), Odette Kayitesi, said on Thursday 23 May at a meeting to prepare the Burundi Hills Climate Resilience Project (PRCCB) that the PRRPB had achieved satisfactory results.
According to Mrs Kayitesi, the PRRPB project has been implemented on 31 hills in three provinces, namely Bujumbura in the Isare commune, Kayanza in the Matongo commune and Muyinga in the Buhinyuza commune, as well as in the Kibira park, the Ruvubu park and the Bururi forest nature reserve. She went on to say that the project focused on developing watersheds by tracing contours and planting vegetation, land certification, reforestation, the distribution of intra-agricultural products, restocking cattle herds and protecting nature reserves. The activities of that project will end in September that year, but they will continue with the new PRCCB project, which will work in eight provinces, including the 3 remaining PRRPB provinces in the hills, and in five new provinces, namely Kirundo, Cibitoke, Bururi, Rumonge and Gitega.
That new project will be carried out on 65 hills and 71 sub-watersheds to restore the landscapes on a large scale, and above all to tackle the climatic resilience of those hills to enable the population to withstand climatic hazards, whether high rainfall or prolonged drought.
Ms Kayitesi went on to say that the activities we will be carrying out are almost identical to those carried out under the PRRPB project, except that at present we will be building the capacity, especially of public institutions working in soil protection, but also in the fight against climate change. So, there will be collaboration with several state institutions, the private sector and research institutions to be able to grasp the issues of climate change,” she emphasised, adding that the PRCCB will be working with the Burundi Office for the Protection of the Environment (OBPE) on the sub-components of protected area management. They will continue to support the guardians of those areas, she reassured, and strengthen their capacities by providing them with training and materials so that they are in a position to contribute to the preservation of those protected areas, in collaboration with other institutions, especially the territorial administration.
She said that the PRRPB project was implemented with 36,000,000 US dollars provided by the World Bank, while the PRCCB project will be implemented with 70,000,000 US dollars also provided by the same Bank.