Descriptions

The Regreening Africa Programme, funded by the European Union, was implemented in Rwanda from 2017 until early 2023 by World Vision and CIFOR-ICRAF. Under the programme, the Regreening App was developed by CIFOR-ICRAF and used in three districts in the country for data collection. The Regreening App is a mobile based Android application that helps users to collect data on land restoration activities within farms, also enabling enhanced monitoring of activities across a landscape or project area, resulting in a smooth and Near Real Time (NRT) monitoring and reporting of activities. The need identified by the Rwanda Forestry Authority was to have a tool to collect data on agroforestry and restoration practices in the country and the capacity to clean this data and have it presented in one platform. This would allow accurate monitoring and verification for reporting on multiple restoration and climate targets and commitments. Additionally, the app data and the dashboard could provide valuable and reliable information for planning interventions and identifying priority areas both by government and non-government stakeholders.

In this project CIFOR-ICRAF works to “enhance the capacity of the government of Rwanda to monitor and report its actions related to NDCs”. This project focuses on (i) building a strong evidence base of agroforestry practices in Rwanda through compiling existing data and citizen-science data collected through using the Regreening App, (ii) developing and implementing the Rwanda Agroforestry Dashboard as a user-friendly platform that will integrate the data collected using citizen-science with spatial assessment of soil and land health nationally, (iii) obtaining more accurate statistics on the area under agroforestry, including types of agroforestry practices, and assess the contribution of agroforestry to land restoration in Rwanda, and (iv) establishing a robust system for monitoring agroforestry interventions and their contribution to the national land restoration targets. This action builds on the two ongoing EU actions i.e., “Regreening Africa” and “Development of Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture, DeSIRA”, related to land restoration in Rwanda, and aim to sustain their legacy and impact on the countries’ post 2020 climate actions.