The Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB) has conducted Training-of-Trainers (ToT) workshop for representatives from Musanze, Rubavu, and Nyabihu Districts. The training focuses on developing village-based erosion control action plans under the Volcanoes Community Resilience Project (VCRP), a strategic intervention designed to mitigate climate change impacts and scale up environmental protection across the Volcanoes region and the Vunga corridor.

This participatory planning approach empowers local residents to collectively identify specific erosion bottlenecks within their villages, map high-risk areas, and propose community-led solutions for sustainable land management.

RWB has rolled out this training across 300 additional villages in these districts, building on the 210 villages where action plans have already been successfully mapped. Under the VCRP framework, the long-term target is to establish community-driven erosion control plans in 2,000 villages.

Welcoming the participants, Pamela Ruzigana, the Catchment Restoration and Erosion Control Division Manager at RWB, urged the trainees to fully master the methodology, emphasizing their critical role as catalysts for community implementation.

"You are the cornerstone of this initiative," Ruzigana stated. "The knowledge you acquire here will directly enable your respective communities to effectively design, own, and execute their erosion control action plans."

The VCRP has consistently delivered multi-faceted interventions to curb flooding, control erosion, and uplift community livelihoods. To date, the project has developed 730 hectares of progressive and radical terraces, protected 503 hectares through the excavation of trenches, and planted 1,609 hectares with integrated agroforestry trees. Beyond environmental restoration, the initiative has directly enhanced local livelihoods by distributing 211 cows to vulnerable families, providing 533 rainwater harvesting tanks to households, and creating 4,692 green jobs for local residents.