Climate Mitigation effective and environmental conservation
The initiative addresses soil erosion, landslides, declining soil fertility, and food insecurity caused by increased rainfall intensity and climate variability, particularly in Rwanda’s hilly regions. These problems threaten agricultural livelihoods, infrastructure, and household resilience.
Local people were actively involved through community meetings, Umuganda activities, and consultations with farmers’ cooperatives and village leaders. Community members contributed local knowledge on land use, rainfall patterns, and suitable crops. They participated in deciding where terraces and agroforestry systems would be established and provided labor for construction and maintenance, which strengthened ownership and accountability.
The initiative has led to reduced soil erosion and runoff, improved soil fertility, higher crop yields, and better food security. It has also lowered the risk of landslides, increased household incomes, and reinforced cooperation among community members. Overall, it has improved climate resilience at the local level.
In Rwanda, traditional and indigenous practices that support climate adaptation include terracing and contour farming, mixed cropping and intercropping, agroforestry, traditional water-harvesting trenches, and collective labor systems such as Umuganda and Ubudehe. These practices help manage water, protect soil, and support food production under variable climate conditions.
These practices remain effective, particularly for erosion control and moisture conservation, but extreme rainfall and prolonged dry spells now exceed what traditional methods alone can handle. As a result, they are increasingly combined with modern approaches such as improved seeds, fertilizers, climate information services, and extension support. Some practices are still widely used, while others are declining due to social and economic changes.
Traditional practices are closely connected to local values of collective responsibility, respect for land, and mutual support. They are part of community identity and have historically been passed down through families and elders. Losing these practices also means losing important cultural knowledge.
Under the Locally Led Adaptation framework, these practices can be integrated by involving communities in decision-making, financing locally defined priorities, blending indigenous knowledge with scientific climate data, and recognizing local institutions as key actors. Monitoring should reflect local definitions of success, not only external indicators.
Barriers to sustaining or reviving these practices include policy preference for modern solutions, youth migration, generational knowledge loss, dependence on external aid, land fragmentation, and weak documentation of indigenous knowledge.
Climate-smart agriculture initiatives in Rwanda show that integrating traditional practices such as terracing and agroforestry with modern extension services and technologies can successfully address climate risks.
In response to a peer example on traditional flood-control systems, both cases show that strong community participation, local ownership, and low-cost, labor-based solutions are critical for success. These approaches can complement each other through shared learning and improved maintenance strategies under increasing climate extremes.