User:Breanna.hess/sandbox



Gishwati Forest is a protected reserve in the north-western part of Rwanda, not far from Lake Kivu. The reserve’s forests were largely intact in 1978, and substantial forest cover still remained in 1986. During the Rwandan Genocide, wave after wave of refugees arrived in Gishwati Forest and began clearing it, often for subsistence farming. By 2001, only a small circular patch of native forest remained, 1500 acre of the forest’s original 250,000. In addition to tremendous loss of biodiversity, the region experiences soil erosion and degradation and landslides. Reforestation efforts in the past few years have increased the remnant native forest to about 2500 acre. Large tea estates occupy the central and northern parts of the reserve.

History
THIS IS HISTORY

Conservation
What remains of the Gishwati Forest is home to a stargering amount of endemic endangered species such as chimpanzees

Plant-It 2020
In 2011 Plant-It 2020 gave Great Ape Trust and the Gishwati Area Conservation Program a grant to plant 1,000 native trees in and around the Gishwati National Forest in western Rwanda. Plant-It 2020 is a nonprofit international reforestation foundation that was founded by the late singer John Denver.

Corridor Project
A 10,000 acre corridor We are proposing to establish a 10,000 acre “corridor” of newly planted native trees between the Gishwati Forest and Nyungwe National Park, about 30 miles to the south.