Community members advised to plant more indigenous trees

Monday, September 27th, 2021 | By

In a bid to prevent the extinction of indigenous trees, Rwanda Community Green Radio listeners group has been argued to plant more indigenous trees. 

Allan Kalangi, the Sustainability School Programme’s Manager at National Association of Professional Environmentalists-NAPE says most community members are turning to growing exotic trees due to their commercial benefits, abandoning ingenious trees, something that could lead to the extinction of the latter if not checked.

“Much as we need to plant exotic trees for commercial purposes, we need to continue growing our indigenous trees for their medicinal, water shed and ecosystem purposes and ensure they do not vanish. Indigenous trees are as important as exotic trees. Grow them on a large scale to keep them in existence,” said Kalangi.

In the meeting held at Rwanda village, Gogonya Parish in Kibiga Sub county Kiboga district, Kalangi stressed that with high levels of deforestation resulting from cutting down trees for timber, agricultural activities and bush burning, indigenous trees are likely to extinct.

 “We encourage local communities to continue growing indigenous tree species in their ranches and gardens,” said Kalangi adding that the Radio will continue sensitizing local communities on the dangers of deforestation; a vice that has led to bad effects of climate change.

This came after Nagayi Vensus a community group member gave testimony of how Soursop (Ekitafeli) the indigenous fruit helped her cure a fellow community member from breast cancer.

Ms. Nagayi said Soursop fruit is an immune booster with a number of phytonutrients that are highly effective at destroying cancer cells, chronic diseases and boasting immunity.

“It was one day when my friend was feeling pain in the breast and I gave her a try at Soursop that I had planted after I heard it on radio in one of the programs. After a while, she told me she was fine which forced me to plant more and now the community treats me as a doctor forgetting that I used Indigenous tree to heal the disease,” Nagayi said.

Nagayi called upon community members to plant trees that help in many aspects like medicine and food.

“The nutrients help to boast the body’s immunity to fight infections,” she said.