Community Based Organisations in Environment Conservation Endeavours in Rwanda

Abstract

One of the key challenges facing humankind in the contemporary society is the manner in which natural resource conservation can be made to go hand in hand with any given community‟s development. Inspite of their long historical interaction with ecosystems, neighbouring communities have contributed to endangering their equilibrium through the incompatibility between conservation and their productive practices as Hernandez observed (2013). In the 1970s, conservationists realised that many conservation efforts around the world were failing in their mission of wildlife conservation (Hackel, 2009).Hence, claimed the said the failure was due to lack of support for conservation by local community. Therefore, Community conservation was then initiated as an approach to be used with a view to gaining communities‟ support for conservation efforts. Ecological preservation is a basic practice in securing the earth, an individual, organisational or government levels, for the advantage of the common habitat and (or) people (Otto et al., 2013). Environmental conservation is important because natural resources can easily become depleted for example forests and plants as noted by Ninan(2012). Besides, there are other benefits associated with environmental conservation that include preventing global warming which is connected to ozone-depleting emissions among other benefits such as management of water catchment areas. Environmental conservation also helps in guarding food supplies and plummeting air temperature and toxins from the environment. In addition, the increase in population over the time, the environment has voluntarily been influenced by the Abstract: The present study was conducted with a view to understanding the contribution of community based organisations towards conservation of environment in Rwanda, with Sabyinyo Community Livelihood Association (SACOLA) of Kinigi Sector, Musanze District. Descriptive research cum case study research designs were adopted for the study. The target population was 800 comprising SACOLA community members. The representative sample size was represented by 10% (80) of the target population and purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents for the study. Primary data was collected from the respondents through the use of questionnaires whereas secondary data was collected through the use of content analysis method. The obtained data was presented in forms of tables, figures, graphs, pie charts, percentages, and averages and analysed through the use of SPSS – Version 21. Findings of the study indicate that SACOLA conducted moblisation activities with the aim of sensitising, training and educating communities in the selected area of the present study and its environs on the importance of environment conservation besides creating awareness regarding causes that were related to the mission and vision of the organisation. SACOLA help in the implementation of environment conservation practices by ensuring that natural resources in the area were well utilised, firms adhered to environment conservation measures and through partnerships with other governmental conservation agencies. SACOLAs projects were well planned and executed. There were negative correlations between SACOLA’s roles: community mobilisation efforts; implementation of environmental conservation practices and monitoring and evaluation and environmental conservation indicators in Kinigi Sector. The study recommends that SACOLA should find appropriate and applicable ways of ensuring socioeconomic growth among its member and directed its energy towards the formation of self-help groups which could then help in adding value to the endeavours directed towards conservation of environment