Lake Kivu, Rwanda © Heidi Martin

In a rain-fed agrarian economy where poverty and food insecurity are rife, climate change sharpens its claws for potentially devastating impact. Any reduction in rainfall will damage farm yields whilst extreme or torrential downpours will hasten the process of soil erosion. Rwanda’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) published in 2007 was bound to conclude that a great proportion of the population is highly vulnerable to climate change with very limited capacity for adaptation. Priorities for action are identified as the development of an integrated water management strategy, early warning systems for weather patterns and the use of adaptable crop varieties.

The most urgent need identified in the NAPA is to put a stop to the almost universal use of firewood for cooking, as the loss of trees is exposing soils to erosion and negating government efforts at reforestation. Expansion of hydropower is difficult as river levels are already falling whilst other renewable sources such as solar are prohibitively expensive. Rwanda’s hopes for an energy revolution are pinned on the innovative exploitation of methane trapped in Lake Kivu – some estimates suggest that this source could upgrade the country’s capacity by a factor of ten.

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