Striving for restoration of wetlands functions and values in the City of Kigali

Abstract— This work aimed to present the commitment of the Government of Rwanda of relocating all illegal activities from wetlands in the framework of environmental protection; to highlights human activities established into wetlands of Kigali City and their categories; and to mention some initiatives of restoration. Its scope is limited to governmental policies presentation and analysis, to the presentation of different activities that degrade wetlands in the City of Kigali and to highlight some initiatives for restoration. Documentation, camera and field survey were used in data collection and ArcGIS 10.2 was used as software for spatial analysis and presentation and the survey covered all districts of the City of Kigali. Activities that harm wetlands include: residential home, commercial activities, industrial activities, parking, garages, ware houses, carpentry and welding workshops, dumping sites, bricks burning, petrol stations, carwash, schools, health centers, worship houses, domestic animal growing and play grounds. Relocation of these activities is the enforcement of the environmental law and the government commitment to environment management. Some of these activities were legally established and their relocation has to be compensated and those illegally established will not be compensated. Many of these wetlands will be left into conservation in order to recover their functions of storing and releasing water and buffering the impacts of floods; providing habitat for plants and animals; providing water storage, improve water quality and reduce pollution, etc. Some few other will be made up into recreational areas like Nyandungu Recreational Park, Kimicanga Entertainment Center and Gikondo wetland parks