Wild edible mushrooms are part of the non-wood forest products that humans have always collected from the wild and are used as food supplements because of their richness in trace elements, vitamins and proteins. Although they are of paramount importance, their productivity is not yet known until today. It is in this context that a study was conducted.

set up by the National Institute for Environment and Nature Conservation (INECN) and the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium (IRSCnb), a partnership agreement was concluded in 2010 by these two institutions. The study area concerned by the research is the Rumonge Forest Nature Reserve.

The methodology used was to select 4 square spaces of 30mx30m. The vegetation in these sites must be homogeneous with adult trees characteristic of this forest.

The harvest was done 2 times a week, Monday and Tuesday, by collecting all the edible mushrooms in the tray and by allowing 1 m outside on each side of the tray. The mushrooms collected were counted and weighed species by species. After the weighings, the following steps of description and drying were carried out as well as the preservation of the specimens in hermetically sealed plastic bags.

	During this study, surveys were carried out among the populations living near the Rumonge open forest. Through these surveys, we should know how the population distinguishes edible wild mushrooms from inedible ones, on what substrate this or that other species grows, at what time of the year do mushrooms grow abundantly, in which month of the year this or that other species appears.

These surveys also provided information on preservation techniques, the marketing of edible mushrooms, cooking, consumption and also their uses for medicinal purposes for indicative purposes and to name but a few. In the study area, mushrooms are cooked more or less 10 minutes after removing the dust on the stipe and in the strips. After cooking, they can be eaten with cassava legs, rice, etc.

Mushrooms are very useful to the population living near the forest. They are both food and a source of income. A significant number of people are encountered in the forest with buckets full of mushrooms. The marketing of wild edible mushrooms is an activity that generates significant income for households.

After the field work, microscopic observations were made in the laboratory of the Burundian Office for Environmental Protection (OBPE). The objective of these observations was to observe the shape and size of the spores of the harvested samples in order to identify the specific characteristics of each of the samples collected.