On 19/04/2018, a mini workshop was held in the premises of the liaison office of the Burundian Office for Environmental Protection (OBPE), a mini workshop to validate the guide to raise awareness among stakeholders on the application of the forest code and the law on protected areas in Burundi. It is part of the Program for Research, Information Exchange, Awareness and Conservation of Biodiversity under the funding of CEBios. Present in this mini workshop were OBPE executives and some professors from the Department of Biology of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Burundi.

 

This mini workshop started with an opening statement from the Director General of OBPE, Dr. Samuel NDAYIRAGIJE. At the beginning of his speech, he mentioned the threats that forests are facing all over the world and in particular in Burundi despite their important role in climate regulation and other services they provide to human beings. To counter this decline in forests, he said, the government has put in place the forest code and the law on the creation of protected areas. He took this opportunity to talk briefly about the content of these two laws that have already been enacted. Despite the existence of these laws, the absence of popularization tools to raise awareness in the protection of biodiversity means that forests are subject to threats that are still being witnessed. It is within this framework that a guide to raise awareness among stakeholders on the application of the forest code and the law on protected areas in Burundi was developed to enable the implementation of these laws already in place.

He ended his remarks by thanking the participants for their presence inviting them to give their contributions for the validation of this document.

 

The speech of the Director General of OBPE was followed by a presentation by the designer of the guide in the person of FOFO Alphonse. He began his presentation by saying that although laws had been enacted, they had not been implemented satisfactorily as threats to forest resources were still present throughout the country. Guidance is needed for these laws to be implemented. He took this opportunity to inform participants that this guide was designed as part of the program of research, information exchange, awareness-raising and conservation of biodiversity to encourage stakeholders to make decisions in favor of biodiversity. Indeed, there is an abuse in the use of natural (forest) resources.

 

He continued his presentation by talking about the two laws already in place, namely the forest code and the law on the establishment of protected areas, whose role was to regulate the use and exploitation of forest resources (FRs) in decline in their respective ecosystems. He then reviewed the two laws mentioning that the forest code is structured in 8 titles and 127 articles of varying importance and he placed particular emphasis on title 6, which talks about forest financial resources. He thus indicated that the application of Title 6 could generate revenue for the nation. Speaking about the law on protected areas, he showed that the latter is only structured in 4 titles and 5 articles of unequal importance. He took this opportunity to inform participants that these laws did not take into account the participation of all stakeholders and therefore their implementation was not effective. He ended his presentation with the various approaches that could allow the implementation of these two laws.

After this presentation, an exchange and discussion session followed during which the document was analyzed and censored.

 

 

This mini workshop was closed by Mr. MASABO Onesphore from OBPE with a word of thanks to the participants for the work done and called on the designers (resource persons) of this guide (Messrs Alphonse FOFO and Damien NINDORERA) to take into consideration the corrections and suggestions of the participants. The document was validated with the integration of comments and corrections.

During this mini-workshop, the following recommendations were made:

-Taking into account the gradual disappearance of protected areas, it was recommended to talk in the guide about the area and trend of afforestation;

-Since this guide is a wake-up call for the preservation of biodiversity, it was recommended to add photos to the guide illustrating threats to biodiversity;

• It was recommended to include in the guide the guidelines for the good conservation of biodiversity in Burundi;
• In view of the threats to biodiversity in Burundi, it was recommended to add to the guide some realities of the country in relation to the conservation of biodiversity in Burundi;
• Recognizing that forest resources are sufficiently threatened, it was recommended to think of other alternatives that could facilitate conservation (products that could be used instead of coal and firewood);
• It was also recommended that a critical analysis of the laws and the current context be carried out;
• It was also recommended to propose alternatives to overcome the problem of cutting wood by manufacturing coal (use of gas, improved stoves);
• In view of the threats to forest resources, it was recommended that alternative energy sources and the issue of scaffolding be included in the document as another cause of the permanent harvesting of forest resources;
• Since adults do not fully understand the importance of biodiversity, it was recommended to change the situation and teach younger people through environmental clubs about the importance of biodiversity and its protection.