Search

The main intention of this study was to assess the solid waste management challenges and their impacts on people’s livelihood. Specifically, the study evaluated the methods and techniques used for waste collection, transportation and deposit to the landfill by households, and companies in Kinyinya sector. A survey was conducted to collect data from household, waste collection company and field. Household waste collection, transportation and deposit illustrated different challenges which impede the sustainable treatment and disposal of waste. Findings pointed out poor deposit of wastes, failure to pay waste collection fees, poor assessment before selecting waste landfill and poor working condition of companies in charge of waste collection, transportation as the major challenges toward waste management in Kinyinya. The findings illustrated that only 33.25% of households separated decay from undecayed waste and 66.75% couldn’t perform such activities. The findings indicated that members of some households suffered waste borne diseases from poor waste management. The linear correlation coefficient has shown 84.5% of correlation level between waste management challenges and people’s livelihood (r = 0.845) and this correlation is statistically significant. Thus, poor waste management is one among factors of poor people’s livelihood. The adaptation of segregation of waste at the household, strengthening company capacity and training workers at the landfill would save life and reduce exposure of both household and landfill workers.

Pesticides and inorganic fertilizers applied in agriculture are key factors which affect biodiversity, especially bees, butterfly and other pollinators. Therefore, this study assessed the effects of farming practices on honey production in boundary of Gishwati Forest National Park in Rwanda. Survey was conducted to collect data from 2000 year to 2018 year from 51 members grouped in UNICOAPIGI beekeeping and 73 members of JYAMBERE agricultural cooperatives to establish the impact of agriculture practice on honey production. The results showed that the change in agricultural inputs from 2000 to 2018 (R2 = 0.901) resulted in high corn yield and consequently induced honey reduction (R2 = 0.75). The correlation coefficients for pesticides and inorganic fertilizers used in corn production had strong negative effects on honey production {γ3 = -0.06 for chemical fertilizers (X3) and γ4 = -0.42 for pesticides (X4)}. JYAMBERE Agricultural cooperative with 75.78% of farmers reported that they used pesticides and inorganic fertilizers in corn production. However, 51 beekeepers grouped in UNICOAPIGI cooperative reported a serious decline of honey production from 27 Kg to 6 Kg of honey per hive after the 2008 year, which is suspected to be mainly the effect from applications of pesticides and fertilizers in corn production. The findings illustrated that the roles of honeybees as pollinator exposed them to toxic, especially pesticides applied in agriculture in boundary of Gishwati national forest reserve, therefore, beekeepers proposed that protection of forests and park is not only sufficient to reach sustainable conservation of bee biodiversity but also requires determining the land use pattern and socio-political factors around the Gishwati forest reserve.

— Community based-tourism (CBT) is both an integrated approach and a collaborative tool for socio-economic empowerment of communities through the development and marketing of natural and cultural community resources to add value to the experience of local and foreign visitors and simultaneously improve the level of the community. But there is lack of clear approaches to measure performances of CBTs, thus meaning that how they enhance socio-economic livelihoods of local communities and conserve protected areas is difficult to measure in both quantitative and qualitative terms. This study assessed the performance of Community Based Tourism on the socio-economic lives of local community around Volcanoes National Park, and it specifically 1) profiled and examined the performance of existing CBT ventures, 2) the factors affecting community-based tourism development around Volcanoes National Park and 3) the contribution of CBTs on social and economic lives of the local community. The methods used for data collection were sampling, key informant interviews, surveys, focus group discussions, observation and use of secondary data. Data was analysed using SPSS to generate descriptive information and further strata analysis was used. The study recommends that for Rwanda to achieve its goal of harnessing tourism for its vision 2050 the local communities around Volcanoes National Park should be empowered to embrace community-based tourism as an alternative to farming and fishing to improve their livelihood income.