Current vulnerability in the Virunga landscape, Rwanda

Between 2011 and 2012, a regional baseline assessment to analyse vulnerability was conducted in five landscapes of the Congo Basin as part of the ‘Climate Change and Forests in the Congo Basin: Synergies between Adaptation and Mitigation (COBAM)’ project.

The Virunga landscape covers an area of 15 155 km² around Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda along the borders of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Several national parks have been established in this area because of the unique and diverse ecosystems. Most of the land outside the protected areas is used for agriculture. In addition to subsistence agriculture, coffee, tea, cocoa and pyrethrum plantations are prominent land uses, with grasslands making up a small percentage of the area.

The vulnerability assessment focused on current vulnerability, which includes an analysis of both past trends and present conditions. In particular, the analysis considers the social aspects of vulnerability, understanding it as a process rooted in the actions of human actors and their interactions with the natural resource base on which they depend.

The analysis shows that different climate‑related disturbances affect different groups, natural resources and activities differently. For agricultural activities, the impacts on the soil (e.g. removal of arable land following landslides), on plants (e.g. uprooting or damage of growing plants) and on production were differentiated through a participatory exercise with a group of non‑Batwa women. The results showed that the direct consequences of an event, such as flooding of the fields hampering access and work in the field, can be mitigated, thus leading to smaller final impacts on well‑being or income.

The results show that Batwa groups perceive themselves as being more severely affected by destructive disturbances, such as strong winds, which destroy houses, fields and produce, compared with non‑Batwa groups. The community‑based natural resource management plan identifies the Batwa as a distinct group around the park for ‘their extreme poverty compared to the other members of the community, and the magnitude of their dependency on and interaction with the park’. Moreover, the restriction of access to the park has led to the displacement of those communities living outside of the park. Despite a few initiatives to rehouse them, most of the Batwa live in poor and flimsy housing.

Pilot projects, such as those supported by the COBAM project, could lay the foundations for longer‑term solutions, as long as there is systematic learning that enables reflection and refinement along the way. This will require mechanisms to support the learning process and enable experimenting, monitoring and improving over time.

The insights generated through the vulnerability baseline assessment in the Virunga landscape will be combined with more in‑depth research to explore future vulnerability and to identify synergies between mitigation and adaptation in the project sites. Results from further analyses and evaluation of future strategies will be used to generate recommendations to inform decision‑making and planning at local and national levels across vulcountries in the Congo Basin.

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