Socio-Economics of Adoption of Agroforestry-Based Landscape Restoration Practices in the Eastern Province, Rwanda

Land degradation has long been a major environmental problem in Rwanda (Byiringiro and Reardon, 1996; Roose and Ndayizeye, 1997; Oslo and Berry, 2004), which has made it one of the countries that are mostly affected by soil degradation and predominated by soil erosion by water (Karamage et al., 2016). In additional to soil erosion and deforestation, high demand of forest products (e.g. timber, wood, charcoal…) led to poor harvesting practices and over exploitation of forest particularly in private owned forests. Studies (e.g. Ndayambaje et al., 2013a, Ndayambaje et al., 2013b; Iiyama et al., 2018; MoE, 2019b) indicated that the adoption of agroforestry remains low in the Eastern Province compared to other regions of the country; and still, the main question about “Despite its benefits, why does the adoption of agroforestry continue to be very low in the Eastern Province?” remains unanswered. This is an updated and comprehensive study that focuses on this particular region in order to better understand, not only social and economic factors, but also institutional and environmental drivers and/or causes of low adoption of all available agroforestry practices in this region.