Integrated Watershed Management provides a framework to integrate natural resource management with community livelihoods in a sustainable way.



Irrigation as an example of watershed Management



During a 2 day International Workshop on Modeling and Management of Watersheds, Stanislas Kamanzi, the Minister of Natural resources revealed that the Main objective of this workshop is sharing Information and knowledge and also increasing the understanding and awareness of tools and models in addressing key challenges and opportunities for integrated water resource Management.

Integrated Watershed Management provides a framework to integrate natural resource management with community livelihoods in a sustainable way.

Hon. Minister Stanislas Kamanzi also pointed out that issues of degradation of natural resources, soil erosion, landslides, floods, frequent droughts and desertification, poor water quantity and quality and related resources must be addressed from an integrated watershed management perspective.

He also added that the speed of population growth will cause high demand of water resources and Natural resources the reason why scaling up good watershed management and Modeling practices will help in getting solution for that demand.

In an interview with Journalists, Dr. Michel Masozera from the Wildlife Conservation Society highlighted the importance of Forest in generating water and impacts of deforestation on Watersheds.

He said that forestry is a key factor to address the issue of global warming which is an impact of Climate change.

“According to research findings, Forests play a crucial role in generating water for land use or other economic uses. When there is deforestation there will be also devastating impacts on watersheds” Masozera said.

While explaining the relationship between forests and watershed Management, he said that reforestation as an upstream activity has a positive impacts on streams, lakes and river while defostation will negatively affects those features.

Dr Michel Masozera gave an example of Urugezi Wetland where an increase in water quantity is a result of reforestation activities that took place in different regions surrounding Urugezi wetland.

“We encourage sustainable management of Forests and watersheds due to the fact that they depend on each other and at the end Human beings depend on both of them.” He concluded

The 2 day International workshop on Modeling and Management of Watersheds was organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural resources (MINIRENA).

Participants to this workshop were conservationists as well as water resource managers from different countries of the region, together with experts from renowned institutions such as the US Forest Services.