Progressive terraces and agroforestry shield Bugesera’s most vulnerable lake

By Elias HAKIZIMANA.

Lake Cyohoha, one of Bugesera’s most fragile water bodies, has spent years battling severe degradation. Hillsides around the lake were once stripped bare by poor farming practices and unregulated livestock grazing.

With no trees, no terraces, and no structures to slow runoff, every rainfall carried tons of soil straight into the lake. Pollution increased, water life suffered, and the ecosystem around Cyohoha began to collapse.

The impacts were devastating. Communities experienced declining soil fertility, crop failures, long dry spells, and worsening poverty. The land meant to sustain families was instead eroding into the lake, threatening both human livelihoods and aquatic biodiversity.

Today, change is visible along Cyohoha’s slopes. Through the RESTORE Project implemented by Ripple Effect Rwanda, families are adopting land restoration techniques that are slowly bringing the landscape back to life.

Among the most transformative practices are progressive terraces—cut across hillsides to slow water flow, trap soil, and allow moisture to sink into the ground. These terraces, now visible across Ruhuha and Nyarugenge sectors, have become the backbone of erosion control in the area.

Alongside terraces, households are planting agroforestry and fodder trees, digging water retention pits, and increasing vegetation cover across farms. Species such as grevillea, kakamega, and calliandra now stabilize soil, protect crops, and provide organic matter and livestock fodder. These interventions work together to reduce runoff, restore soil structure, and shield Lake Cyohoha from the sediment that once choked it.

For Godfrey Rukeribuga from Nyagakombe Village, the difference is personal and visible.

“The dry season used to destroy everything and floods washed soil straight into the lake,” he says.

With training, he established water-retention pits, planted over 300 grevillea trees, and incorporated mulch and manure techniques to rebuild the soil. “What was barren land is now recovering,” he says proudly.

In Ruhuha Sector, 54-year-old Dative Uwitonze turned her degraded land into a regenerative landscape. Her household planted fruit and agroforestry trees, established progressive terraces, and now works collectively to maintain soil and moisture-holding structures.

“These trees and terraces protect our land and the lake,” she says.

The RESTORE Project currently supports 1,000 households directly and more than 3,000 indirectly within the Cyohoha wetland buffer zone. The emphasis on restoration, rather than just production has helped communities understand that protecting the lake begins on the farms and hillsides surrounding it. When terraces, trees, and water pits multiply, the lake breathes again.

Local authorities say the change is reshaping environmental stewardship.

“We now see families actively fighting erosion, rehabilitating slopes, and planting trees to protect Lake Cyohoha,” says Innocent Kazungu, Executive Secretary of Nyarugenge Sector.

Where soil once rushed unchecked into the lake, terraces now slow the water. Where bare hills once fed erosion, thick lines of agroforestry trees now hold the slopes. The lake that was slowly dying is beginning to recover, restored by the very communities that depend on it.

In Bugesera, regeneration is no longer theory. It is happening in the soil, on the hills, and at the edge of Lake Cyohoha, proving that environmental recovery is possible when households restore the land that sustains them.