The Gishwati-Mukura reforestation project began as a school assignment. A biology teacher in Musanze asked her students to plant ten trees each on degraded hillside land near the school. They planted 3,000.
That was 2019. Today, the project spans four districts, involves 47 schools, and has put 1.2 million trees in the ground. The children don't just plant — they monitor growth, test soil health, track rainfall patterns, and submit quarterly reports to the Rwanda Environment Management Authority.
In 2023, the government did something unprecedented: it granted the student network formal stewardship rights over the forest. The children — some as young as ten — are now legally responsible for 4,000 hectares of reborn land. They take the job seriously. So does the land.