26.01.2026
Sub-project of the DFG Research Unit
“A Social-Ecological Systems Approach to Inform Ecosystem Restoration in Rural Africa”, kicked-off the Living Lab in Rutsiro District, western Rwanda on February 25th, 2025.
The workshops aimed to establish a roundtable and define two governance models for the Living Lab. The workshop participants have been selected after a stakeholder network analysis, which was conducted in 2024, to identify restoration players in the region.
42 participants from academia, various governmental and non-governmental institutions and local communities, including farmers, carpenters, traditional healers, beekeepers, discussed opportunities and challenges for the current, mid-term and long-term restoration in Rutsiro. The stakeholder workshop took place in the Gihango Sector in Rutsiro District where the Living Lab experiments are to be conducted on farmland in Teba and Shyembe administrative cells and was followed by field visits to the Living Lab sites. Individual visits were also arranged to see how some smallholder farmers have integrated food plants such as Chayote, Passion fruit, Avocado, Pineapple and Cucumber into agroforestry systems.
The ongoing process covers the co-design of field trials, definition of impact areas, delineation and registration of demonstration sites and the development of social-ecological success indicators.
