Focus Rwanda
Experiment stations give answers about forests future Will Africa’s tropical forests cope with climate change? This is an area where there is remarkably little research. To learn more, Göran Wallin and Johan Uddling, together with local researchers, have started a project in Rwanda, which includes three unique experiment stations. In early February, the GU Journal visited these stations in Rwanda.
WE ARRIVE IN Kigali at seven-thirty in the evening. Before we get off the plane we are told that plastic bags are banned in Rwanda and must be discarded immediately if we have brought any with us. When we finally leave the airport after a couple of baggage checks, a master’s student, Carl Svensson, is waiting for us. Soon we also see Mao Birgirimana driving the University’s jeep, specially commissioned from Sweden for field studies in Rwanda. We just manage to load all the luggage into the jeep before the rain starts. THIS IS NOT an ordinary rain shower. This is torrential
rain, there is thunder and lightning as Mao drives out of the car park. Rwanda is known as “the land of a thousand hills” and this is especially true for Kigali; the roads go up and down as well as in circles. We drive past the bus
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GUJOURNAL MARCH 2020
