About Us – KungaBu

Who we are?

Background

Association Rwandaise des Ecologistes / Rwandan Association of Ecologists (ARECO) is an environmental and development organization founded in 1991 by people concerned with environment degradation in Rwanda that was characterized mainly by soil erosion and land degradation, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, climate change, water and air pollution, etc.

The term “RWANDA NZIZA” was added to “ARECO” to express the founders commitment to contribute to making Rwanda “more beautiful”, the literal translation of “NZIZA” in native language Kinyarwanda.

ARECO–RWANDA NZIZA was granted legal entity by the Ministerial decree n° 119/05 on the 5th of April, 1992 which was revised by the Ministerial decree n° 180/11 on the 11th of December, 2008. ARECO-RWANDA NZIZA is currently registered as National Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB).

ARECO extends its activities all over the country, with a special emphasis on zones with high risk of degradation (mountains, natural forests, lakes, etc.)

Vision

To create a healthy environment and viable ecosystems providing ecological, economic and social benefits to people and nations through enabling policies and participatory management of natural resources taking into account gender and inclusion of social groups.

Mission

To promote sustainable development through environment protection, biodiversity conservation and natural resource management for resilience of ecosystems and communities.

Our Approach

ARECO-RWANDA NZIZA use a participatory approach in order to involve other stakeholders in all the processes of its interventions especially projects implemented on the ground.

Grassroots communities who are beneficiaries but also implementers of field interventions are involved in project design to base on their needs and perspectives.
Participation of women and men, girls and boys is a priority to ensure gender consideration.
Establishment of partnership and collaboration frameworks is a strategy to create confidence building with Community groups and synergies with key actors such as NGOs, Research Institutions, Private Sector, Districts of operation, line Ministries, Authorities and Boards.