Local Partner: Association Natural Resources Protection for the Well-being of the Population in Burundi (APRN/BEPB)
Bacground and objective: The hunter-gatherer communities (such as the Batwa), have been amongst the most neglected communities in the entire continent. Many of them have had their ancestral homes in the forests and with recent calls for conserving of forests, they have been termed as the destroyers of these forests and hence suffered mass evictions with no consultations or preparations done nor evacuated to new homes/lands. They are often the victims of serious illnesses and diseases because of their vulnerability brought about by extreme poverty levels. They have lost access to critical food and medicinal plants that can only be accessed in the forest. They have been left out of media and other campaigns that would build their capacity to address some of the health challenges they face.
Building their resilience to diseases is critical for Batwa peoples to regain confidence, the ability to work and produce for their families and communities and have a renewed sense of dignity.
The implementation of this initiative has led to the production of a document describing the main medicinal plants used by the Batwa of the commune of Mutumba in traditional medicine; the creation of a garden of these medicinal plants in situ; the creation of 65 vegetable gardens for 65 households in the Batwa community of Mubaragaza hill in the commune of Mutumba, as well as cabbage, onion of amaranths and eggplants were transplanted in the vegetable gardens by the members of the Batwa community of the hill of Mubaragaza and hoes and watering cans for the maintenance of the vegetable gardens were distributed to 65 Batwa households of the hill of Mubaragaz.
Local partner information:
APRN was created in the framework of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit) held in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since its creation, the APRN / BEPB has already implemented more than 25 projects with the support of several donors such as Land is Life, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), World Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Program / Global Environment Fund, French Global Environment Fund (FEFM), Critical Ecosystem Partnership (CEPF), United States Embassy in Burundi,.
