Madeleine Nyiratuza is the President of Forest of Hope Association (www.fharwanda.org), a Rwandan NGO that focuses on conservation of the Gishwati-Mukura National Park in Rwanda. She is an experienced professional in the field of biodiversity conservation; protected areas creation and management and natural forest restoration. She also has extensive research experience in ecosystem health-agriculture development- human wellbeing nexus.
In partnership with the Rwandan government and international partners, Madeleine achieved her dream of taking the Gishwati Forest Reserve to long-term protected status. This forest was gazetted a National Park on February 1, 2016 together with Mukura Forest Reserve. Madeleine’s passion to save Gishwati Forest Reserve emerged during her 2002 visit and realized that this reserve was transformed into ranches and cropland. She decided to conduct her Master’s research on conservation of this forest in 2007. In 2008, she was hired by the Great Ape Trust to lead its conservation efforts. When this organization closed in 2011, Madeleine led the creation of the Forest of Hope Association to maintain the achievements and continue her commitment to take this forest to larger protection. Her team successfully secured funding from international donors to ensure the coordination of the Forest of Hope Association, actively protect the Gishwati forest from human pressure, raise local awareness, mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, support local livelihoods, initiate Gishwati community tourism, support local leaders to ensure transparent law enforcement, inform the law formulation and other activities to create the Gishwati-Mukura National Park, and develop the new park management tools such as the Management Plan and Guidebook.
Madeleine has also managed the portfolio of Vital Signs (www.vitalsigns.org) in Rwanda since 2012. It is an integrated global system for monitoring the role of nature in supporting food security. Vital Signs aims at engendering better decision-making on agricultural development that sustains biodiversity and ecosystem services, while improving human livelihoods in the face of climate change and associated uncertainties.
Madeleine serves as a member of different steering committees in Rwandan governmental institutions and she is an official advisor of the Rwanda Forum of National Non-Government Organizations working in the environmental sector in Rwanda. She possesses a Master of Science in Environmental Management and Development and she is working towards a Ph.D. in Environmental Planning and Management at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.