Climate Resilient Altitudinal Gradients - CRAGs

CRAGs are multi-scale landscape units with a minimum altitudinal range of 1,000 meters a.b.s.l, that are characterized by climate resilient biodiversity and ecosystem service values. These landscapes are extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts (they also serve as biotic thermometers).

The acronym CRAG emerged during the development of the African Great Lakes Conservation Strategy, in 2012 - Entebbe, Uganda. This strategy identified the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basins as a paradigm landscape for piloting CRAG. The geomorphology of these basins, current land use practices, and anticipated changes in climate, indicate that problems of degradation, erosion, and sedimentation will worsen. In the context of the Great Lakes Region of East and Central Africa, CRAGs can be understood as watersheds that start in the mountains and end in the lakes. A proactive response is essential if the livelihoods of over 2 million people and the biodiversity of 15 Key Biodiversity Areas are to be protected.

BirdLife International runs the CRAGs project since April 2014, under the auspices of the MacArthur Foundation. First, , with local stakeholders, BirdLife has developed a CRAG Intervention Plan (CIP) that indicates the current state, the increasing pressures, and the required responses to make the Kivu-Rusizi Altitudinal Gradient (AG) - and especially its water provisioning services - more resilient to climate change impacts. Secondly, a sediment fingerprinting technique was used to identify potential sources of erosion and sedimentation, through linking the river’s suspended sediments to their place of origin, i.e. their source within the catchment. Given that CRAGs are huge landscapes, this activity was piloted in two selected catchments of the Kivu-Rusizi basins: Sebeya and Ruhwa in Rwanda, Muhira and Ruhwa in Burundi.

After the erosion hotpots maps are produced, the climate change interventions are implemented at some locations defined after carrying out climate change vulnerability assessments for local communities. The results from these assessments are combined with output from modelling for sediment fingerprinting before the on-the ground interventions. All these activities are conducted with the engagement of local communities as Site Support Groups (SSGs): these are mobilised from existing cooperatives in sectors, engaged for fieldwork and supported for land rehabilitation approaches - for climate change resilience. The funding from MacArthur ends in 2019, and more fundraising is ongoing to keep the CRAG initiatives going, cover more areas, including other basins of the Great Lakes Region. Akayezu was managing this project since August 2017 to December 2019. But unfortunately, the BirdLife Office in Rwanda was closed in March 2020, possibly the project initiatives will resume some time later through the BirdLife partner (local NGO) and when the new funding is secured.