4.7.2. Environmental change
and their impacts
Another macroeconomic question concerns the impact or economic
growth on environmental quality. Do high rate of growth that is, increase in
GDP of Rwanda, implies greater environmental degradation or might the opposite
be true? It is to note that «some pollution increases during the early
stages of a country's development and then begins to diminish as country gain
adequate resources to tackle pollution problems».
This happen because at low incomes' people tend to value
development over environmental quality, but as the country achieves greater
wealth it willing to devote greater resources to environmental quality
improvements. This is a matter of greater importance for
Rwanda.
Several years ago, when problems of environmental quality were
widely regarded as one of the factors to development, industrial development of
Rwanda was associated with air and pollution.
Rwanda however, was thought to have fewer environmental
problems because their reindustrialized technology was more environmental
benign, and it had no yet committed itself to a materialistic style of life.
Ideas have changed, however. For one thing, it has become
clear that massive environmental degradation has occurred in Rwanda; rural
areas have seen large-scale soil erosion and water-quality deterioration,
deforestation and declining in soil productivity. But the government of Rwanda
is trying to rehabilitate all those constraints towards economic
developments.
Rwanda's urban areas have experienced seriously diminished air
and water quality. Further more, this environmental deterioration in Rwanda is
not just a matter of aesthetics or quality of life, but rather a more serious
issue involving the diminishment of economic productivity and the acceleration
of social dislocation. Environmental problems in Rwanda are much more likely to
be matters of life and death and climate change threatens to further undermine
long-term development and the ability of many poor people to escape poverty,
especially those involved in agriculture sector. Rwanda has tried with some
success to attract pollution intensive firms with the provinise of lower
pollution-control standards, in the hope of bolstering their rates of economic
development.
Income derived from the environment is a major source of
livelihoods for many people, particularly for the rural population. Despite
rapid urbanization in most provinces of Rwanda (8% in 1999 and 20% in 2009),
almost 80% of Rwanda's population still lives in rural areas. In many provinces
of Rwanda excluding Kigali more than 90% of people live in rural areas and in
Kigali less than 20% do. The sustainability and proper management of natural
resources are crucial for maintaining rural livelihoods and safety net in
difficult times.
At the same time, the environment is a source of
vulnerability. Increasing use of fossil energy, mainly by industrial sector and
the resulting climate change add to rural population vulnerability. The adverse
impact of environmental change will be most striking in rural areas and
particularly among the poor, because of their high dependence on natural
resources, their limited resources to remedy the impact of such changes to
implement mitigating policies.
Population growth in Rwanda will put further pressure on
agriculture as rising demand for food requires more land and more forests to be
turned to agriculture use. Greater number of rural population is forced to live
and work on marginal and fragile lands. This has particularly an impact on food
production and food security especially, and in rural areas where food
production barely keeps up with population.
This has a negative impact on domestic product and on GDP of
Rwanda and cause also health problem like malnutrition, environmental
degradation which constraint development.
At its turn, it disequilibrate the SUT and I-O Tables where by
Rwanda population increases demand for food particularly in that is not
domestically produced, and this increases import which deteriorates trade
balance, and decline growth in agriculture productivity has the main cause of
deforestation even though there are established policies to protect
environment.
| 
