Climate change profile: East African Great Lakes and Ruzizi Plain

This climate change profile is a comparison of climate change vulnerability and adaptive capacity in four countries of the East African Great Lakes Region – Burundi, east DRC, Rwanda and Uganda – with a focus on the Ruzizi Plain and with particular attention for food security and water. The Ruzizi Plain covers 1,750 square km of land in northwest Burundi, east DRC and southwest Rwanda1 and consists of lowlands along the borders of the Ruzizi river between Lake Kivu in the north and Lake Tanganyika in the south.

Climate change is expected to increase the effects of erosion, which already cause extensive soil degradation, while simultaneously decreasing yields of widely consumed crops such as maize and beans. Rice cultivation in the Ruzizi Plain may benefit from climate change, but rice has high production costs and may not be sufficient to keep up with rapidly increasing population and simultaneously decreasing productivity of other crops as well as the fishery sector.