To conserve and educate people on the value of plants, Red Rocks Cultural Centre started a botanical garden around the Volcanoes National Parks in 2016. The main aim of the gardens was to make environmental sustainability a priority and to protect endangered species of plants.

So far, Red Rocks botanical gardens have played a great role not only as resource for the study and cultivation of plants with healing properties but also as key component for environmental conservation. The botanical gardens are also starting to play a role in the mitigation of the effects of climate change, and could be vital to the survival of the planet as they are perfectly placed to help ecosystems to adapt to new climates in the Volcanoes National Park and the Virunga massif.

We have hosted many researchers and students from various universities and other institutions in Rwanda who are doing botanical studies. They come and we teach them about the scientific names of various plants together with their medicinal value. Red Rocks botanical garden project has become a useful resource for various national and international researchers. Apart from helping in environmental conservation-which was the key objective of establishing the gardens, they have also become a significant component of tourist attraction, saying ‘many tourists visit the gardens to see some species of plants for the first time that can only be found around these areas.