GWP Eastern Africa believes that the successful implementation of WACDEP in Rwanda and Burundi rests on how far local leaders and communities feel that they own the process. Previously, communities living around the lake perceived it to be a state-owned resource and were unconcerned about its protection from damaging human practices, natural occurrences such as floods and drought, and the depletion of fisheries.
At the workshop, both the Governor of Kurundi Province (Burundi) and the Vice Mayor for Economic Affairs of Bugesera District, Eastern Province (Rwanda), spoke in support of GWP Eastern Africa and the renewed cooperation between the two countries.