The first joint U.S. Africa Command and Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) Environmental Security workshop was conducted in Masanze, Rwanda, June 21-23, 2011, with more than 40 participants.

The conference, hosted by U.S. Africa Command and Rwanda Peace Academy was attended by representatives from the Rwanda Defense Forces and several non-military agencies, including National Bureau of Standards (NBS), the Ministries of Health, Refugees and Disaster Preparedness, Musanze City Council, Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (REMA) and Rwanda National Police (Environmental Crime Dept).

The workshop was opened by General James Kabarebe, Rwanda Minister of Defense; Major General E. K. Karake, director of Rwanda Peace Academy; and Art Kolodziejski, AFRICOM environmental security manager.

Key objectives of the workshop included information exchange and capacity building in the area of environmental considerations in military activities, and especially sustainable management of military training ranges, environmental outreach for mission sustainability, waste management and contaminated land and UXO site assessment and cleanup.

The U.S. team of technical experts included Art Kolodziejski , AFRICOM; Jeff Andrews, Joint Multinational Training Command; Clare Mendelsohn, director of the AF Western Regional Environmental Office; Mikell Hager, Army Engineer School; and Captain Tony Johnson of DTRA.

Rwanda Peace Academy is a project of the Rwanda Ministry of Defense to offer education, training, and research programs relevant to peacekeeping and peacebuilding, conflict prevention and post-conflict challenges in Africa. Environmental Security has been identified as one of the core pillars of peacebuilding activities on the African Continent.

The AFRICOM Environmental Security program was recognized by the Rwanda Minister of Defense and RPA as critically important to the mission of the RPA.