Bernadette Arakwiye is a Senior Manager for WRI’s Land Restoration Programs in Africa; these efforts serve as crucial catalysts in achieving the objectives of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). Additionally, Bernadette chairs the WRI's Africa Restoration Executive Team which provides strategic guidance to the Restore Local program and oversee its implementation. In her previous roles at WRI, she supported restoration monitoring activities in Africa. Before joining WRI, Bernadette conducted environmental research in African landscapes, working as a Research Associate with Conservation International in the USA and as a Research Assistant with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International in Rwanda. Bernadette has also supported WRI research projects in Rwanda on a consultancy basis between 2016 and 2020.

Bernadette holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University in Massachusetts, where she was awarded the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship for her research on the dynamics, drivers and ecological outcomes of forest cover change in Western Rwanda. She earned an MSc in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England and a BSc in Biology from the University of Rwanda.

Bernadette lives in the picturesque Musanze in Northern Rwanda, with her husband and their two sons.