To sustain livelihood resilience, livelihoods must respond to global and local environmental changes. Agroforestry is one possible livelihood activity that can help farmers adapt to changes and shocks. This research evaluated the roles of agroforestry in building livelihoods resilience to floods in Nyabihu District, western province of Rwanda. Different research approaches were used including archival research, field visit and household surveys. A sample of 122 households were interviewed and data processed using Microsoft Excel, Data analysis using SPSS version 16 and STATA Version 16. The socio-economic characteristics of the study population showed 45% of households fall in the age class of 29-39years, education level was 42.5, 17.5, 5 and 35% for primary, secondary, tertiary, and illiterate respectively. Benefits of agroforestry on ecological importance and economic were different, results were shown that agroforestry can reduce soil erosion at 34.16%, produce fuels wood at 23.33%, produce timber at 18.3%, Aesthetic and shelter at 13.33%, fruits at 6.66% and medicinal uses at 4.17%. The correlation between agroforestry and floods was not significant probably because(p=0.260?0.05), agroforestry trees were few on the landscape and were still young.

Keywords: Agroforestry, floods, livelihoods, resilience, soil erosion.