COP 21:Ten African leaders commit to restore lost vegetation
Ten African countries have made an ambitious commitment to progressively restore 31 million hectares of lost vegetation in Africa by the year 2030.
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The project 'Afri100', which was launched by the African New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) at a side event in the ongoing Conference of Parties (COP21) talks in Paris, France, is however targeting to restore 100 million hectares of lost vegetation in Africa by the same period.
Afri100 project, also known as African Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI) will receive technical and financial support from nine international organisations including Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the World Bank and Terra Africa.
Representatives from the 10 African countries, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagasca, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Togo and Uganda were present at the launch interspersed with presentations from some of the supporting organisations.
The 10 countries committed to restore productivity to 31 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes in order to improve livelihoods for people whose lives depended heavily on agriculture but whose lands have been degraded or deforested.
So far, the World Bank has made a $1 billion in investment in 14 African countries by 2030, as part of the Africa Climate Business Plan to support Africa's climate resilience and low carbon development, while private sector financial commitment for the project currently stands at $545 million.
Implementation
According to officials of the NEPAD, the initiative would be implemented through forest and ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, climate smart agriculture, and rangeland management.
A statement issued by the NEPAD after the launch indicated that the World Bank Group and the World Resources Institute would, as main partners, support the mobilization of financial and technical resources from multiple sources to design and implement country-specific strategies.
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The CEO of NEPAD Agency, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki said “This initiative provides an opportunity for Africa and its partners to collectively work together toward ensuring the sustainable use and management of land.”
The ARLI will leverage previous experience from Africa-led partnerships such as TerraAfrica and work through various platforms. It would be implemented through the African Landscapes Action Plan, a roadmap prepared by African Union NEPAD and partners from the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative to advance landscape governance, research, and finance through priority actions that embrace all land actors and all sectors. It will work with the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) to bring 100 million hectares of degraded and deforested land under restoration by 2030.
The Director of the Global Restoration Initiative, World Resources Institute, Mr Sean DeWitt stated "Restoration is one pathway to help improve the resilience of landscapes.
The AFR100 platform seeks to help bring together government leaders, impact investors, development banks, bilateral donors, technical support providers and others to restore degraded and deforested landscapes,"
The World Bank’s Vice President for the Africa Region, Mr Makhtar Diop also stated “Hot spots of natural disasters, social conflict and poverty, drylands are at the core of
Africa’s development challenge. Reducing the vulnerability of the people living in drylands and enhancing their resilience will require sustained efforts to address the underlying root causes of the problems." Afri100 builds on the climate commitments made by African countries.
Benefits
Endorsed by the African Union in October 2015, the ARLI and its supporting initiatives will contribute to improved soil fertility and food security, improve access to clean water, combat desertification, increase biodiversity and habitat, create green jobs, bolster economic growth and livelihood diversification, and increase the capacity for climate change resilience and adaptation.
The value added of the new transformative initiative is that it connects agriculture land, forest land and rangeland under one single management concept - the landscape approach – in order to boost the resilience of both ecosystems and livelihoods.
The Global Landscape Forum organized alongside the UNFCCC COP in Paris, hosted the launch and created a platform for positioning landscapes in the new international agreements on climate and sustainable development. While the initial focus of the initiative is Sub-Saharan Africa, the program aims to expand globally in order to draw synergies and share experiences with other regions.
Commitments
. DR Congo- Eight million hectares
. Ethiopia-15 million hectares
. Kenya- Committed, but finalising hectare target
. Liberia- One million hectares
. Madagascar- Committed, but finalising hectare target
. Malawi- Committed, but finalising hectare target
. Niger- 3.2 million hectares
. Rwanda- 2 million hectares
. Togo- Committed, but finalising hectare target
. Uganda-2.5 million hectares