The Forum
created a platform for positioning landscapes in the new international
agreements on climate and sustainable development.
The African
Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative – dubbed AFR100 – is a pan-African,
country-led effort endorsed by the African Union with ten countries so far
agreeing to commit at least 31.7 million hectares for the restoration.
The
countries include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia,
Madagascar, Malawi and Niger. Others are Rwanda, Togo and Uganda.
“Restoring
our landscapes brings prosperity, security and opportunity,” said Dr. Vincent Biruta, Minister of Natural Resources in Rwanda. “With
forest landscape restoration we’ve seen agricultural yields rise and farmers in
our rural communities diversify their livelihoods and improve their well-being.
Forest landscape restoration is not just an environmental strategy, it is an
economic and social development strategy as well.”
AFR100
partners – including the AU’s NEPAD Agency, the World Resources Institute and
the German Government – are earmarking more than $1billion in
development finance and additional $540 million in private sector impact investment to
support restoration activities.
“The scale
of these new restoration commitments is unprecedented,” said Wanjira Mathai, Chair of
the Green Belt Movement and daughter of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari
Maathai. “I have seen
restoration in communities both large and small across Africa, but the promise
of a continent-wide movement is truly inspiring. Restoring landscapes
will empower and enrich rural communities while providing downstream benefits
to those in cities. Everybody wins. ”
AFR100
recognizes the benefits that forests and trees can provide in African
landscapes: improved soil fertility and food security, greater availability and
quality of water resources, reduced desertification, increased biodiversity,
green jobs, economic growth, and increased capacity for climate change
resilience and mitigation.
Commitments
made through Initiative build on significant climate pledges made by many
African countries to support a binding global climate agreement.
So far, 13
of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions submitted by African
countries include restoration, conservation of standing forests, or
“climate-smart” agriculture.
The AFR100
will work alongside the African Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI) which
leverages previous experience from Africa-led partnerships such as TerrAfrica.
“The ARLI will mobilize African countries and partners to leverage
sectorial interventions and collectively ensure the integrity, resilience,
restoration and sustainable management of landscapes across regions,” said Dr.
Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of NEPAD. “We need to scale up
restoration across the whole continent – more than 700 million hectares of land
in Africa have potential for restoration. AFR100 provides a platform to work
together more effectively to accelerate the achievement of restoration
successes to benefit tens of millions of people who are currently searching for
ways to adapt to climate change and improve their well-being”.
The ARLI
will be implemented through the African Landscapes Action Plan, a roadmap
prepared by the 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.
“Sustainably
developing the drylands and conferring resilience to their inhabitants will
require addressing a complex web of economic, social, political, and
environmental vulnerabilities,” said Makhtar Diop, Vice President for Africa
Region, World Bank Group. “Good adaptive responses have the potential to
generate new and better opportunities for many people, cushion the losses for
others, and smooth the transition for all. Implementation of these responses
will require effective and visionary leadership at all levels.”
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.
Dr. Andrew Steer,
President and CEO, World Resources Institute, describes restoration as Africa’s
gift to the world.
“As the
world forges a climate agreement in Paris, African countries— which bear the
least historic responsibility for climate change-- are showing leadership with
ambitious pledges to restore land. These countries are well on their way to
meet the goal of restoring 100 million hectares of land, which will help
sequester carbon and bring economic benefits to low-income, rural communities.
These African leaders are turning their words into action and making a real
contribution to respond to the global threat of climate change,” he said.
Story originally
commissioned by Vita International
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