Youth, women, smallholders join global cry for climate justice, landscape restoration

The stirring lyrics of ‘We Shall Overcome’ became the battle hymn of Global Landscapes Forum Accra 2019 as smallholder producers, women, youth and academics rose up to call for shared solutions to the worldwide climate crisis and successful landscape restoration.

From large plenaries to smaller group discussions, GLF participants agreed on the necessity of widespread action based on local knowledge and input to save the planet’s biodiversity, restore landscapes while keeping the voices and rights of people and their communities at the centre of restoration efforts.

“Climate change is a form of war that has come about because of our irresponsible actions,” Nana Yaw Osei-Darkwa, founder of the Green Republic Project, told a plenary session kicking off the two-day event that reached 17 million people worldwide, brought together some 500 individuals from around the globe in the Ghanaian capital. Another 5,000 participated remotely, from 99 countries.

“Nature is rebelling against us (but) it’s time for reconciliation between man and nature,” shouted Yaw Osei-Darkwa, as the youth activist and social entrepreneur brought his audience to its feet to sing the civil rights anthem to overcoming injustice, including landscape destruction.

But restoration efforts will not succeed without genuine consultation of local communities and the acceptance of projects by their traditional leaders, warned Tangu Tumeo, Principal Forestry Officer in Malawi’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining and Department of Forestry.

“In parts of Africa where traditional authority is powerful, recognizing the importance of traditional voices is essential,” she told a session on the necessity of land tenure security for successful restoration work.

“Without involving the community at the heart of what we’re doing, we’re not going to get very far,” she added. “We’re just putting money down the drain and communities don’t appreciate that.”

People’s voices are only likely to be heard where they have clear tenure rights to their land, forests and pastures. Customary tenure systems are effective at organizing fair access to resources, but governments retain underlying ownership rights. “Unless communities have the capacity to negotiate terms suitable to local needs and priorities, investments from donors and the private sector will rarely succeed,” said Steven Lawry, CIFOR Senior Associate.

Momentum for change continued building at the two-day event that opened 29 October, as 11-year-old Ghanaian spinning sensation DJ Switch called for greater attention and justice for women and girls working in degraded landscapes.

“The voice of the women is powerful as a catalyst for change. So, write land restoration songs!” shouted DJ Switch, who urged the audience to join her chant: “I have a tree to plant! Dig, dig and plant. One voice, one song to restore our land,” added the youngster, whose off-stage name is Erica Armah Bra-Bulu Tandoh. The musical theme continued in an evening performance from Ghana’s Grammy-nominated afro-roots star and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Rocky Dawuni.

African royalty made a rare appearance during the GLF event to support the urgent call for a greater global emphasis on landscape restoration. For Her Royal Highness Sylvia Nagginda, the Nnabagereka (Queen) of Buganda, ecosystem restoration represents a revival of civility, and the “core social values of respect, dignity, responsibility and integrity among others.” The Nnabagereka is known as a traditional leader and advocate of human development rooted in cultural values.

“GLF is building a global movement and it’s time to scale this up. It’s time to empower local communities; to share and to act, on the ground in Ghana, in Kenya, in Peru, in Kalimantan,” declared John Colmey, managing director of GLF.

The GLF event, titled “Restoring Africa’s Landscapes: Uniting Action from Above and Below,” followed meetings of partners and leaders of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), a restoration effort to which 28 African countries have now committed to restore 113 million hectares.

Collaborative knowledge and a clear understanding that landscapes must deliver meaningful benefits will help to ensure that the right restoration work is in the right location at the right time, participants said. “You cannot tell people to stop doing what is feeding them if you do not give them an alternative,” said Basiru Isa of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development.

The landscapes of Africa – which boast the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest region, the world’s largest swath of carbon-rich tropical peatlands, great lakes that together hold 27 percent of the world’s freshwater and tropical grasslands that are home to some of the most diverse and rare forms of animal life on the planet – play a major role in shaping the future of human life.

Aside from the carbon sequestration power of undisturbed peat soils and healthy forests and savannahs, African ecosystems are vital to the wellbeing of Africa’s booming population, on track to account for half of the global population growth by 2050.

Participants at GLF Accra also looked ahead to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration that begins in 2021 and aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems. The Decade will accelerate existing global restoration goals, including the Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 350 million hectares of degraded ecosystems by 2030.

New UN standards for assessment of solar and wind energy resources could spur investment in renewables

Renewable energy now accounts for around one third of global power generation capacity, with increases being led by investments in solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy.

More than 180 GW of renewable energy were installed in 2018, of which 100 GW were solar PV. As the costs of renewables continue to fall, solar PV and wind energy are now considered cost-competitive on a kWh basis with fossil fuel-fired power plants, and today represent the cheapest options for electricity generation in many countries.

The European Commission has included both solar PV and offshore wind as key components of its long-term strategy for reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

To accelerate the shift to renewable energy, UNECE has prepared specifications that enable the classification and reporting of solar and wind energy resources in an internationally-harmonized manner.

The new specifications will make it possible to assess wind and solar energy resources in different geographical contexts in comparison with alternative energy sources. The ability of governments and companies to understand and compare competing energy sources is essential for navigating energy transitions and transformations.

The assessments will inform policy decisions on increasing renewable energy investments, with significant potential for climate action. Because solar and wind power generating units are relatively quick to install, the policy decisions could lead to near-term progress on countries’ sustainable energy transition. The technologies have the potential to change fundamentally the way electricity and wider energy systems are organised.

The specifications, developed by an international team of experts, are part of the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC), a global system used by countries and companies to classify and report both non-renewable and renewable resources. UNFC is unique in that it is a system of classification for all energy and mineral resources and it includes accompanying guidelines on addressing environmental and social issues.

Following review and endorsement of the solar and wind specifications by the UNECE Committee on Sustainable Energy at its recent session in Geneva, UNFC is now operational for both solar and wind energy. UNFC is already operational for bioenergy and geothermal energy, and the UNECE Expert Group on Resource Management (EGRM) is developing further specifications for hydropower and marine energy.

The next step for the UNFC solar and wind work will be to develop case studies that demonstrate real-world applications of the specifications and that raise awareness of their value for investments in solar and wind energy production. Importantly, UNFC is applied at the project level allowing management of mixed energy resource portfolios. The Expert Group is soliciting interest from countries and companies to prepare case studies. 

“The UNFC solar and wind specifications are designed to classify solar and wind energy resources in a way that reflects the phases of their development projects while allowing comparison with other energy resources,” said Frank Denelle, Chair of the EGRM Renewable Energy Working Group. “Applying these new specifications in case studies is the next critical step that will demonstrate their unique value to all countries and companies striving to increase their solar and wind energy production through the most effective use of their investments”.

Speaking about the urgency to transition to a sustainable energy future, UNECE Sustainable Energy Director Scott Foster noted “With the solar and wind specifications now operational, UNFC has taken yet another step to becoming the global system of classification for the world’s energy system. We encourage all energy resource stakeholders to use UNFC to optimize their resource portfolios in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, thereby contributing to investment in and development of sustainable energy.”

Forest landscapes restoration is more than just planting tree

One of the biggest challenges the planet face today is the earth drying up.

This concern has given rise to voices clamouring for a green revolution of innovative initiatives and solutions to halt the rate of global warming.

Vegetations hold the solution to reverse the climate change phenomenon – with more shrub, grass and tree cover on degraded lands and farmlands, biomass carbon is increased and the land is conserved for higher farm productivity and incomes.

The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) is spearheading the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) to bring 100 million hectares of land into restoration by 2030.

The Initiative has 28 African countries pledging commitments to attain the goal of enhancing food security, increasing climate change resilience and mitigation, and combating rural poverty.

According to Mamadou Diakhite of AUDA-NEPAD, the goal is to empower communities to turn degraded lands into healthy forests.

He however emphasized that “forest landscape restoration is more than just planting trees… It is about restoring lands, lives and livelihoods”.

The AFR100 contributes to the Bonn Challenge, the New York Declaration on Forests and the Sustainable Development Goal 15: protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Ghana’s Achimota Forest Reserve Enrichment

Ghana’s Forestry Commission is hoping to rake in more revenue from its enrichment plantation within the Achimota Forest Reserve, an open coastal savanna vegetation of shrubs.

Situated in the heart of the city of Accra, the forest was established in 1930 to create greenery around the Achimota School to prevent pollution and provide fuelwood for the school.

But the area has been subjected to excessive degradation and threats of illegal settlements.

Today, the 320 hectare reserve is home to the Accra Zoo and an abode for several religious and social activities include camping, photo and video shoots, recreation, picnics and hiking.

In its current state, the reserve generates a daily average revenue of Gh3,000 ($550), creating employment and other income-generating activities for people – the revenue is mainly from fees charged visitors to the park and the zoo.

To increase the potentials of the landscape to enhance livelihoods, the Forestry Commission has embarked on an enrichment plantation of 200 hectares to boost the ambition to create an eco-tourism destination and a learning enclave of tree species.

The Achimota Forest already has 30 different types of mushrooms and eight types of fruits.

“We’re looking at multi-story forest of exotic and indigenous tree species,” says Edith Ansah, a Director at the Commission.

Restoring Landscapes is About Restoring Integrity

Ecosystem restoration is fundamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, mainly those on climate change, poverty eradication, food security, water supply and biodiversity conservation.

For Wanjira Mathai, Senior Advisor at the World Resources Institute (WRI), restoration is more about agro forestry, agro ecological systems, farmer-managed restoration and many other techniques of protecting water bodies, producing food and securing livelihoods.

“Restoring landscapes is about restoring integrity to the demands of the landscape,” she noted.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021 – 2030), declared by the UN General Assembly, aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems.

The Decade will accelerate existing global restoration goals, including the Bonn Challenge which aims to restore 350 million hectares of degraded ecosystems by 2030.

The African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative is the single ambitious target for restoration efforts on the continent to shield people and communities from the devastation impacts of climate change.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

CIFOR redoubles efforts to promote sustainable Ghanaian landscapes

Ghanaian landscapes are marked by multiple and competing resource frontiers, from the cocoa-forests and oil palm belts in the high-forest zone (HFZ) to converging shea parklands and pastoral lands of the northern savannah. 
 

Widespread mining and complex tenure arrangements overlay, and sometimes further undermine, efforts to design long-vision resource management plans.

With the aim to address these issues, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has launched two new projects to support collaborative and multi-stakeholder approaches to landscape planning in Ghana.

Presented during an event held at the Global Landscapes Forum in Accra, these initiatives will operationalize the landscape approach and support better governance.

The first project, Operationalizing the Landscape Approach for Biodiversity Benefit: Policy, Practice and People (COLANDS) is expected to close the gap between strong scientific theory about landscape approaches and weak implementation.

“This is a pioneering program, as its five-year time frame means that we can establish a long-term engagement by facilitating the use of landscape approaches, observing stakeholders – especially people living in these landscapes – and then reporting on the results”, said James Reed, CIFOR Scientist.

COLANDS aims to capture successful elements of landscape approaches to develop a scalable model for adoption elsewhere.

The second project, Governing Multifunctional Landscapes (GML) takes an alternative, jurisdictional approach to landscape governance at agro-commodity and resource frontiers.

“We are working through partnerships to mobilize multi-stakeholder platforms and negotiate jurisdictional priorities for forest protection and climate-smart agriculture for multiple commodities, including cocoa, oil palm, citrus, and rubber”, explained Emily Gallagher, CIFOR Scientist.

GML will convene platforms in two jurisdictions adjoining the Atewa Range Forest Reserves in southeastern Ghana: Kwaebibirem Municipality and Atiwa West District to build the business case and action pathways for climate-smart development.

COLANDS is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). GML is funded by the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development from the European Commission (DG DEVCO).

The forest is our pharmacy, our lungs and our supermarket

Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) has made a strong case for the protection and restoration of African forests, saying the forests remain the potent source for sustainable livelihood.

Opening the 4^th AFR100 Annual Partnership Meeting in Accra, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng alluded to the forest as housing plants for medicines, food and providing oxygen to sustain lives.

“Therefore, anytime we are destroying our forests, let’s remember we are destroying our pharmacy, our supermarket, and our lungs,” he said.

The African Forest landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) is a Pan-African effort to bring 100 million hectares of land into restoration by 2030, with the goal of enhancing food security, increasing climate change resilience and mitigation, and combating rural poverty.

Ghana, for instance, made a commitment in 2015 to restore 2 million hectares of degraded lands.

Prof. Frimpong Boateng said to achieve such pledges, there is the need to harness technology in landscapes restoration “because the poverty gap is a technology gap”.

Engaging Young People in Restoration

The meeting brought together leadership from 28 partner countries, restoration champions, private sector representatives, and technical experts to drive the agenda of restoration.

The AFR100 Secretariat at the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) selected five Youth Ambassadors to represent the Initiative at the meeting.

“AFR100 will never reach its goals without putting young Africans and entrepreneurs at the core of its work and programmes,” said Mamadou Diakhite, representing the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki.

Youth Ambassador Siyabulela Siya Sokomani is passionate about creating entrepreneurial opportunities for young African people within the value-chain of restoration.

He believes the commitments of countries under the AFR100 offer opportunities to boost entrepreneurial activities among the youth through ecological restoration business.

“Tree planting can be mobilized into landscape and should be fashionable, accessible, profitable and affordable for the youth”, he noted.

 

Acknowledging the role of young people in landscape restoration, Minister Frimpong Boateng said it will be a mistake if the youth are not engaged in restoration.

“The young people of the world, including in Africa, have dreams they can no longer afford to postpone, and it is our duty to make sure that dream are fulfilled; we cannot fail them,” he emphasized.

Ghana’s Forest Plantation Strategy has Young People in Focus

Ghana has lost over 80 percent of its 1.8million hectares of real forests to illegal mining and logging as well as unsustainable agricultural activities.

In the past one year, over 26 million seedlings have been planted on about 24,000 hectares of land under the government’s "Youth in Agriculture and Afforestation Programme”.

Richard Ebo Quansah has worked with 250 young people to plant 15,000 trees and 3,000 bamboos on a 50 hectare land along the Densu water basin in the Joma community of the Greater Accra region.

Despite challenges with the early release of allowances, the youth have remained committed to the programme implementation.

“The trees have other benefits that is going to help us and the future generation. The money is needed now but the trees are needed for the future,” said Richard. “However, we need the requisite motivation to keep up the momentum of sustaining the plantation programme’

The Programme seeks to establish 25,000 hectares of forest plantations annually and to restore degraded forest reserves to help protect the green cover of the country.

Optimism for AFR100

Wanjira Mathai, Senior Advisor at the World Resources Institute (WRI), wants more young people to have the space and support to be involved in innovative environmental entrepreneurship.

“The generation that is actually going to deliver a lot of these ambitions that are being made today are the youth so they must be involved,” she said. “If we leave them we leave them at our own peril”.

Wanjira is proud of the commitments by partner countries but looks forward to restoration action in the next level.

“I’m optimistic. We didn’t think we would have 113million hectares of commitment when we asked for 100million, so we can move into implementation because after all our survival depends on it. We have got to make sure that we are cushioned from the impacts of climate change that are coming; this is real and for us on the continent, it is a matter of life and death,” she noted.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Africa’s Cities and Local Governments Climate Ambitions Declared in Accra

Accra hosted 2000 representatives of the African cities, local and regional governments, and non-state actors for the 2^nd African Climate Chance Summit, featuring the Conference of the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA).

The Conference of Covenant of Mayors in Sub Saharan Africa was opened by Ghana’s Minister for Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), Hajia Alima Mahama, under the theme “Towards the Institutionalization of Local Climate Action and Access to Finance”.

The CoM SSA initiative uses a bottom up approach pioneered by funders the European Union that mobilizes local actors for sustainable energy access, to elaborate and implement climate action plans.

The conference also had the objectives to inspire and enable policy makers, donors, local governments and key actors involved in the implementation of CoM SSA to accelerate the pace and scale of transformational change and the mobilization of cities. 

It is for this reason that working with national associations and CSOs are critical for the acceleration of action on the ground.

Jean-Pierre Elong-Mbassi, Secretary General of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa, highlighted four key messages from the Conference:

The first is to correct the imbalance in financing Climate Adaptation to enable Africa to achieve it ambitious climate action plans, with Africa demanding more adaptation finance.

Secondly, Ghana is to position itself as Africa’s Climate Hub and champion the localization of Nationally Determined Contributions. The Mayor of Accra who is also The Global Covenant’s Executive Board member and UCLG Africa’s Climate Task Force co-chair, is well positioned to take these messages to the international stage.

Thirdly, the Climate Chance Summit Africa to become the preparation conference for COPs representing cities, local governments and non-state actors in Africa to formulate and deliver their messages, declarations and recommendations at an international level where these ambitious climate plans are now called “The Accra Climate Dialogue”.

And lastly, the most critical of messages from the conference is to ensure climate finance is accessible at the local level.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo singled out the work of CoM SSA over the last four years as testimony to the benefits the initiative has had on cities and municipalities

He noted that “we, in Africa, suffer the most because our weak economies are most susceptible to the effects of climate change, and our capacity to withstand its damage is low”. He further stated that “Africa is the region of the world with the lowest access to energy and the least equipped to face extreme climate events brought about by climate change”.

The challenge of access to finance was further reiterated by the Minister for Local Government, Hajia Alima Mahama.

She called for the establishment of a dedicated financing window for local authorities to implement their climate change priority action plans.

“The imbalance between mitigation actions represents an effort of over 600 billion dollars put by the international community compared to 200 billion for adaptation that must be addressed,” she said.

The Declaration read by NALAG President, Bismark Baisie Nkum, also highlighted access to finance as a key recommendation.

The CoM SSA initiative will continue to support cities and local governments through vertical integration and political advocacy; technical assistance and capacity building for cities and supporting organisations such as National Associations of local governments, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs); and the promotion, communication, dissemination, awareness raising and visibility of the initiative.

Planting trees for environmental health

Media General’s news team in Kumasi joined members of TV3 Fan Club in a clean-up and tree planting exercise to promote a healthy environment in the Atonsu community.

In line with the environmental sanitation campaign, garbage out, the exercise was to lead by example and create public awareness on the benefits of environmental sanitation.

The clean-up exercise was to drum home the importance of cleanliness to the socio-economic growth of the country.

Media General’s news team and enthusiastic TV3 Fan club members collectively supported the exercise to the admiration of community members.

The group cleared choked drains of plastic waste, swept filth and cleared weeds grown along streets within the Atonsu community.

The corporate clean-up exercise was aimed at contributing to the national sanitation agenda of ensuring a cleaner Ghana.

Chairman of TV3 Fan Club at Atonsu, Emmanuel Akoto Mensah, called for attitudinal change to keep the environment clean of filth.

He noted the country’s sustainable development hinges on environmental protection.

Northern Sector Bureau Chief at Media General, Kofi Adu Domfeh, led a tree planting exercise as part of the event.

A number of trees were planted on the compound of Atonsu M/A Basic School to support the school’s greening efforts.

Domfeh encouraged a national collective drive in cleaning and greening the environment to mitigate and adapt to climate change and also help attain the sustainable development goals.

Link to original published article:

https://3news.com/tv3-fan-club-mg-staff-plant-trees-in-garbage-out-campaign/