Global experts meet in Nairobi to advance landscape restoration in Africa

Finding solutions to meet the challenge of landscape restoration in Africa, where almost 50 million hectares of land is degraded each year, is a complex challenge requiring an innovative, coordinated, international response, says a top forestry expert who will speak at an upcoming conference in Nairobi.

Over 800 multi-sector stakeholders from across Africa and around the world will meet in Nairobi, along with at least 30,000 people online, at the Prospects and Opportunities for Restoration in Africa Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) at UN Environment headquarters in Nairobi later in August.

“Africa’s landscape must be restored to ensure the natural resource needs of the continent’s rapidly expanding population will one day be met, but there is no silver bullet,” cautioned Robert Nasi, director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), co-coordinator of GLF with UN Environment and the World Bank.

The event will highlight many current landscape restoration initiatives and help set the stage for many more, demonstrating how countries are building on political will through actions on the ground to tackle land degradation.

Although annually Africa loses about 2.8 million hectares of forest, an area roughly the size of Saudi Arabia, the continent shows immense potential for landscape restoration. In total, two thirds of the continent’s land mass is degraded, according to World Resources Institute.

“Africa’s population growth protections are one key aspect of the challenge,” said Erik Solheim, executive director of UN Environment, who will speak at the Nairobi event. “Another is that many parts of the world will be looking to Africa for food production. The key challenge is therefore how do you provide for job creation and increased food production, and protect the environment? The answer is of course proper land-use planning.”

Local communities have restored more than 5 million ha of degraded landscapes across the continent, while more than 20 nations have pledged to restore 100 million ha of forest by 2030 through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).

At GLF Nairobi 2018, delegates representing governments, international and grassroots organizations, the financial and private sector, indigenous communities and youth will draw upon these initiatives to pave the way forward in making forest and landscape restoration a reality.

Dialogues will take the shape of discussion forums, plenaries, online webinars and Landscape Talks, similar to TED Talks, while exciting side events, exhibitions and scientific report launches will celebrate Africa’s work in restoration and inspire action across sectors.

The event offers invaluable opportunities for stories and interviews related to restoration and environmental concerns. In addition to Nasi and Solheim, other key speakers include: Wanjira Mathai, chair of the Green Belt Movement; Hindou Ibrahim, National Geographic explorer and advocate for indigenous knowledge and rights; officials from environmental and forestry ministries across Africa, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Rainforest Alliance and many more.

UN launches campaign to invest in degraded lands to create jobs, boost incomes and food security

The rallying call for this year’s celebration of the World Day to Combat Desertification is “Our Land. Our Home. Our Future.”

The slogan draws global attention to the central role productive land can play in turning the growing tide of migrants abandoning unproductive land into communities and nations that are stable, secure and sustainable, into the future.

“Migration is high on the political agenda all over the world as some rural communities feel left behind and others flee their lands. The problem signals a growing sense of hopelessness due to the lack of choice or loss of livelihoods. And yet productive land is a timeless tool for creating wealth,” says Ms. Monique Barbut, the United Nations top advisor on combatting desertification and drought. “This year, let us engage in a campaign to re-invest in rural lands and unleash their massive job-creating potential, from Burkina Faso, Chile and China, to Italy, Mexico, Ukraine and St. Lucia”.

She added that “the possibility for success today is greater than ever before. More than 100 of the 169 countries affected by desertification or drought are setting national targets to curb a run-away land degradation by the year 2030. Investing in the land will create local jobs and give households and communities a fighting chance to live, which will, in turn, strengthen national security and our future prospects for sustainability”.

Burkina Faso will host the global observance of the World Day to showcase the political commitment and proactive steps the region is taking to tackle the migration and land degradation challenges.

The West African country hosted the 2005 Heads of State Summit for the Sahel-Saharan countries where 11 countries reached an agreement to restored degraded land on an 8000 kilometer stretch of land cutting across the Sahel. The initiative is now popularly known as the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel.

“Since the early 1980s, we have been rehabilitating degraded land by building on our traditional techniques such as the Zaï or adopting new techniques that work, such as farmer managed natural regeneration,” said Mr. Batio Bassiere, Minister of Environment, Green Economy and Climate Change of Burkina Faso. “We intend to be land degradation neutral by 2030. We are hosting the global observance on 17 June because we want to show the world, what we have achieved and is possible in order to inspire everyone into action”.

The United Nations designated 17 June as the World Day to Combat Desertification to raise public awareness about the challenges of desertification, land degradation and drought and to promote the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa.