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Roundup: Environmentalists push for restoration of forests in Africa

Xinhua, July 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Environment experts from Africa and beyond have called on African governments to put much emphasis on the restoration of forests on degraded land as part of the global efforts to address climate change hazards.

They made the remarks on Tuesday while speaking at the Africa high level Bonn Challenge roundtable, and the international knowledge sharing meeting on forest landscape restoration (FLR) in the Rwanda capital Kigali.

Rwanda is hosting the forum from July 26 to 27, which seeks to boost global forest landscape restoration commitments to 150 million hectares by 2020.

The Bonn Challenge is a global ambition to restore 150 million hectares of the world's deforested and degraded lands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. It was launched by world leaders at a ministerial roundtable in Bonn, Germany, in September 2011.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting, Luther Bois Anukur, regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa at International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that African continent has lost more than half its forests due to human encroachment which puts the continent in the dangers of climate change.

"We call upon our leaders and policy makers across Africa to ensure the global forest landscape restoration commitment is implemented. With their support, we are confident the ambitious targets of the Bonn Challenge will be achieved across the continent," he stated.

Bois Anukur pointed out that climate change will worsen conditions across Africa's dry lands in the next few years, which are already affected by desertification, if forests are not restored on time.

The Bonn Challenge event has brought together participants including ministers, environment experts and conservationist from more than 20 African countries that have demonstrated leadership on forest landscape restoration.

At the meeting, delegates are expected to deliberate key aspects for the success of the implementation of FLR including policy, finance opportunities, and assessment of restoration opportunities on-the-ground.

Nii Osah Mills, Ghana minister of lands and natural resources, emphasized on the importance of allocating more funds to forest restoration in degraded areas by African governments.

"We are talking about planting millions of trees on degraded lands in our countries, but we are forgetting to put into consideration the amount of money needed to ensure the success of this activity. We urge African government across the continent increase expenditures on forestry activities," he said.

Osah Mills noted that Ghana targets to restore about 2.6 million hectares by 2017.

According to meeting organizers, new pledges of forest restoration by individual African countries at the meeting are expected to take global FLR commitments to 150 million hectares.

Christine Sagno, Guinea minister of environment, water and forestry, her country will plant forests on two million hectares of land by 2020.

"If we act so fast, we can make our continent free from negative impacts of the worsening climate change. What we need now is a clear commitment to restore plant trees on millions of degraded lands in our countries," she noted.

Vincent Biruta, Rwanda minister of natural resources said that Rwanda has committed to restore 2 million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2020.

"With the restoration of forests and land, we can overcome climate challenges and food security issues and help improve the wellbeing of our people. Our policies need to be translated into action and practitioners from all backgrounds must work together and share knowledge."

Topics to be discussed include participatory planning, landscape governance, institutional arrangements and regulatory frameworks, market mechanisms, funding and technical aspects of FLR operations on the ground.

The meeting is organised by the Rwanda ministry of natural resources, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR). Endit