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Africa is taking ecosystems and landscape restoration in its own hands

Nearly two thirds of Africa’s land is degraded. This is all the worse since the rural population, and here, above all, smallholder farmers and households, heavily depend on healthy soils and tree cover. Our authors show how the continent is responding to the challenge by implementing forest landscape restoration initiatives, one of the most recent ones being AFR100.

By Mamadou Moussa Diakhité, Teko Nhlapo, Petra Lahann, Diana Mawoko and Camilla Shiluva Holeni

ural communities in Africa depend Rpredominantly on forests for everyday upkeep and survival. Locals in rural African communities regularly go out into the forests searching for batches of firewood for their next meal, while others collect mushrooms, fruits, nuts, berries and herbs to sell locally in order to earn a living. Therefore, forests carry with- in them the well-being and livelihoods of the populations in the African continent. A further important function of forests in Africa is their job creation potential. The timber produc- tion sector employs tens of millions of people, and therefore households, through small-scale wood collection, charcoal production, trans- portation and retail.

The rural population receive around a quar- ter of their income from the collection and direct trade of plant seeds, shoots and roots, mushrooms, wildlife and insects. Non-timber forest products are also harvested and traded as An oasis in the Kanem Region of Lake Basin. Women from the local village participating in the Great medicine, decorations, essential oils and skin- Green Wall programme. care products. In Africa, we use a lot of palm Photos: Andrea Borgarello for TerrAfrica / World Bank oil in our products, which is derived from the palm tree forests. Some families make their living by picking fruits from these palm trees also severely hinder economic development poverty reduction, land rehabilitation, regen- and using them to make and locally trade palm and threaten the ecological functions vital to eration and restoration, biodiversity conserva- wine – an alcoholic drink that is popular in the economies of African countries. tion and climate resilience. Various global and the West Africa region. However, the predic- regional restoration initiatives have emerged ament that arises is that with this high demand Rural smallholder farmers and households suf- from this (also see upper Box). of services from our forests, we are faced with fer most from degraded land as their activities an increased rate of deforestation and a rapid are largely dependent on stable weather pat- degradation of our forest landscapes. terns, healthy soils and tree cover, as well as The African response water. Framework conditions such as gover- nance of natural resources and policy coher- For African countries too, there are numer- A vicious circle of poverty and ence often do not favour restoration at scale, ous opportunities to scale up forest landscape overexploitation of resources and numerous other barriers impede progress. restoration by restoring both deforested forest These barriers include weak institutional co- lands and degraded agricultural as well as pas- Every year, nearly three million hectares of for- ordination, inadequate mechanisms of devo- toral landscapes where the tree cover has been ests and land are lost on the continent, accom- lution to local resource users and insufficient depleted. Africa is unique in that it has the panied by an annual estimated three per cent economic incentives for local and foreign largest restoration opportunity of any conti- drop in GDP owing to soil and nutrient de- investments in sustainable land management. nent in the world, with more than 700 million pletion. The result of this process is that nearly These issues, which occur at global level, have hectares of degraded landscapes that can be two-thirds of Africa’s land is degraded, with led to increasing awareness regarding the po- restored. Experiences in numerous countries, millions of people facing hunger, malnutrition tential for forest landscape restoration (FLR) including , , and Ni- and poverty, who in order to survive have to to generate numerous benefits for people and ger, to name a few, have demonstrated that further deforest and often overexploit the con- support progress towards multiple national tar- FLR delivers a wide range of benefits and can tinent’s natural resources. These actions not gets and the Sustainable Development Goals be achieved on millions of hectares. Successful only intensify the effects of climate change, but (SDGs), addressing issues such as food security, experiences with proven restoration practices RURAL 21 04/19 23

such as Farmer Managed Natural Regenera- Bridging financial and capacity gaps Global and regional restoration tion (FMNR; see article on page 19), Assisted initiatives Natural Regeneration (ANR), etc. improved However, AFR100 does face challenges which management of small-holder woodlots, re- need to be addressed in the upcoming years in Dozens of national governments have forestation, evergreen agriculture with inter- order to be successful so that all countries can made commitments to restore deforested cropped trees, and associated sustainable land reach their goals in FLR implementation. It and water management (SLWM) practices, is noticeable that technical and financial part- and degraded lands as part of global and such as water harvesting and erosion control, ners are not equally present in partner coun- regional restoration initiatives, including have been documented, along with practical tries. While some countries have the support of the Bonn Challenge which was launched in steps that can be supported to catalyse their more than ten technical and financial partners, September 2011 and endorsed and extend- adoption at scale. One major effort that was such as , , , other ed by the New York Declaration on For- already launched in 2007 is the Great Green countries have either no partners to assist them ests of the 2014 UN Climate Summit. The Wall Initiative (see bottom Box). or just one or two, like , and Bonn Challenge targets the restoration of . AFR100 will need to work on 150 million hectares by 2020 and 350 mil- The Africa Forests and Landscapes Restoration ways to improve technical and financial assis- lion hectares by 2030. It is supported by the Initiative (AFR100) is a more recent measure. tance for countries where technical assistance is Initiative 20x20, seeking to bring 20 million It was launched in December 2015 during absent or underrepresented. This also would al- hectares into restoration in Latin America the 2015 United Nations Climate Change low to address the issue of lack of local and na- Conference’s . The tional capacities for FLR implementation and and the Caribbean by 2020. The AFR100 Ini- fact that 28 African countries as of today have good practices in some of the partner countries. tiative also backs the Bonn Challenge. joined the initiative and have committed to re- store a total of 113 million hectares of degrad- AFR100 is working to bridge this gap by or- The Great Green Wall Initiative ed forest lands by 2030 as well as the progress ganising knowledge exchanges such as webi- already made in the first four years is extreme- nars that we have planned between our part- The Sahel is a region with very sensitive ly promising. To date, 20 partner countries ner countries and financial partners in order human and environmental dynamics. It is have completed their restoration assessment to enhance access to funding opportunities. one of those extremely fragile ecosystems by using ROAM (Restoration Opportunities Another way AFR100 bridges the financing where the signals of climate change have Assessment Methodology). This methodolo- gap is through the annual Land Accelerator, an been most apparent. The region has gone gy was designed by the International Union AFR100-partner-led endeavour to train entre- through major drought periods, and rain for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the preneurs from African countries through busi- shortage is identified as an ongoing crisis World Resources Institute (WRI) and sup- ness planning and incubation sessions. So far, for the Sahel. The region is stricken with ports countries in identifying and analysing the Land Accelerator, organised by WRI and multidimensional poverty and, at the same areas that are primed for forest landscape res- Fledge (a global network of company acceler- time, is faced with a steady population toration. Using this assessment countries have ators and seed funds), has taken place twice in growth continuing into the next century. started developing national FLR strategies in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2018 and 2019. Out of the The Sahelian community is heavily depend- consultations with all relevant national stake- 335 businesses that applied to the 2019 Land ent on natural resources for agriculture holders which will guide and coordinate the Accelerator, 14 entrepreneurs from eight Af- and/or livestock production as these are its implementation activities. rican countries came to Nairobi to pitch their main source of livelihood. However, most ideas to a room full of investors. Building up of the agriculture is rain-fed, which makes In terms of implementation, each country has on this success, the development agency of the production challenging given the region’s its own strategy, depending on the presence of – AUDA-NEPAD – aims to ex- technical and financial partners and their needs pand the Land Accelerator in the years to come. low rainfall patterns. The increasing de- as well as opportunities. Some governments, mand for natural resources is resulting in such as Malawi, have allocated funds for FLR In conclusion, we can agree that significant ad- a continuous pattern of land degradation in implementation activities, while other coun- ditional work is needed to take stock of the suc- the Sahel. tries work together with the private sector cessful cases of forest landscape restoration, ex- In response to this plight, the African Union and governmental and financial partners like pand communication, advocacy and outreach, launched the Great Green Wall Initiative the World Bank, the German Development and support the implementation of compre- (GGWI) for the Sahel and the Sahara in 2007. Ministry (BMZ), the German Environment hensive strategies and concrete plans to trigger The objective of this African-led initiative is Ministry (BMU) or the Global Environment the widespread adoption of FLR practices. The to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes by Facility (GEF). FLR Implementation on the AFR100 Initiative will accelerate restoration to planting an 8,000 km-long line of trees and ground follows the FLR strategy and is guid- enhance food security, increase climate change plants across the entire Sahel, from the At- ed by the countries. It is typically conducted resilience/adaptation and mitigation, support lantic coast of to the east coast of by the government itself through tree planting biodiversity conservation and combat drought, Djibouti. The initiative aims to curb desert- campaigns, by the over 30 technical partners, desertification and rural poverty. ification and transform millions of lives in such as the UN Food and Agriculture Or- one of the world’s poorest regions. So far, ganization (FAO), the World Wildlife Fund around 1,000 kilometres have been planted (WWF), WRI, IUCN etc., by private sector Mamadou Moussa Diakhité, Petra Lahann, Diana and provided food security, jobs and a rea- companies, or by local partners, such as grass- Mawoko, Teko Nhlapo and Camilla Shiluva Holeni son to stay for the millions who live along roots organisations, communities, women as- all work with the AUDA-NEPAD/AFR100 Secretariat. this forest line. sociations or youth groups. Contact: [email protected]