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By Baboloki Semele
Forest management stakeholders are bracing themselves for an information-sharing workshop on challenges and opportunities for forest management in Africa slated for 28 March to 1 April 2022 in Mombasa, Kenya to be held under the theme “Strengthening management and use of forest ecosystems for sustainable development in Africa”.
The project seeks to generate and share knowledge and information through partnerships in ways that will provide inputs into policy options and capacity-building efforts for improved forest management that will, in turn, better address climate change impacts, as well as contribute to poverty alleviation and environmental protection in Africa.
According to a concept note availed to this publication by African Forest Forum, this project aims at identifying and promoting opportunities for protecting and sustainably managing the forest resource base to enhance the supply of ecosystem goods and services and examining the potential for production and use of liquid biofuels in Africa as a means towards developing green and circular national economies, among others.
The concept note says to pursue these objectives, AFF has undertaken studies that target sustainable management and use of land-based ecosystems, with preservation of biodiversity, in eastern, central, southern, and western Africa (focusing on the current status of land management policies and practices in different forest types in Africa), strengthening the capacity of stakeholders in African forestry to contain loss of forest cover in different forest types (focussing on the dynamism of key drivers responsible for forest cover loss) in these four sub-regions, assessment of forest planning and forest management processes and practices in different forest types in the four sub-regions, the potential of countries, in the four sub-regions, for production and use of liquid biofuels, and also use of the same as a strategy for developing green and circular economies.
With funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), AFF is also implementing a project titled “African forests, people and climate change”. The project seeks to create capacities of stakeholders to strengthen the role of Africa’s forests and trees to adapt to climate change and mitigate its adverse effects in various landscapes in ways that will enhance livelihoods, sustain biodiversity, and improve the quality of the environment.
Some of the specific objectives of the project are to strengthen the capacity of African forestry stakeholders in adopting best practices that integrate both adaptation and mitigation options in response to the impacts of climate change and variability to biophysical and social systems in different landscapes; to enhance national forest governance by strengthening the capacity of African stakeholders to respond to the Paris Agreement and related global climate change policies and initiatives related to forestry; to promote entrepreneurship opportunities and technologically efficient means for value addition in African forestry, including those related to climate change, that enhance livelihoods, national incomes, and employment.
And in that regard, to pursue these objectives, AFF undertook several studies in different forest types in the different African sub-regions, studies which targeted strengthening capacity of forestry stakeholders, from selected African countries, to integrate and uptake climate change adaptation and mitigation options; enhancing capacity for REDD+ implementation in selected sub-Sahara African countries; enhancement of national forest governance to respond to the Paris Agreement and related global climate change policies and initiatives in central, western, eastern and southern Africa; strengthening capacity of African forestry stakeholders on the implementation of forest and tree-based adaptation and mitigation options in different landscapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Zambia and exploring the use of dryland resources and commodities to promote nature-based entrepreneurship opportunities that enhance livelihoods, national incomes, and employment; focusing on gums and resins, specifically assessing the status of its resource base, production, and trade in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Niger and Tanzania.
The release further says the outputs of these studies will contribute to achieving the overall objectives of the two projects, and more specifically in guiding the design and implementation of sustainable resources management policies and practices in Africa in the context of changing climate.
The objectives of the 5-day workshop to be held in hybrid format, are to pursue the enhanced exchange of experiences and skills among stakeholders on challenges faced by those managing land, forest, and trees resources, and opportunities these resources offer.
They will also pursue the exchange of specific experiences related to, for example, responses to the Paris agreement, REDD+ implementation, the resilience of people (livelihoods), and national economies to climate change. It is envisaged to realize shared experiences on current governance and management of land, forest, and tree resources and on required policies and institutional frameworks that could enhance the sustainable management of these resources in the context of changing climate as well as address knowledge gaps and capacity building needs identified for implementing appropriate approaches for improving the management of land, forest and tree resources.