Regreening Africa Initiative, a reforestation programme, says it plans to restore 5 million hectares of land by 2030 with additional investment across the continent.
The initiative hopes to achieve this by using a community-centred and research-based agroforestry and sustainable land management approach.
Regreening Africa is led by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) in partnership with CARE Nederland, Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam, Sahel Eco, and World Vision Australia, with investment from the European Union.
The initiative operated between 2017 and 2023 to restore 350,000 hectares under restoration in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, and Somalia, benefitting 600,000 households.
Notably, its approach was based on proven agroforestry techniques that were adapted to suit the needs of farmers under varying socio-ecological contexts.
“Highly degraded”
Some 83 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa are dependent on land for their livelihoods yet two thirds of the land is highly degraded, threatening livelihoods and the food and nutrition security of the poorest, most vulnerable farmers and pastoralists.
Tackling this challenge demands an ambitious approach, which include incorporating trees into cropland, communal land and pastoral areas to speed up the reclamation of Africa’s degraded landscapes.
Agroforestry has already been successfully deployed to reverse land degradation in specific places in Africa. The challenge now is to scale-up relevant practices across the continent.
“Honoured by the UN”
Lauded as one of “world’s most successful examples of healing the planet”, Regreening Africa was honoured as a UN World Restoration Flagship by the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in a gala event during the ongoing sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), holding at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
UNEA-6 is focusing on how multilateralism can help tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Backed by strong science, political resolve and engagement with society.
The Assembly will be an opportunity for world governments, civil society groups, the scientific community and the private sector to shape the global environmental policy.
As the planet’s only universal membership forum for the environment, UNEA provides a unique platform for courageous decisions and new ideas to chart a bold plan of collective environmental action. In so doing, UNEA-6 will support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UNEA-6 was preceded by a meeting of the Open-ended Committee of Permanent Representatives, held from 19 to 23 February, which helped lay the groundwork for the Assembly.
“It is an honour for Regreening Africa to be recognized as a flagship alongside such highly regarded and impactful ecosystem restoration programmes from around the globe,” chief executive officer of CIFOR-ICRAF, Éliane Ubalijoro, said.
“Restoration is absolutely foundational to addressing the interlinked crises we currently confront as a global community. Celebrating achievements to date, and supporting initiatives to further scale what works, is key to enabling the kind of action that’s needed to make meaningful impact,” she said.
Discover more from Pluboard
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.