Africa’s environment leaders and experts are meeting in Rwanda to boost global forest landscape restoration commitments to 100 million hectares
More than 50 environment leaders and experts are meeting in Kigali on July 26th and 27th to boost forest landscape restoration (FLR) across the region through two parallel events: the Africa High Level Bonn Challenge Roundtable, and the International Knowledge Sharing Workshop on FLR.
New pledges that will be made at the meeting are expected to take global FLR commitments to 100 million hectares.
The High Level Bonn Challenge Roundtable brings together leaders in government from over 20 African countries that have demonstrated leadership on forest landscape restoration, as well as delegates from international organisations supporting these endeavours.
During this meeting, countries will discuss key aspects for the success of the implementation of FLR including policy, finance opportunities, and assessment of restoration opportunities on-the-ground.
High-level participants will work together exchanging information and knowledge of the work currently done in FLR in their countries, as well as identifying collaboration opportunities within the region.
“We are pleased collaborate in hosting this roundtable with the Government of Rwanda, a country that has demonstrated a clear commitment to restoring its forests and degraded land. By bringing together high level delegates and experts from Africa, we are confident the ambitious targets of the Bonn Challenge will be achieved across the continent,” said Luther
Bois Anukur, Regional Director, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Alongside the Roundtable, an additional 70 forestry experts from around the world will attend a workshop to exchange knowledge and experience in Forest Landscape Restoration.
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.
Rwanda offered to host these two meetings as part of its continued commitment and strong leadership on the protection and rehabilitation of its forests and restoration of degraded lands. During the meetings, Rwanda will share its landscape restoration efforts that have not only protected and rehabilitated landscapes, but also improved lives.
Rwanda has committed to restore two million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2020. This commitment was made as part of the Bonn Challenge – a global aspiration to restore 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded lands by 2020, extended to 350 million by 2030 during the New York Declaration of 2014.
This commitment will improve the quality and resilience of ecosystems, improve livelihoods, secure the country’s water and energy supply and support low carbon economic development.
As part of these efforts, the Government of Rwanda recently established one of Africa’s newest national parks – the Gishwati-Mukura Forest, which is being rehabilitated under the principles of the Bonn Challenge commitment – restoring ecological integrity while also improving human wellbeing. Rwanda is also currently hosting the Regional Hub/Centre of Excellence on Forest Landscape Restoration for Eastern and Southern Africa.
“Landscape restoration is about more than simply planting forests. With the restoration of forests and land, we can overcome climate challenges and food security issues and help improve the wellbeing of our people. Rwanda has taken a proactive approach to conservation and green growth, created robust policy and institutional frameworks and strengthened national capacity to ensure the environment is at the heart of everything we do. These efforts are helping us to tackle the many environmental challenges we face,” said Vincent Biruta, Minster of Natural Resources.
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