The African forestry is severely endangered.

This is a consensus shared by many forestry experts, policy makers and concerned stakeholders in the field across the continent.

They believe that there is need to understand the issues plaguing the forests as well as exchange knowledge and experiences with themselves on ways to stop the loss of further forest areas and how to restore the losses.

This was the major aim at this year’s regional workshop organised by the African Forest Forum (AFF), in collaboration with the University of Lome, Togo. The workshop which, lasted for five days in the coastal Togolese capital city, saw an array of professionals presenting their findings and recommendations on the state of the different aspects of African forestry.

“This workshop was organised with the primary intention of sharing information on the results of our work in the past two to three years with the wider public in Africa. We intend to see how we can move forward with some of the issues that came from this work and that is why we have assembled people from different sectors, not only forestry but even the media to highlight the issues we think are of crucial relevance to the continent,” said Godwin Kowero, Executive Secretary of the AFF.

The AFF is a network of experts committed to the sustainable management, use and conservation of the forest and tree resources of Africa.

Forests play a great role in gathering and releasing water for the maintenance of the habitats of flora and fauna. Forests reduce the effects of flooding, dry land salinity and desertification.

Recognising the role trees play in our ecosystem and to our existence cannot be overstressed, says Aster Gebrekirtos, a dendrologist at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. He believes the importance of preserving the forests is a matter of grave concern.

“Trees matter because they are a source of food, water, nutrition, fuel and much more. Our earth would be inhabitant without trees as they cool the environment. Without trees, we would not survive so it is important to plant and to conserve what we have,” she adds.

Records show that 1.6 billion people depend on forests for livelihoods, medicine, fuel and food. Forests also cover one-third of the earth’s land mass, contributing significantly to reducing soil erosion and the risks of landslides, avalanches and other natural disasters.

According to Gebrekirtos, the reason forestry appears to be a neglected field is because people have failed to see the other advantages of forests aside logging and as a carbon sink.

With better awareness, private sector engagement and more favourable policies aimed at regulating the way trees are felled for fuel, food and shelter, she believes, a lot of improvement can be recorded.

Joshua Cheboiwo, Coordinator for the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), who presented a study on the state and potential of public private partnership in the sector from East Africa, agrees as he points out that the “forest sector is emerging as an attractive investment destination in the region and has attracted many players. The private sector will increasingly play greater role in both primary and secondary production.”

He, however, notes that the key actors in the forestry sector are segregated and need to be organised into efficient production units.

As to the danger facing the African forest, Francis Bisong, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Science in the University of Calabar in Cross River State, attributes it to the growing population and cultural norms that encourage large families.

“The African forest is seriously endangered because of the human impacts like the population growth and meeting the needs of an expanding population for food, housing, transportation, energy supply and more. All this will be, if not properly managed, at the expense of forest land. Agriculture is done at the expense of forest land and so is development,” says te Nigerian.

In his opinion, the role sustainable development plays in protecting the forest as well as meeting the development needs of people is critical as Africa remains “the fastest growing region in the world with a significantly high birth rate.”

His words: “Cultural norms are such that large families are highly encouraged and this increases dependency on the natural forest for survival. There is therefore a need for proper planning that demands sustainability.”

Another aspect of sustainable forest management that was raised centred on the need for better tree quality which Marie-Louise Avana Tientcheu, an expert in tree germplasm from West Africa, believes will improve the quality of forest products/services and their resistance to pest and diseases which could benefit future generations.

Although pests and diseases have historically militated against the realisation of optimal yields in forestry, Harrison Kojwang, who studies the state of pest and diseases in southern Africa, believes that concerted efforts on pests and disease control and management with regards to control of movement and surveillance of plants as well as better training of forest managers can reduce or wipe out the effects.

He states that the economic and ecological costs of pests and diseases can be huge, and their recent and continuing spread need urgent and concerted regional efforts.

It also pays to consider the major role trees play in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases at a time when the whole world is talking about how to mitigate the effects of climate change, he stresses.

With climate change prediction models clearly revealing that Africa will suffer the most negative impacts of the phenomenon, it is imperative to deal seriously with the declining forests, he further notes.

While most African countries are party to the International Environmental Agreements in the UN-systems like the REDD +, AR-CDM, AFOLU and other global initiatives set up to maximise the forest’s role in addressing climate change, they rarely fully utilise these mechanisms for their socio-economic and environmental benefit.

In a presentation, Fredrick Mulenga points out that African countries need to implement forest-based mitigation mechanisms using more domestic budget financing than depending on pledges and foreign donors, which has been the case in many African countries.

According to him, countries facing the challenges of implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation could learn from successful fellow African countries and elsewhere.

Without a doubt, forests and trees must be in good condition and managed sustainably to effectively support peoples’ livelihoods, national economies and the environment. It is also clear that there is very little time left to act which is why AFF hope the different findings from the different regions across the continent shared at the workshop could help intensify action for sustainable forest management among the different stakeholders.

By Bunmi Obanawu, EcoNigeria

The Central and West Africa Programme of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN-PACO) workshop for media and communication experts on Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) practices kicked-off on Monday in Lome, Togo with participants from 12 countries of the of the Building Resilience through Innovation, Communication and Knowledge Services (BRICKS) Sahel and West Africa Programme advocating for a more robust collaboration.

The participants also called for support and a network to enable progress through knowledge management on best practices in communication and its tools across the West Africa and the Sahel region.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Ms. Bora Masumbimko of the IUCN described the regional capacity building workshop of media men and women, and notably the new generation of professionals, on the theme of land and water management, as being “in line with the implementation of the BRICKS project.” The workshop, she adds, will allow the involvement of media men and women in the efforts towards fighting against land and water degradation and more specifically promoting successful conservation approaches through their wider dissemination.

The Togolese Minister of Environment and Forest Resources, represented by Mr. Djutonou Folly, the Forestry Director in the Ministry, welcomed the participants and acknowledged that media men and women, who constitute major relays in communication mechanisms, are sometimes the only source of not only information, but also education for many people.

“It is therefore crucial to make sure that they are trained, informed and sensitised on natural resource conservation in general and SLWM in particular, so that they can fully play their role,” he states.

Organised in collaboration with the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), the Sahel Observatory (OSS) and the World Bank, the workshop is part of the implementation the BRICKS project to support the Great Green Wall Initiative for the Sahara and Sahel (GGWISS), a project aimed at planting a wall of trees across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert as a means to prevent desertification.

The five-day workshop, which has “Sustainable land and water management in SAWAP countries: Issues, challenges and local strategies” as its theme will, according to the organisers, allow the involvement of the media practitioners in the efforts towards fighting land and water degradation and more specifically promoting successful conservation approaches through their wider dissemination.

The workshop is also expected to outline IEC tools that will function well at the grassroots level (local level), while also providing correct and documented information on the causes, consequences, eco-citizen behaviors to be adopted in order to prevent land and water degradation and specifically promote existing conservation approaches.

The Lome forum will likewise provide an opportunity for producing a video on the “Ambassadors” of the Integrated Disaster and Land Management Project (IDLMP) for the Frogleaps site.

The BRICKS project is a six-year regional knowledge and monitoring hub for a $1.1 billion regional programme of 12 World Bank financed country operations plus related partner-supported activities that together contribute to the region’s and clients’ GGWISS priorities. BRICKS is implemented by three regional organisations recognised as centres of excellence: the CILSS, OSS and IUCN-PACO.

These organisations facilitate technical knowledge exchanges and monitoring services among the 12-country investment operations in the broader World Bank/GEF Sahel and West Africa Programme (SAWAP). Each organisation is responsible for implementing discrete activities related to resilient and carbon-smart natural resources management in the Sahel and West Africa region, focusing on biodiversity, crop, range, forest, water resources, and disaster risk management in arid, sub-humid and humid landscapes.

BRICKS was approved by the World Bank Board on September 4, 2013 and the Grant Agreements were signed at a ceremony with the leadership of the respective three Implementing Agencies (CILSS, OSS, and IUCN) on October 15, 2013 in Washington DC. The Project was declared effective on November 26, 2013.

The 12 countries are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Togo.

Ahead of the full implementation of the Ogoni clean-up, the apex mass-based organisation of the Ogoni people, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), has commenced the process of generating a comprehensive database of graduates, contractors and artisans in Ogoniland.

President of MOSOP, Comrade Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, made this known on Monday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the end of an engagement with representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The MOSOP President noted that the process of compiling a database of Ogoni professionals, graduates, skilled and unskilled personnel was necessary to assess Ogoni’s human capacity and the level of training required for the engagement of the Ogoni people for the clean-up exercise.

“As part of our preparations, we will launch a database of Ogoni graduates and contractors so we can have a good understanding of our capacity as a people ahead of the full implementation of the clean-up exercise,” he said. “We also need data on artisans, all skilled and unskilled personnel so that we can competently determine our training requirements.”

Pyagbara hinted that the full implementation of the clean-up exercise is expected to be accompanied with sustainable livelihood programmes like job creation, entrepreneurship development, training and massive infrastructural development.

In June 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the process to clean-up Ogoniland. This was followed by the inauguration of the Governing Council and Board of Trustees of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) – the implementation framework set up by the Federal Government for the clean-up of Ogoniland and other impacted communities in the Niger Delta region.

The Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, has become the first carbon neutral airport in Asia-Pacific. Similarly, the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, USA, has been named North America’s first carbon neutral airport.

The two airports were recently named along with France’s Nice Cote d’Azur Airport, located southwest of Nice, as being carbon neutral, bringing the total number of airports in that category to 170.

While the Indira Gandhi International Airport serves as the primary civilian aviation hub for the National Capital Region of Delhi, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest hub for American Airlines, which is headquartered near the airport.

The disclosure was made at the 39th International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Assembly that held last week in Montreal, Canada, where stakeholders agreed on a Global Market Based Measure to address international airline emissions. As is customary, Airports Council International released the annual results for the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme covering the period June 2015 to June 2016, to report on how the global airport industry is delivering on its commitment to lower its own CO2 emissions, made in 2007.

Now in its seventh year, the global programme certifies airports at four different levels of accreditation covering all stages of carbon management (Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality). It is independently administered, institutionally-endorsed and has already won praise from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), ICAO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Commission (EC).

Announcing the annual results, Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World, commented: “It’s been an incredible year for Airport Carbon Accreditation, with applications to the programme still increasing and new developments such as the important partnership with the UNFCCC and its Climate Neutral Now initiative signed at the COP21 climate negotiations. In terms of results, in the past year, accredited airports succeeded in collectively reducing the CO2 emissions under their direct control by 206,090 tonnes of CO2 – enough energy to power over 86,000 households for a year.”

She added: “The momentum keeps building. As of this week, we now have 170 airports in the programme and over 36% of global air passenger traffic – well over two billion passengers – now travel through airports certified at one of the four levels of the programme. I also particularly want to congratulate the latest airports to become carbon neutral – Nice Cote d’Azur Airport, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport – North America’s first carbon neutral airport – and Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport – the first carbon neutral airport in Asia-Pacific.

“These recent accreditations highlight that carbon neutrality is no longer just a goal shared by airports worldwide – with 26 such airports now in the programme, it is becoming a tangible reality. The constant efforts of airports to move up the levels in the programme is one of the reasons for the success of Airport Carbon Accreditation.”

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, commented: ‘’COP21 was about engaging governments at the highest level, but effective climate action must also be significantly supported by a progressive private sector – sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. What Airport Carbon Accreditation has achieved over the past seven years is both surprising and inspiring. By charting a clear path airport operators are acting across a range of measures, from mapping their CO2 emissions, reducing them and engaging others, up to becoming carbon neutral too – there is much that other industries can learn from this and even emulate.”

The annual results of Year 7 (2015-2016) of Airport Carbon Accreditation are available here.