Campaign For Nature

July 21, 2022
At the Africa Nature Finance Forum, held yesterday on the sidelines of the inaugural African Protected Areas Congress (APAC) 2022, government leaders and experts from across Africa called for an urgent increase in financing to protect the world’s biodiversity.

“By 2100, we may lose half of our bird and animal species, 20-30% of the productivity of African lakes and significant numbers of our plant species,” said Hon. Lee White, Minister of Water, Forests, the Sea, and Environment, Gabon. “In this context, without strong action, we will create instability and security issues all over the African continent. One of the key elements is the mobilization of predictable and sustainable resources. This is why we need to think about innovative and sustainable finance for nature.” 

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IUCN

July 19, 2022
The IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) taking place in Kigali this week offers an opportunity for BIODEV2030 stakeholders from six African countries - Benin, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Uganda – to demonstrate their progress in mainstreaming biodiversity in priority business sectors.

BIODEV2030 is working in a total of 16 countries, testing different approaches to mainstream biodiversity and catalyse voluntary commitments in key economic sectors. At a global level, BIODEV2030 is sharing its outcomes and lessons learned to inspire other countries to take similar action in support of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework being negotiated under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

In addition to the countries mentioned above, BIODEV2030 is operating in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, and Tunisia, as well as in Fiji, Guyana, and Vietnam.  Such diversity creates a unique opportunity for the countries to learn from each other, based on a shared multi-stakeholder diagnosis and dialogue, which reflects each country’s particular realities.

“Mainstreaming is a subject that is often misunderstood and largely theoretical, which is why a practical, evidence-based approach at the country level is so welcome,” said Sonia Peña Moreno, Director of IUCN’s International Policy Centre.  

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PHYS.ORG

July 18, 2022
Delegates from across Africa launched Monday in Rwanda the first continent-wide gathering about the role of protected areas in ensuring the future of our planet.

The IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) is being held just a few months before the COP15 summit in December when global leaders are aiming to adopt a much-delayed pact to shield nature from the damage wrought by human activity.

"Protected areas are critical for the survival of the planet," International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) director general Bruno Oberle said on the opening day of the talks in the capital Kigali.

"And the more we manage them for the benefit of people and nature,the more we will build a future where everyone—human and animal—thrives," he said on Twitter.

Organisers said APAC will aim to shape the role of protected and conserved areas in safeguarding Africa's wildlife, delivering vital ecosystem services, and promoting sustainable development while conserving the continent's cultural heritage and traditions.

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BBC

March 16, 2022
Made up of 115 islands dotting the Indian Ocean off East Africa, Seychelles is known as a global hotspot for biodiversity. With as much as 85% of its animals and 45% of its plant species considered endemic, the archipelago is sometimes called the "Galapagos of the Indian Ocean". And both on land and in the ocean, different groups are working to preserve this ecological paradise.

This year, after creating a sophisticated zoning plan and completing extensive conversations with representatives from the country's tourism, fishing, petroleum and conservation efforts, the island nation is prepared to fully implement the landmark Marine Spatial Planning Initiative it announced several years ago: to protect 30% of its ocean territory. Tourism, climate change and other factors have already greatly impacted the environment of the Seychelles' more populated "Inner Islands", so this agreement – part of a deal to write off its national debt in exchange for conservation measures – is now aimed at protecting its 72 low-lying coralline "Outer Islands" from development before it's too late.

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Mongabay

January 6, 2022
Ten countries in the western Indian Ocean are banding together to create a network of marine conservation areas under the banner of the Great Blue Wall.

The idea is to push through conservation areas, including those that straddle national boundaries, to bridge the gap between how much of the ocean is protected and how much needs to be secured. A recent assessment revealed the cost of failing to do so: coral reefs in the region are at high risk of collapsing in the next 50 years.

“Most of what needs to be done is already happening, governments are creating Marine Protected Areas [MPAs], local communities are setting up locally managed marine areas,” said Thomas Sberna, a regional head for Eastern and Southern Africa at global conservation authority the IUCN. “But is it happening fast enough, is it big enough? No.”

Only around 5-8% of the marine area in the Indian Ocean is under some form of legal protection, a far cry from the goal of protecting 30% of Earth’s land and oceans by 2030. Known as “30 by 30,” this goal has gained traction globally ahead of a landmark biodiversity summit this year.

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African Arguments

September 23, 2021
Earlier this week, nine philanthropic organisations launched the “Protecting Our Planet Challenge” and pledged $5 billion to protect and conserve 30% of the planet by 2030 (30×30). This can be achieved by supporting protected areas and indigenous stewardship of their territories. This marks the largest-ever philanthropic commitment to nature conservation.

Whilst this may not naturally lead you to consider the implications for peace and security, this type of financial commitment could play an important role in the global effort to bring peace, prosperity and sustainability to the continent of Africa.

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NBC News

September 13, 2021
Without immediate action to combat climate change, rising sea levels, water scarcity and declining crop productivity could force 216 million people to migrate within their own countries by 2050, the World Bank said in a new report on Monday.

The report, Groundswell 2.0, modeled the impacts of climate change on six regions, concluding that climate migration “hotspots” will emerge as soon as 2030 and intensify by 2050, hitting the poorest parts of the world hardest.

Sub-Saharan Africa alone would account for 86 million of the internal migrants, with 19 million more in North Africa, the report showed, while 40 million migrants were expected in South Asia and 49 million in East Asia and the Pacific.

Such movements will put significant stress on both sending and receiving areas, straining cities and urban centers and jeopardizing development gains, the report said.

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Campaign For Nature

August 24, 2021

Africa’s prosperity depends on preserving its vast natural wealth, yet the continent’s natural capital stocks are dwindling rapidly, concludes a new report released today by the German government.  

The report, one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of the strong links between Africa’s development and nature protection, is the latest study to lay out evidence that economic recovery and nature protection are closely intertwined. It emphasizes that investing in nature is a critical development strategy, with benefits that are 8-9 times the costs.

Written by a team of researchers from Germany, Morocco, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Côte d’Ivoire, the study shows that the continent’s most important economic sectors--including agriculture, fishing, tourism and hydropower--will thrive if nature is protected. The study also points to the critical role nature plays in building resilience against the impacts of climate change, including natural hazards and disasters.   

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PR Newswire

June 8, 2021
The Wyss Foundation today announced a commitment of up to $108M to African Parks, a South African based conservation NGO that manages protected areas on behalf of governments across the continent. This transformational commitment is part of Mr. Hansjorg Wyss's visionary Wyss Campaign for Nature, a $1B investment in helping nations, NGO's and indigenous communities conserve 30% of the planet by 2030 and is one of the largest single gifts ever made to the conservation of Protected Areas in Africa.

The Foundation's commitment will be made over an initial five-year period to support up to half of the annual budgets of nine existing parks currently under African Parks' management in Angola, Benin, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe; as well as support the addition of five new parks (which are yet to be identified) and up to two-thirds of their annual budgets. The funding for these new parks will come with a matching requirement with the goal of enticing new and diversified funders to provide needed stability for these landscapes. The grant overall serves a critical need in long-term and sustainable, multi-year financing, providing critical support for a park's operating budget, which can vary between $1.5M to $4M per year.

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SciDev.Net

March 10, 2021
Biotechnology, indigenous knowledge, climate change and banana trees. This week, Africa Science Focus sits down with United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity executive secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema to discuss biodiversity and environment on the continent.

With the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration officially launching in June, local solutions and innovations will play a leading role in driving sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa, Mrema says.

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Business Green

March 12, 2020
Corporate investment in carbon offsets is helping to fund a project in West Africa that is delivering on multiple Sustainable Development Goals through its protection of precious forest habitats and its services for local communities.

The Upper Guinean Forest of West Africa is one of only three forested biodiversity hotspots in Africa. Until the end of the 19th century it covered most of Sierra Leone, Liberia, South-East Guinea, Southern Ivory Coast and South-West Ghana, but less than a fifth of this rainforest remains today.

The Greater Gola Landscape, straddling the Sierra Leone-Liberia border comprises the largest remnant of this critical ecosystem - over 350,000 hectares in a mosaic of protected areas, community forests, and smallholders' agricultural lands.

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The Africa Report

March 11, 2020
One year ago, when Cyclone Idai slammed into Mozambique, pummeling Beira with a 20-foot storm surge, very few people were prepared for the force and fury of that superstorm.

Thousands dead or missing nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops were damaged or destroyed. Millions impacted by flooding and ruined infrastructure. Billions of dollars in economic losses.

Gorongosa National Park was an island amidst this storm.

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