IUCN’s Regional Technical Coordinator highlights two major issues regarding Landscape restoration and Agriculture
Charles Karangwa, Regional Technical Coordinator Forests Landscapes and Livelihoods IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa.
By: Justin Kayiranga
The Eastern and Southern Africa Technical coordinator at the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) highlighted two major issues that should be addressed and understood well in order to achieve sustainable agriculture within the restored landscape.
Charles Karangwa who was speaking last week at the Virtual forum entitled African Forum on Green Economy: Digging into agriculture explained that African Continent took a very huge ambition, and committed to restore hundred million hectares of degraded lands by 2030 and as we speak today nearly 127 million of hectares are under commitment within across 22 countries in Africa which shows that countries in Africa are thinking about issues that are affecting agriculture including declining soil fertility due to soil erosion, poor land management, deforestation and degradation issues around there but also issues related to water quality and availability of water.
Speaking on Forests landscape restoration within agriculture sector Karangwa highlighted two major issues which include Agriculture as not a standalone sector explaining that agriculture happens within a landscape of other sectors
“So, we are talking about infrastructures, we are talking about other sectors like water, Energy and other sectors where services happen! But also we are talking about settlements within the same landscape.” He explains
“So how do you make sure that within that particular landscape agriculture remains resilient depending of course on that integrated way of looking at the landscape level? “ Karangwa questioned while adding that these particular initiatives are being look about on the continent level in order to address them.
“And some of this issues we are talking about also include exaggerating of the increase of population among other things and all of this combined of course affect agricultural productivity.” He added.
Mr. Charles Karangwa also tackled the issue of the misunderstanding of forests sustainability and landscape restoration where he noted that many people tend to focus on forests only while “When we talk about forests and landscape restoration we are talking about a process of regaining ecological functionality within a landscape which enhances human wellbeing across degraded area.”
He noted that forests sustainability and landscape restoration means restoring healthy of lands and being able to secure the needs of people in very multiple way where you are securing not only food but also water and other needs that are really there within the landscape.”
Watch Full discussions here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3446&v=m0G6KW6788Q&feature=emb_logo#Africa
