Rwanda to host the Fifth African Forest Landscape Restoration Meeting Next week
By Ange de la Victoire DUSABEMUNGU
Rwanda is set to host the fifth African Forest Landscape Restoration Meeting next week starting from Tuesday, 25th May to 29th May 2021.
According to a note seen by TOPAFRICANEWS, the Rwanda Ministry of Environment and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), on behalf of the African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR100) Partnership are hosting the Fifth AFR100 Annual Partnership Meeting (APM5) to take place in Kigali, from 25th to 29th May 2021.
The African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR100) Initiative is a country- driven effort to scale up Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) across 100 million hectares in Africa by 2030.
The Fifth AFR100 APM will offer the opportunity to Member States and Development Partners at continental level to harmonize investments, replicate best practices and share the knowledge which will support in achieving AFR100 targets.
The AFR100 Initiative is working towards reaching various United Nations Conventions including Land Degradation- Neutrality, the multiple Sustainable Development Goals, the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, Family Farming as well as the Bonn Challenge and the Great Green Wall Initiative.
While this meeting is an opportunity to review the progress made, this is also a great moment for member states to accelerate the agenda on south-to-south learning exchange with Rwanda showcasing various restoration initiatives in the country.
Rwanda had set an ambitious target to achieve 30% forest coverage by 2020, which was achieved with 30.4% by 2020. Thanks a lot to the strong partnerships between the Government of Rwanda, the private sector, development partners and citizens.
A forest coverage map produced in 2019 showed that 30.4% of the country is covered with various types of forests.
Among many other restoration initiatives in Rwanda, currently, with funds from the International Climate Initiative (IKI), the government through Rwanda Forestry Authority in partnership with different partners including International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have started implementing a large scale forest and landscape restoration project in Nyagatare and Kirehe Districts in the Eastern Province of Rwanda.
The project aims to restore more than 25,000 hectares of degraded farmland in the above two districts and catalyse restoration efforts across the country by scaling up best practices and lessons learnt.
