BMZ senior policy Officer, AUDA-NEPAD secretariat Commend Rwanda’s Generosity to host AFR100 annual partnership meeting
Development partners attending the Fifth African Forest Landscape Restoration Meeting which takes place in Kigali from 25th to 26th May 2021 have expressed their gratitude to the Government of Rwanda for hosting this important meeting whose purpose is to discuss how to scale up Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) across 100 million hectares in Africa by 2030.
Speaking at the official opening of the meeting, Mr. Mamadou Moussa Diakhite, Team leader of AUDA-NEPAD and Executive Secretary of the AFR100 Secretariat accredited the Government of Rwanda’s commitment to host this meeting with generosity.
Mamadou Moussa Diakhite said “The AUDA-NEPAD on behalf of Africa Forest Landscape restoration partners would like to thank His Excellence President Paul Kagame, his Government and the Rwanda Ministry of Environment for accepting to host the fifth AFR100 annual partnership meeting in this beautiful City of Kigali, Rwanda, the land of thousands of hills.”
Moussa Diakhite added that “AFR100 has come a long way since its launch in December 2015 and has made good progress towards even more than its goal of bringing 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.”
“As countries look for the best pathways to build a more durable inclusive resilience economy, this meeting provides a unique and timely opportunity to stress that our lives are built on landscape literally and figuratively.” He added.
The African Forestry Conference was organized in collaboration with various donors and partners including Sweden, Germany, the African Union Agency for Development, Rwanda’s Ministry of Environment, IUCN to mention a few.
During the Meeting Mrs. Katharina Derkorn, Senior policy officer in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) said “Looking at the message that this meeting will bring I would like to thank the Government of Rwanda for its generosity to host this important meeting.”
She also acknowledged AUDA NEPAD Secretariat of AFR100 and all technical and financial partners united to share, to learn and to restore Africa’s strong movement.
The German government is one of the major donors to the African Forests Landscape restoration Initiative which is proud of the progress made by the AFR100 since its inception in 2015.
Mrs. Katharina Derkorn highlighted that since it was launched in December, 2015 in Paris, the African Forests Landscape restoration Initiative has done a lot of achievements.
“As of today, we count 30 countries which have committed to restore about 127 million hectares of forests and degraded lands by 2030.” She revealed.
However, she added, the number of technical problems has also significantly increased. Efforts of connected countries are impressive despite various challenges they are facing…including recent global challenges related to COVID 19 pandemic.
“Looking back at last year since the annual partnership began, we would see remarkable progress in AFR100. … This is really encouraging.” Mrs. Katharina said.
“We have seen a strong engagement and ownership from rural communities as well as involvement of women and youth in Forests Landscape restoration efforts.” Added Katharina in the same address.
The BMZ senior policy officer says all efforts are being made to help people living in member states to adapt to the effects of climate change while at the same time mitigating the effects of climate change to the biodiversity loss.
“We need to get everyone on board to contribute to AFR100 to the necessary scale.” She urged.
Participants at the meeting believe that putting more efforts on the ecosystem restoration, there is a need of no more than ever strong coordination to motivate partners so that AFR100 can become a driver of sustainable commitment to force Landscape restoration.
According to Mrs. Katharina, the German Engagement in AFR100 illustrates the multiple dimensions with forests and landscape restoration, biodiversity, inter-ecosystem services, secure access to land resources, positive impacts on climate change, poverty reduction and food security.
Apart from AFR100, there is also another project “Forests for Future” launched last year. It aims at enhancing the contributions of international efforts to foster landscape Restoration and of good governance in the forestry sector.
Mrs. Katharina affirms that “We consistently align ourselves with AFR100 partners, AUDA-NEPAD, IUCN, The Forests transfer facility of FAO, just to name a few.”
She assured that they will continue to support all efforts aimed at Forests Landscape Restoration in Africa.
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