Africa need to Design Right Policies to Drive Forest Landscape Restoration Efforts
Successful restoration generates a wide range of benefits–not only forest quantity but also enhancing food security, improved air and water quality, climate change resilience, job creations
By Ange de la Victoire Dusabemungu
Over the past decade, African nations have made significant commitments to restore their degraded forests and landscapes through initiatives like the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). With 34 African governments pledging to restore over 129 million hectares by 2030, the focus is now on turning these commitments into actions.
During a recent webinar hosted by the World Resources Institute, Tangu Tumeo, Forests, Landscapes and Livelihoods Program Officer at IUCN, highlighted the need for effective policies to support the African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR 100) initiative.
She said that Africa continues to face significant threats from deforestation, land degradation, and climate change.
To incentivize landowners, non-profits, and the private sector to actively participate in restoration efforts, Tangu emphasized the importance of innovative policies and strategies.
She said that “These policies should promote environmental resilience and community well-being while considering local stakeholders’ needs, environmental conditions, and socio-political realities.”
Several challenges currently hinder effective forest landscape restoration in Africa include Rapid population growth and high poverty which exert pressure on forest ecosystems, making restoration efforts more challenging. Land tenure insecurity, limited access to finance, weak governance, and market failures also pose obstacles to restoration projects.
To address these challenges, Tangu suggested designing a comprehensive policy mix that promotes biodiversity, increases resilience against climate change, and fosters sustainable livelihoods for long-term ecological and socio-economic benefits.
She said “Policymakers should prioritize local community engagement and participatory governance to ensure that restoration efforts align with stakeholders’ needs and values.”
In order to design an effective policy mix for forest landscape restoration in Africa, Tangu proposed several suggestions.
These include leveraging indigenous knowledge, science, and market research to create context-specific policies, establishing incentive mechanisms such as well-defined property rights and subsidies, forming multi-level partnerships with governmental, non-governmental, and private sectors, and implementing adaptive management strategies that promote innovative financing mechanisms.
By implementing these suggestions and designing the right policy mix, Africa can attract more players into forest landscape restoration efforts, ultimately leading to a more sustainable and resilient continent.
