Africa losses about 2.8 million hectares of forests annually with land degradation affecting approximately 50 million hectares every year according to reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
As Africa’s living dynamics change coupled with a changing climate, it is likely that land-uses will increase and deforestation rates will be higher
Planting trees remain one of the most straightforward and easily adopted climate mitigation strategy in Africa to restore degraded landscapes because anyone can do it anywhere. In most cases, it can be cheaper than other restoration mechanisms that require little creativity or effort.
As the global population grows, Africa is also expanding. The needs of humanity demand more from nature, including more food, space for settlement and agriculture. Unfortunately, in the end, it is the forests that are cleared to pave the way for these demands.
Degraded ecosystems are not only an environmental problem but also a social and economic challenge as it limits core activities such as agricultural production, which is the primary source of livelihood to most African households. Therefore, establishing new forests and protecting, preserving, and conserving the existing ones, as well as restoring degraded lands, is an avenue to develop adaptive and mitigation strategies for climate change.
Essentially, forests act as carbon sinks by sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to generate biomass. For this sole purpose, foresting most of degraded African landscapes requires a sound and coordinated multi-stakeholder approach. Governments, the private sector, civil societies, research and academic institutions, indigenous communities, women, pastoralists, educators and individuals have to work jointly.
Upscaling tree planting initiatives and emphasizing tree growing-that is taking care of the trees from the planting period to maturity-is vital. Planting alone is not enough, but investing in nurturing the trees is the most important part of forestation.
In addition to nurturing trees, sensitizing and educating the public on specific restoration aspects, including legislations, ensures that correct ecological management practices are applied.
Siyabulela Sokomani, Managing Director of Nguni nursery in Cape Town South Africa,said that the African population needs to understand its landscapes and that robust environmental education needs to be enhanced and integrated into the school systems.
“We as Africans need to understand our biomes/landscapes like the Savannas, which is estimated to cover 60% of Africa, to tropical forests to deserts so we can understand their functions and how our biomes play a part in the world fight against climate change,” Mr. Sokomani said, “It is the role of our government to come up with legislation that protects our landscapes and have robust environmental education curriculums for the school systems.”
Mr. Sokomani added that most people assume that a tree is a tree and can grow anywhere. His advice is to plant the correct trees in the right areas, “to be successful in restoration, we must use the right planting material and techniques in the right landscape backed up by nature and science,” .
While governments should be at the forefront spearheading forestation initiatives, they require a boost from experts and conservation goodwill from their citizens. Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi, among other African governments, have outlined tree-planting targets to be achieved within a short span of time to restore degraded forests and increase the overall tree cover. Ethiopian and Kenyan citizens supported the tree planting process encouraging their governments in these nationwide endevours.
The role of civil society, research institutions and individual conservationists in forestation need to complement and support what governments are doing. This means ruling authorities have to take a leading role, outline feasible targets, costs, how and when to implement them and develop conservation-related legislations.
For instance, regulating wood harvesting and charcoal burning activities lowers deforestation incidences, increases forest covers and motivates many stakeholders to engage in tree growing projects.
Fostering a multi-sectoral collaboration provides an avenue to exhaust existing restoration frameworks and redesign new ones specific to a given area. Individuals and organizations can exchange ideas and replicate successes elsewhere. Besides, collaborations strengthen forestation initiatives.
A restoration initiative implemented collaboratively by the UNEP, FAO, IUCN, and ten countries in Africa and Asia among them are Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea Bissau is an example that shows the value of partnership in conservation matters.
While individual governments are responsible for conservation matters going within their territories, having a common forestation agenda regionally or across Africa will lessen degradation and prevent droughts and famine. More so, in areas where countries share a resource, like Lake Victoria, that directly benefits Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.
Deforestation in one area will affect the social, economic and ecological dynamics in another area. Therefore, rethinking new forestation approaches is inevitable.