NAIROBI, Kenya - (PAMACC News) The African Forest Forum (AFF), in partnership with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), have launched the AfricanYouth4Forests (AY4F) Community of Practice, an interactive platform designed to empower young professionals, students and entrepreneurs in the forestry sector across Africa. The AY4F Community of Practice will serve as a collaborative space where members can exchange ideas, share best practices, and co-create innovative solutions to advance forest conservation, enhance climate resilience, and unlock green economy opportunities. Through knowledge-sharing, capacity-building, and networking, the platform aims to equip Africa’s youth with the tools and resources needed to address pressing environmental challenges and contribute meaningfully to sustainable forest management. The live discussions will run from March 31 – April 11 virtually via Howspace. The program will feature interactive chat discussions during the first week and live webinars in the second week, ensuring an engaging and dynamic learning experience. Prof. Labode Popoola, Executive Secretary-CEO of AFF, emphasized the significance of engaging young people in forestry: “We recognize the critical role that young people play in shaping the future of Africa’s forests and tree resources. By providing a dynamic and inclusive space for engagement, we are fostering the next generation of forestry leaders and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to drive positive change.” Dr. Jane Njuguna, CEO of KEFRI, emphasized the importance of the virtual event, stating: “We are proud to collaborate with AFF and SLU on this AfricanYouth4Forests (AY4F) initiative, which empowers youth to take an active role in environmental stewardship and the sustainable management of our forests.” Sara Gräslund, Head of SLU Global, underscored the role of youth in sustainable forestry: "Africa’s youth is crucial in re-thinking sustainable forest management. There are great opportunities in acknowledging this and working together with young professionals and students who drive climate resilience, unlock green economy opportunities, and shape the future of forests.” The launch of the AY4F Community of Practice aligns with AFF’s broader mission to promote sustainable forest management and ensure that Africa’s forests continue to provide essential ecological, social, and economic benefits. With support from SLU and KEFRI, the initiative will facilitate research collaborations, mentorship programs, networking, and policy dialogues to enhance youth participation in forestry and environmental governance. Young changemakers, students, educators, activists, scientists, experts and policy makers in the forestry sector are invited to join the AY4F Community of Practice and be part of this transformative journey towards a greener and more sustainable Africa.

ELDORET, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Samson Tanui’s piece of land in Kesses, a village in the outskirts of Eldoret City is a living example of ecological farming, one of the themes that took centre stage at the just concluded 29th round of climate negotiations (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. On his plot, the father of two children has demonstrated how a quarter an acre of land can be used to produce food all year round without paying attention to seasonal rainfall, thereby generating daily income, and nourishing his family with fresh homegrown food. “This garden is my ecological mini-supermarket,” said Tanui. “At any given time, my family has access to different types of fruits such as oranges, guavas, bananas, mangoes and berries among others, fresh leafy vegetables, eggs, honey, chicken meat, goat milk, rabbit meat, tubers, freshly picked cereals like perennial beans, and soon we will have fresh fish from our makeshift fish pond,” he said. And now, experts at COP29 have called on leaders to avail funding for such innovative sustainable farming techniques as a way of building climate resilience and adaptation to climate change, thereby promoting sustainable food systems. Tanui employs permaculture farming system with adherence to agroecological farming techniques, where crops depend on the livestock for soil fertility in order to produce food for the family, and fodder and feeds for the livestock. As a result, biodiversity thrives, with insects like bees relying on crop flowers to make honey, while in the process, they cross pollinate the crops. During COP29 in Baku, delegates in different forums discussed about the need to promote sustainable food security, production and nutrition, while conserving, protecting and restoring nature as a way of adapting to the looming climate crisis. “As climate change profoundly disrupts food systems, the only way to safeguard global food security is to prioritise helping small-scale farmers to adapt to the new reality,” said Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). “The first step is for leaders at COP29 to set an ambitious goal for adaptation finance that allows food production to continue even as the planet warms.” If scaled up, experts observed that sustainable agricultural practices can reduce emissions, enhance food security, and create resilience against future climate shocks. “Small-scale farmers often live in poverty and have little choice. They must adapt or will starve,” said Lario, noting that adaptation is a matter of global food security, but also geopolitical stability. Tanui’s garden has been set up based on a deliberate plan in relation to the principles of permaculture, where it has been divided into five different segments. The first unit is his house, and right outside, there is the second unit, which is a kitchen garden, mainly featuring vegetables that include cabbages, kales, spinach, cowpeas, amaranth, egg plants, and chilli among others. “The kitchen garden unit must be set next to the house because it requires intensive management, and the crops planted there are needed in the kitchen from time to time,” said Tanui.…

BAKU, Azerbaijan (PAMACC News) - More than ever before, African environmental Civil Society Organisations, youth groups, and country representatives at the two week 29th climate change summit (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, united under one voice, calling on the Global North to keep the promise of climate finance, but desist from imposing loans on climate burdened countries. Kenya is one of the countries bedeviled with such climate related loans of which the government has no option, but to keep taxing the already overtaxed and climate burdened citizens in order to service the ‘climate finance’ debts. “It is quite immoral to burden African communities who are already paying the ultimate prize of climate change with unfair loans to mitigate a disaster, apparently caused by the financier,” said Jessica Mwanzia, the Climate Finance and Gender Lead at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). “Africa emits a paltry four percent of the total global greenhouse gases, most of which is absorbed just by one carbon sink – the Congo Basin, leaving the continent with almost no, or extremely insignificant emissions,” said the activist. The World Bank describes the Congo Basin as the “lungs of Africa”, being one of the largest forest-based carbon sinks in the world, absorbing up to 1.2 billion tons of carbon annually against 1.4 million tons of the emissions from the continent. “Africa faces a unique climate paradox,” said Dr Augustine Njamnshi, the Director - African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA). “We are a continent rich in biodiversity, vast forests, and vital ecosystems that help stabilise the planet, not to mention a continent rich with minerals essential for energy transition, yet, the most impacted by climate disasters,” he said. The civil society at COP29 intensified the pressure on the developed world to mobilise resources to support African communities with climate adaptation funds that are need-based, and in form of grants. Ironically, African countries including Kenya are already grappling with loans guised as ‘climate finance’ through projects that purport to ‘prevent further emission,’ or to sequester ‘existing greenhouse gases’ from the atmosphere. Furthermore, the climate financiers are seeking to recoup back money advanced to the country among other African countries to support climate adaptation projects. “How can a climate change financier seek to be paid back money invested in a water project for example, set up for a community whose water sources have been destroyed as a result of climate change?” asked Mwanzia. “Loans are supposed to be given to business entities whose main objective is to make profits and not to communities struggling to adapt to climate related disasters,” she said. Through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the world largest facility for climate finance that was established within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist developing countries with climate change adaptation and mitigation activities, Kenyan tax payers are among African communities that have been exposed to debt burdens amounting to hundreds of billions of shillings in the name of climate finance.…

BAKU, Azerbaijan (PAMACC News) – African environmental activists at the ongoing COP29 climate summit in Baku are urging climate financiers to stop burdening poor countries with unmanageable loans under the guise of funding climate adaptation and mitigation projects. Just a few months ago, widespread protests erupted in East and West Africa, led by young people demanding an end to heavy taxes imposed by governments to service foreign loans—many of which have been embezzled by corrupt leaders. “We reject loans and any form of debt for a continent that had no role in causing global warming. We refuse to borrow from the arsonist to put out the fire they started and which is burning our livelihoods,” said Dr. Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). According to PACJA, between 70 and 80 percent of financing from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to African countries comes in the form of loans, often routed through intermediaries. In practice, only a fraction of these funds—sometimes less than 10 percent—actually reach the climate-burdened communities that need them most. “We demand that these finances be directed first and foremost toward those most exposed to climate risks and least able to adapt,” Dr. Mwenda continued. “This means moving beyond fragmented and delayed funding and ensuring a reliable, affordable, accessible, and timely flow of finance—preferably in the form of grants—that matches the scale of the crisis,” he said during Africa Day, an annual event organized by the African Development Bank on the sidelines of COP29. One of the many problematic financial instruments imposed on African countries is the Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative (SRMI) Facility. This initiative, primarily a mitigation project aimed at offsetting 89 million tons of carbon emissions, has seen six African countries and one from Asia-Pacific (Kenya, DR Congo, Namibia, Mali, Botswana, and the Central African Republic) saddled with a loan of USD 1.6 billion. This loan, intended to offset emissions primarily from the Global North, will have to be repaid by the very communities already bearing the brunt of climate change. Despite Africa contributing less than 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, these countries are expected to repay loans taken for projects designed to mitigate the environmental damage caused by wealthier nations. The GCF approved the project on March 19, 2021, with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association overseeing its implementation, under the supervision of Mr. Zhihong Zhang, a Senior Carbon Finance Specialist based in Washington, D.C. Another example is the Leveraging Energy Access Finance (LEAF) Framework, approved on July 1, 2021, and implemented by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The project, meant to help Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tunisia avoid emitting 29.9 million tons of greenhouse gases, requires repayment of a loan amounting to USD 959.9 million. The burden of this loan will fall on poor taxpayers, many of whom are already suffering the impacts of climate change. Activists argue that focusing on mitigation loans for African countries is…