Africa’s Great Green Wall project designed to plant trees to stop the advancement of the Sahara Desert, now presents the tremendous potential to curb climate-induced migration, unemployment, and growing insecurity from the Boko Haram terrorist group in particular among the youths and vulnerable communities, experts have said. The Pan-African project that began five years ago has now evolved to a practical slate of activities that is improving the livelihood of the poor, building resilience in herders and farmers’ communities as climate change continue to threaten. "The program has moved from just forest to tackle land degradation to other sustainable development challenges like land and water management, climate change, insecurity, job creation particularly for youths with many more countries embracing the initiative,” says Elvis Paul Tangem, African Union Commissioner in charge of the project. "The initiative now combines sustainable land and water management programs, agroforestry and tree planting, agriculture development and the fight against climate change,” Tangem said in an interview at the African Forest Forum September 30, 2016, in Lome-Togo. “Though sustainable development activities are counted amongst the innovations fronting the successes of the program, the continental political engagement and vision in agreeing for a harmonized approach to the execution of the different country and regional actions is cardinal,” he explained.Forest experts say the initiative is the largest environmental and development program undertaken currently in the continent, with more countries and regions embracing it after seeing the impacts and results achieved. "Many more countries are embracing the initiative now than when it started because of the development successes registered,” says Dr. Tieguhong Julius Chupezi, forest researcher and consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African Forest Forum. "The initiative has provided the platform and framework were countries, development partners, and practitioners, researchers and all stakeholders concerned with land degradation, desertification and drought can come together and work with a shared vision,” Tieguhong said. "The Great Green Wall initiative is increasingly seen as having the potential to tackle migration and insecurity issues that have continued to swell in many countries in the continent,” he said. Over 21 countries are now involved in several projects and activities in support of the initiative from which runs from the circum-Sahara area to the Horn of Africa, according to African Union officials. These include Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, and Somalia, Togo, and Ghana. However, Senegal, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, Ethiopia, and Nigeria are blazing the trail, epitomizing great examples with the development of market gardens that grow food and fruit trees for animals in the dry season, providing job opportunities for youths and thus curbing climate induce migration, said Tangem.Senegal has so far planted over 12 million trees stretching 150 kilometers and covering 40,000 hectares of land. Tangem says the Senegalese government intends to extend tree planting to about 545 kilometers covering 800,000 acres in the next few years.In Burkina Faso and Senegal, reintroducing animal feed and fruit trees for…

Some 244 farmers from Bangema local forest community in the Southwest region of Cameroon have taken court action against SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon PLC (SGSOC), a palm oil developer in Cameroon, reports Greenpeace Africa. The farmers say their communities have been affected by the large-scale palm oil plantation projects developed by the international agro-industry, calling on the Court of First Instance in Bangem, Southwest Cameroon, to render justice. Hearing on the matter has been set for 9 November, reports Greenpeace Africa. Greenpeace Africa is among the many civil society organizations fighting against land rights and forest conservation abuse in local communities in Cameroon and other parts in Africa . They have in this light championed campaigns to stop SGSOC from developing palm trees in the ecologically sensitive region of the Southwest region of Cameroon. In a press release of 4th October, 2016,Green Peace says two collective complaints involving 244 farmers were filed against SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC) on 27 September for trespass to land. 231 of these farmers from the village of Nguti, are demanding that SGSOC respect a 5km buffer zone around their farmlands. However, the concession area demarcated by SGSOC encroaches on many farms in the forest areas around Nguti, showing no respect for the buffer zone, says Greenpeace. “How are we going to live if SGSOC takes our farms? How are we going to eat? I have no other means. I don’t want money, because who knows for how many years it will last? It won’t help my children and grandchildren, but my farm will, as I have crops every year,” said Susan Tah Agbo, who takes care of 24 people thanks to her 20 hectares (49 acres) of farmland. In Babensi II, 13 farmers also went to court as their lands have been seized by SGSOC, without any consultation or prior agreement, writes Greenpeace Africa. “One day, I came to my farm, and I found that they had bulldozed everything. I knew I was going to develop this place to earn my living and when I die, my children will remain there, but today, I have no place. We are all crying here, and we don’t know how we can be rescued”, said Adolf Ngbe Ebong, a 62-year-old retired policeman. SGSOC, the Cameroonian company which holds a concession of approximately 20,000 hectares for palm oil plantation development, was owned by the US-based company Herakles Farms until 2015. Since 2009, when the company settled in Cameroon, Greenpeace Africa and national and international NGOs have released numerous documents based on investigations into the many misdeeds of SGSOC. “SGSOC activities are tainted with illegalities. Not only does their establishment convention with the Cameroonian government violate the law, but they also cleared the forest without a permit, intimidated several traditional chiefs and used bribery and promises which are yet to be realized to obtain local authorities’ favors”, said Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue, Greenpeace Africa forest campaigner. The provisional land lease granted via a presidential decree in November 2013 to SGSOC…

LOME, Togo (PAMACC News) - When logging concessions are issued with very limited terms, they are often spotlighted by conservationists as harbingers of ecological harm to come. Another serious threat is the existence of logging roads that have continued to damage the environment and forest even after the logging stops. A new study by forest experts has found out that logging, both legal and illegal, remains a lucrative business that has contributed to the rapid shrinking of Africa’s rainforests and woodlands. According to Ajewole Opeyemi Isaac of the department of forest resource management of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, the challenges associated with logging in the tropical rainforest in West and Central Africa are the root cause of the rapid depletion of forest resources in these regions.Key among these challenges is bad governance with limited term timber concessions that breeds corrupt practices, poor planning and management.“Limited-term timber concessions encourages short-term resource depletion, and poor forest planning and management, corruption which makes existing forestry laws nearly unenforceable,” Ajewole said at the presentation of his research paper during the African Forest Forum in Lome-Togo September 27, 2016.He said there was lack of transparency in commercial transactions with corrupt officials granting concessions to cronies without regard for the environment or consideration of local people.The study also highlighted the construction of logging roads to reach forest resources as destructive factor to the ecology in its own rights.“Logging roads have long term destruction of forest as it encourages settlement of previously inaccessible forest lands by speculators, land developers and poor farmers,” he said. Other studies experts say have found out that along these logging roads and landing areas, the soil increasingly becomes more dense and compact with slower water infiltration than in the surrounding, untouched areas of the forest.According to Stephen Anderson, a professor of soil science at the University of Missouri and coauthor of the study published in Geoderma and conducted by researchers at the University of Missouri in the U.S, “This can cause many environmental challenges in forests because dense soil prevents rainwater from soaking in, triggering run off and causing erosion. This erosion can carry fertile topsoil away from forests, which enters streams and makes it difficult for those forests being logged to regenerate with new growth as well as polluting surface water resources.”The repercussions, the study says can last far longer than the logging itself. The researchers found that logging roads and log landing areas were significantly denser and less able to absorb water four years after timber harvesting had ended. This can detrimentally affect the ability of logged forests to regenerate, the study revealed.Researchers at the African Forest Forum agreed that logging roads around the in many countries in the continent are piercing farther and farther into once-untouched forest in the quest for timber.“Logging roads are a major threat and cause for concern,” noted Nganje Martin, consultant with the African Forest Forum. The scenario is the same in Africa just like other forest areas in the world he pointed.Satellite images…

As stakeholder increasingly take steps to develop and implement forestry compatible development, there is increased need for a better understanding of forest related regional and international agreements experts say.Various presenters at the opening of a regional workshop on “sharing knowledge and experiences to strengthen collaboration among stakeholders in African forestry” in Lome Togo on September 26, 2016, agreed that a more in-depth understanding on forest intricacies was necessary to permit African countries draw maximum benefits from their huge spans of forest resources.The African forest scientists say, is worth far more than just REDD+ financing for carbon sequestration and storage, thus the need for a more deeper knowledge and understanding of its potential.“African countries need to strike the right balance to optimize benefits from their rich forest resources. The worth of the vast spans of rich African forest cannot be measured by just carbon sequestration and storage,” says Dr. Aster Gebrekirstos, a scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) at a presentation on knowledge gaps in climate change and its impact in Africa and the African Forest Forum in Lome, Togo.Aster who leads the Dendrochronology Laboratory in ICRAF says to address the gaps on multipurpose trees, there is need to raise awareness on untapped opportunities that can better contribute to the local needs of forest communities in Africa.Africa lacks long term climate data to better implement knowledge and science based investment to address forest conservation challenges. “Trees live for hundreds of years and store lots of information used as tools for climate data,” says Aster Gebrekirstos. The need for information and knowledge on forestry issues therefore has become more that ever before imperative in Africa to better improve forest management in a manner that better address poverty eradication and environmental protection.According to the AFF executive secretary, Godwin Kowero, Africa’s contribution in international processes has not been effective due to insufficient capacity , attributed to little understanding of the processes and this has resulted in poor ownership and low implementation of both regional and international agreements.And this where the African Forest Forum comes in handy “ to facilitate strengthening of Africa’s participation in regional and international debates and negotiations and actions related to forestry and enhance informed country adoption and implementation of international and regional forest and related agreements, ” Godwin said.The African Forest Forum has to that effect recently generated considerable information on various aspects of forestry that includes climate change, green economy, provision of quality tree germplasm, forest and tree pests and diseases, forest governance, forest certification and public-private partnership investment in the sector.Experts say African economies are largely market oriented with the private sector having a big role to in poverty alleviation. According to AFF executive secretary, there is a critical need to encourage private sector investments in forest management in Africa.“There is an urgent need to facilitate the development of an organized private sector in forestry for an all inclusive forest compatible sustainable livelihood development in Africa,” Godwin said.The Forum brought over 70 participants, experts in forestry issues…