KIGALI, Rwanda (PAMACC News) Conservation experts at the 2016 Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) conference have called on the private sector to play a leading role in protection and sustainable management of forests and the entire biodiversity in the Central Africa region.

Speaking on the first day of the conference, Andrea Athanas, Program Design Director at the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) said that with the growing population amid the changing climatic conditions, people continue to invest so as to improve production and create space for settlement, thus putting pressure on wildlife habitats.

“Massive investments are coming in this region that has put pressure on land and water resources, and this has huge implications on wildlife in particular,” Athanas said. “We need to sit with the private sector and engage in constructive solution creation,” she added.

So far, it has been observed that with over 500 delegates attending the 16thgeneral assembly of CBFP, the private sector is minimally represented with only companies in eco-tourism and forest sector in attendance.

Jef Dupain, Regional Director, Central and Western Africa at the AWF also underlined the importance of bringing on board the private sector, because, many times the private sector is willing to participate in conservation but, often, they do not understand well the roles they can play because of lack of information.

It is believed that the private sector can reinforce the conservation of wildlife resources and habitat, while re-investments in communities can enable those societies live side by side with wildlife and have economic opportunities through access to value chain and achieve economic growth.

According to Athanas, AWF is already working with the private sector in landscapes where the organisation operates in sectors of palm oil production, mining, dam and road construction among others.

This, said Athanas, has created space for the companies to move in a way that is compatible with wildlife conservation.

The experts meeting at the CBFP seeks to create groupings that will include international NGO’s, development partners, private sector, government and local community based organisations with representatives to meet in a council.

The 5-day meeting is expected to produce concrete outputs of direct relevance and value to CBFP members and practitioners in the field as well as key recommendations addressed to policymakers on a limited and well-focused set of crucial issues.

KIGALI, Rwanda (PAMACC News) - The 16th Meeting of Parties of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) kicks off in Kigali, Rwanda on November 21, with over 500 delegates from governments, organisations – both the public and private sectors, representatives from civil society and the academic and scientific community looking forward to developing policies and other means of dealing with the challenges facing the Congo Basin forests.

Other issues to be discussed include land use planning, conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources, including the fight against wildlife trafficking, climate change, sustainable economic development and private sector knowledge-based decision-making among others.

So far, Heads of State and Government of the Congo Basin countries have confirmed their commitment to the principles of conservation of the biodiversity and the sustainable management of Central African forest ecosystems, the fundamental rights of their populations to benefit from forest resources and the imperative to reconcile development needs with conservation within the framework of international cooperation.

The Kigali conference comes at a time when the Congo Basin forests are facing challenges of growing complexity and gravity.

However, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) points out that in the recent past, there has been substantial progress in conservation activities within the basin. The organization works in four priority landscapes in the CBFP which include Maringa-Lopori-Wamba and Bili Uele landscapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dja Fauna Reserve and Campo Ma’an Park in Cameroon.

The Congo Basin Forest covers approximately 180 million hectares and accounts for 30% of plant cover on the African continent, and 19% of the world’s tropical rainforests according to statistics from the African Forest Fotum.

The Basin accordingly hosts significant biodiversity and provides key habitat to some of Africa’s most unique and threatened wildlife, including the forest elephant, okapi, and four great ape species: bonobo, chimpanzee, eastern gorilla and western gorilla. It hosts approximately 10,000 plant, 1000 bird, 400 mammal, and 700 fish species, many of which are unique to the Basin.

 Currently, CBFP comprises more than eighty African  and  international  partner countries  and organisations  from both the public and private sectors as well as from civil society and the academic and scientific community. It is the most comprehensive regional platform dealing with the challenges facing the Congo Basin forests.

Cooperation within CBFP accordingly, aims to support the shared vision of the Central African Heads of State, notably, improving measures taken, including technical and financial support measures, to promote the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable management of forest ecosystems, to combat climate change and to alleviate poverty in Central African countries in line with the COMIFAC Convergence Plan.

BY HEADS OF STATES at COP22

We, Heads of State, Government, and Delegations, gathered in Marrakech, on African soil, for the High-Level Segment of the 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 12th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, and the 1st Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, at the gracious invitation of His Majesty the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, issue this proclamation to signal a shift towards a new era of implementation and action on climate and sustainable development.
 
Our climate is warming at an alarming and unprecedented rate and we have an urgent duty to respond.
 
We welcome the Paris Agreement, adopted under the Convention, its rapid entry into force, with its ambitious goals, its inclusive nature and its reflection of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances, and we affirm our commitment to its full implementation.
 
Indeed, this year, we have seen extraordinary momentum on climate change worldwide, and in many multilateral fora. This momentum is irreversible – it is being driven not only by governments, but by science, business and global action of all types at all levels.
 
Our task now is to rapidly build on that momentum, together, moving forward purposefully to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to foster adaptation efforts, thereby benefiting and supporting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.
 
We call for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority.

We call for strong solidarity with those countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and underscore the need to support efforts aimed to enhance their adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability.
 
We call for all Parties to strengthen and support efforts to eradicate poverty, ensure food security and to take stringent action to deal with climate change challenges in agriculture.

We call for urgently raising ambition and strengthening cooperation amongst ourselves to close the gap between current emissions trajectories and the pathway needed to meet the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.
 
We call for an increase in the volume, flow and access to finance for climate projects, alongside improved capacity and technology, including from developed to developing countries.
 
We the Developed Country Parties reaffirm our USD $100 billion mobilization goal.
                                                                                              
We, unanimously, call for further climate action and support, well in advance of 2020, taking into account the specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries, the least developed countries and those particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.
 
We who are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol encourage the ratification of the Doha Amendment.
 
We, collectively, call on all non-state actors to join us for immediate and ambitious action and mobilization, building on their important achievements, noting the many initiatives and the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action itself, launched in Marrakech.
 
The transition in our economies required to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement provides a substantial positive opportunity for increased prosperity and sustainable development.
 
The Marrakech Conference marks an important inflection point in our commitment to bring together the whole international community to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our time.
 
As we now turn towards implementation and action, we reiterate our resolve to inspire solidarity, hope and opportunity for current and future generations.
 

MARAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Africa's climate is one of the least-researched and poorly understood, but a new report provides reliable scientific information about the continent's changing climate, equipping decision-makers to plan better.

Africa's Climate: Helping decision-makers make sense of climate information is the first major programme-wide report to emerge from Future Climate for Africa (FCFA). FCFA comprises five major research projects to develop better climate information for Africa and to test how the new information could be used in decision-making, with potential benefit for millions of affected Africans.

African countries are facing many challenges in achievement of their development goals, which may be hampered by the impact of climate change," said Wilfried Pokam Mba of University of Yaounde, a FCFA researcher in Cameroon adding that in this context, fulfilment of development efforts over the continent requires reliable climate information.

"FCFA provides high quality climate information to help governments and businesses make more climate-resilient investments." This report, he says, is one such example of information being made available to help guide policy-makers, scientists and practitioners on climate change issues affecting the continent," said Sam Bickersteth, Chief Executive of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, which acts as the 'knowledge hub' for the FCFA programme.

He added, "It is hoped that decision-makers can steer the continent's infrastructure and development plans in a direction that can capitalise on the opportunities presented by climate change in future, while offsetting the potential ill effects."

Written by some 40 leading experts, the report presents an Africa-wide overview of climate trends, and is distilled into 15 fact-sheets that are tailored for specific sub-regions and countries. The report captures the current state of knowledge, and explores the 'burning scientific questions' that still need to be answered. FCFA's five research teams will be delivering many of these answers in the next three years, to 2019.

Some of the key findings are that climate modelling indicates that east Africa is expected to warm in the next five to 40 years, although changes in rainfall are much less certain and that extreme events (floods, droughts, heatwaves, and so on) are expected to change and in most cases increase into the future.

The region is severely understudied, because of a lack of scientific observation data, such as that from weather stations.

Southern African economies are exposed to weather and climate vulnerabilities, particularly through sectors such as agriculture, energy, and water management. It follows that the supply of essential resources are all extremely at risk as the climate becomes more changeable and extreme.

Most government departments are planning according to a three- to five-year time horizon, while the climate projections are based on decades-longer timeframes, such as looking to 2050 and beyond.

Applying past data to the future, which is also used by other ministries, is potentially problematic as it assumes that the future climate will mirror the past, which may not be the case for projected climate change.

Although there is uncertainty associated with the future climate projections, climate change will have significant economic impacts across Africa.
Future climate change is likely to lead to new risks: the negative impacts seen from today's climate variability are likely to become worse.
While there is often uncertainty in climate projections, this should not be a reason for inaction.

 "This report provides a synthesis of our current state of knowledge and identifies where further multi-disciplinary research like FCFA is needed," Chris Taylor of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UK).

He added, The impacts of climate change in Africa will affect lives across the whole world," said John Marsham, University of Leeds. "This report is an important first step for the FCFA programme. It addresses the urgent need to both improve climate change predictions for Africa, and to better use those predictions for decision-making."

Catherine Senior of the UK Met Office said the report describes the urgent need for climate models to provide more robust projections of future climate change over the African continent. "By applying an 'Africa lens' to developing climate models, we can speed up the rate of progress to deliver more confident projections for decision-makers to use," she said.

Victor Indasi at the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) at the University of Cape Town said Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate variability and change mainly due to its low adaptive capacity. "This FCFA report is therefore a must-read for everyone working on the continent especially within climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, water and energy," he said.