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June 2007 |
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Restoring the Health and Wealth of Africa’s Degraded Lands: Key Focus of a New International Initiative
An international initiative to counter land degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa got the green light at a conference in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, held April 24-25, 2007. The Strategic Investment Program for Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SIP), which has been two years in the planning, could eventually raise around $1 billion to rehabilitate damaged and degraded lands and prevent new land degradation. Up to a third of the African continent is deemed threatened by land degradation as a result of escalating soil erosion, declining fertility, salinisation, soil compaction, pollution by agrochemicals and desertification. Land degradation is not only an economic and human tragedy but, if unchecked, will undermine attempts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The SIP will bring fresh approaches and a wealth of experience to overcome the problem. It will reflect the fact that one of the best ways to defeat land degradation is to get funding, expertise, and know-how directly to the grassroots, including farmers and local communities. The initiative, which has been two years in consultation, is being coordinated under the auspices of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment and the GEF. Monique Barbut, the GEF’s Chief Executive Officer, said at the opening of the two-day “There have been many success stories in the battle against land degradation. What is needed now is a strategic approach that unifies and unites all efforts, leverages the necessary funding and builds upon the knowledge that has been gathered over several years. In doing so we can multiply the success stories and deliver a comprehensive victory against one of the great environmental, social, and economic scourges of the 21st century,” she added. The two-day extraordinary conference consisted of presentations on the critical nature of the problem of land degradation to the future development of Africa, the main features of the SIP, and new approaches and proposed solutions to be initiated through the SIP Program. The conference concluded with a statement of support and commitment from African governments and partners and a declaration by the environmental ministers of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). The African governments signed a joint statement of political commitment and a declaration of collaboration in implementation of SIP by all partners was also adopted. The SIP for Africa has been prepared with the support of all GEF Implementing and Executing Agencies and those agencies involved in sustainable land management in Africa under the convening leadership of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and in close consultation with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Regional Economic Communities. TerrAfrica has actively supported SIP preparation and will ramp up support during implementation It is anticipated that, subject to GEF Council approval, the implementation phase of the new program will commence in June this year. The GEF is expected to invest about $130-150 million and hopes to leverage a further $500-750 million in cofunding.
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