BY Elias Ngalame
The African Forest Forum (AFF) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s Regional office for Africa, is organizing a three-week Community of Practice (CoP) on “Climate Change in African Forestry and Wildlife Sectors”.
The CoP that will run from 9 – 27 September 2024, according to a note from AFF, will permit stakeholders in the forestry sector in Africa share knowledge via an online platform, ‘Howspace’, a live chat and webinar discussion.
This Community of Practice discussions accordingly aims to explore the climate change issues relevant to the African forestry and wildlife sectors, with the view of increasing the understanding of these relationships and facilitating sharing of best practices, policies, institutional set-up as well as funding opportunities for addressing climate change issues in the sectors.
“ The CoP will discuss elements that support the development of strategies for these sectors to increase their contribution to socio-economic develop and environmental benefits in the context of climate change,” the note states.
It will also provide a platform for sharing of knowledge products tailored to better address specific capacity needs of African countries. The objectives of the CoP the note states are two fold;
Offer an opportunity and platform for stakeholders to share knowledge, experiences and best practices on how to address climate change in forestry and wildlife sectors, encompassing practices, innovation and/technologies, policy and institutional frameworks, mobilization of financial resources, among others.
“Based on the challenges and opportunities, identify and recommend key actionable areas for consideration by AFWC members and FAO in the next session (25th) of the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission (AFWC),” it explains.
The CoP brings together stakeholders in the forestry and wildlife sectors, from government forest/wildlife administrations, non-governmental organizations, research, academia, private sector, media as well as youth and women-based organizations from across the globe. It particularly targets the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission (AFWC)’s working group members.
Some topics to be discussed include, Impact of climate change in the forestry and wildlife sectors, Mitigation and adaptation practices to address climate change in the forestry and wildlife sectors, Policies and institutional set-up for addressing climate change in the forestry and wildlife sectors, Financing climate change mitigation and adaptation practices in the forestry and wildlife sectors etc.
At the end participants will look at lessons learned and best practices from the CoP, come up with strategy and action plan to sustain the CoP as well as a roadmap for scaling-up climate actions in forestry and wildlife sectors for consideration in the next AFWC session.
