BAOBAB

A curated summary of news and perspectives on fulfilling Africa's vibrant potential©

Hello, and a warm welcome to the November 2021 edition of Baobab.

Any effort to foster sustainable development in Africa would be hard-pressed to succeed without recognizing the many roles and contributions of women and girls and reflecting this in targeted funding and programmes. Decades of peer-reviewed studies and anecdotal evidence demonstrate that the emancipation of women – primarily through education and training, health care, involvement in decision-making structures, and access to credit, land rights and finance – is a powerful resource hidden in plain sight in Africa’s push for food and nutrition security, prosperity, equality and environmental sustainability. Empowering women and thus unleashing all of Africa’s potential is all the more urgent given the challenges the continent faces on many fronts, including predictions that it will increasingly be affected by extreme climatic events.

A crucial and transformative step would be to increase women’s access to money. In a recent report, the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council 2021 notes that “In sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of businesses are owned by women, but only 20% of that number have access to institutional finance: a funding gap of US $42 billion”. Women comprise 50.1 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, according to World Bank figures.

In an article in The Times,“Where are all the women at COP26?”, Bianca Jagger writes that “80 percent of people displaced by climate change are women”. The climate crisis, she says, “is a triple injustice for the poorest women and girls of the world and requires a triple commitment from world leaders at COP26”. One of the injustices is “that those worst affected by the climate catastrophe are also marginalised from conversations on how to solve it or respond to it. This is despite the fact that women are powerful agents of change, leading responses in their communities”. Africa has many compelling examples of women’s entrepreneurial and environmentally responsible actions. We present two in a special feature in this edition of Baobab – one in northern Ghana involving shea trees and the other in Senegal, where a formidable woman, Mariama Sonko, the head of a regional movement of more than 500 rural women’s associations, is helping local oyster harvesters to protect their mangroves.

COP26 dominated recent international development news. A major non-binding agreement on deforestation and significant pledges on protecting the Congo Basin rainforests, and on the tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples and local forest communities all made headlines but, as IPS News reports in its COP26 Special Issue, many of these same communities were disappointed by the event and its outcomes, including The Glasgow Climate Pact. CAFOD also suggested that COP26 ended by “handing a ‘threadbare lifeline’ to the world’s most vulnerable people”. Looking ahead to COP27 next year in Egypt, The Independent suggests It’s time for Africa to lead the climate conversations. In this edition of Baobab we present some of the key decisions at COP26 with implications for Africa as well as who-said-what of interest to Africa (courtesy of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin).

Now that the world’s spotlight has turned away from COP26, we should consider the many innovative ideas, deals and pledges that arose from it. It is essential to include African women in conversations about change and to accommodate their needs in the renaissance of the natural-resource powerhouse that is Africa.

In the main part of this edition of Baobab, we open with coverage of an issue that is central to Africa’s aspirations for sustainable development. As advocated in an important FAO-led review of forest and landscape restoration, restoring these natural resources is indispensable for climate stability and food and nutrition security across the continent. This was also a frequent feature of discussions and pledges at COP26. Another new FAO-led study shows how investing in the Great Green Wall can make commercial sense for investors. We also see how farming communities in northern Ghana are successfully restoring degraded lands, thus contributing to large-scale, locally led land restoration.

Two other articles in this edition address the much discussed issue of African population projections: one alerts us to how changing demographics are affecting agricultural and food systems and the solutions that need to be enacted now; and the other is a rebuttal of the notion that the West knows what is best for Africa (instead, it should start listening to what local people have to say). In Rwanda, Indigenous and local people are responding to incentives to support forest restoration and conservation while earning an income, and we look (again) to Gabon for insights – this country is among the continent’s most progressive in addressing the role of forests in mitigating climate change.

I am sure you will find something of interest in this edition. My sincere thanks again to Alastair Sarre and Mafa Chipeta for their advice and support. A reminder, as always, about Baobab – we sometimes present original material but, for the most part, we simply draw your attention to items of interest published elsewhere by summarizing and linking to them.

Patricia

News

Africa’s hope: locally led, large-scale land restoration?

Sixty-five percent of Africa’s productive lands are degraded, at an annual loss of 3% of GDP; desertification compromises another 45% of its lands; while each year 4 million hectares of forest are lost. These sobering statistics are from Review of Forest and Landscape Restoration in Africa 2021, published by FAO and NEPAD. Nevertheless, the review also describes how countries are working to reverse these trends through integrated land restoration – with core success factors of local ownership, political support, and sustainable access to finance – reaping benefits for food and job security, climate, landscapes and biodiversity.

Study shows attractiveness of investing in Africa’s Great Green Wall

Of sub-Saharan Africa’s many restoration initiatives, the Great Green Wall (GGW) – from Senegal to Djibouti – stands out for its breadth of operation, science-based approach and onus on local leadership, monitoring and biodiversity. Analysis in a new FAO-led study published in Nature Sustainability also reveals its commercial attractiveness. For every US dollar, investors can expect an average return of USD 1.1–4.4. “We need to change the rhetoric about the Sahel region … despite its harsh and dry environment, investors can get a viable return on their investment in efforts to restore the land”, says study co-author, Moctar Sacande.

Read more from the source: E conomic efficiency and targeting of the African Great Green Wall

Europe to block imports of commodities from areas of forest loss

A draft European Commission law to help stem deforestation would preclude imports into the EU of commodities such as palm oil, wood and cocoa and derivatives such as chocolate from deforested areas. As Reuters reports, companies will be responsible for regulating global supply chains or face fines for non-compliance. In May, Bloomberg reported that Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – suppliers of 70% of the world’s cocoa beans – had increased forest restoration, tree-planting, satellite forest monitoring and investment in sustainable livelihood training for farmers in anticipation of the bill, which also aims to address child labour and fair farmer incomes.

Reversing generational attitudes could transform African agri-food systems

Analysis of generational gaps in the context of attitudes to and engagement in agri-food systems shows that Africa is facing an era of demographic shifts that could seriously impede its efforts to achieve food security. In a two-part article published in Impakter, Festus Akinnifesi traces the challenges and makes a compelling case for attracting youth to the agri-food sector across the continent. With half its population under 15 years of age and the bulk of farmers – many born before African independence – ageing and dwindling in number, Akinnifesi proposes solutions to enthuse Africa’s digital-era generation, who now aspire to non-agricultural jobs, to help transform agri-food systems instead.

Successful aid programmes must be driven by local commitment

An article by a UK Conservative party politician called for “The West” to “push Africa in the right direction” to avoid a massive population explosion that would threaten unprecedented rates of migration to Europe. Writing in Hunger Explained, Andrew MacMillan points to the impact of investment in education and health in Kenya on population growth. He also cites the experience of the Kenyan Got Matar Community Development Group’s educational programmes, started at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as an example of what marginalized rural people in Africa can achieve through their own initiative.
Read more from the source:

The possible relevance of Kenya’s experience to shaping aid to Africa (including reflections on population issues)

Congo Basin forests need investment in science to thrive

The Congo Basin rainforests – the world’s second-largest contiguous tropical forest – support the livelihoods of 80 million people and benefit another 300 million rural people in the Sahel and the Ethiopian highlands through the rain they generate. They also sequestrate 4% of global carbon emissions. Writing in Nature, a group of scientists and government ministers call for USD 100 million to fund a decade of research and USD 50 million to train Congo Basin nationals to become PhD-level scientists. The initiative is seen as the only way to properly inform understanding of the Congo Basin forests and to ensure their conservation.

Read from the source: Congo Basin rainforest — invest US$150 million in science

A forest–climate model for Africa?

With forest covering 90% of its land, Gabon is the first country in Africa to be paid for forest protection aimed at reducing net carbon emissions and one of the few anywhere that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits. As Samuel Misteli writes in Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Gabon contends that it should be paid for retaining its CO₂-absorbing forests rather than clearing them for more profitable activities; satellite images suggest annual forest loss is only about 0.1%. As Forestry and Environment Minister Lee White told Al Jazeera in October, “We have developed an economic model that allows us to protect our forest but also develop economically.”

Read from the source: Gabon goes green: Can a small African oil state show how to protect the continent’s rainforests?; Q&A: How Gabon plans to lead the African negotiators at COP26

Trusting Rwanda’s Indigenous Peoples and local communities to care for their forests

New laws and policies enacted by the Rwandan government have fostered a shift away from illegal logging, mining and livestock and crop farming in tropical forests in the Congo Basin in the country’s remote west. As Aimable Twahirwa reports in IPSNews, several thousand local and indigenous people are now in jobs created to incentivize and empower them in forest conservation and restoration, and many have also joined forces to create a local conservation NGO. As advocates point out, however, conservation efforts will only succeed through continuous dialogue with the communities and recognizing their need to also make a decent living.

Read from the source: Rwanda’s Rainforest Conservation Wins Praise from Indigenous Community

Tree resurrection thanks to farmers’ caring hands

In Talensi in northern Ghana, farmers are reaping the rewards of a decade of work to restore 600 hectares of degraded land. As reported in Le Monde, communities have received training through a World Vision project in the use of assisted natural regeneration and other techniques, abandoning slash-and-burn practices. Valuable trees like neem and Diospyros are flourishing, even though dry seasons are getting longer. Success is visible in the increased diversity of trees and other vegetation, which produce wood, foods and medicines; increased crop yields, livestock size, food security and health; and the abundance of pollinating bees.

Read from the source: Les arbres ressuscités de Talensi, dans le nord du Ghana

Declaration

B A O B A B comes to you free of charge as I do the research and compile the source material in a voluntary capacity. I have no affiliation with any source of finance or political party. Nor does the inclusion of any externally sourced information in the bulletin imply that I endorse its contents. It is up to you readers to arrive at your own interpretation of the published material.

Acknowledgements

I extend my sincere thanks in particular to Alastair Sarre and Mafa Chipeta, as well as to my family and friends, for their encouragement, advice, feedback and support. I thank Alex Juma for his work in creating Baobab edition one.

Patricia Tendi

baobabdawn@gmail.com

Photo credits and copyright

Baobab tree at sunrise,,Tarangire National Park, United Republic of Tanzania, by Diana Robinson

Livelihood in northern Ghana, by CIFOR

UN Women’s Gender Road project, Cameroon, by UN Women’s Gallery U U

A Sahel village near Timbuktu within the Great Green Wall restoration corridor, ©FAO and Action Against Desertification

Farmer-line Cocoa farmers-4 by KBF-Africa

Students at Got Matar Community Development Group, Bondo, Kenya, by Patrick Drummond for ACE Africa

Formation, Recherche et l’environnement dans la Tshopo (FORETS), Democratique Republique de Congo, by CIFOR

Casa Lacustre, by carlosoliveirareis

Bee keepers, by CIFOR

Naapa Apiniyela learns forestry skills, Ghana, by TREEAID

Baobab tree spirit by Caneles

B A O B A B strength – power – life – longevity

Disclaimer

Information contained in Baobab has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither Baobab nor its contributing authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein and neither Baobab nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or claims for damages, including exemplary damages, arising out of use, inability to use, or with regard to the accuracy or sufficiency of the information contained in Baobab. The copyright and all intellectual property rights of material (including but not limited to text, video, graphical images), trademarks and logos are the property of the publisher or Baobab as indicated.