26 – 29 October, Accra - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) co-hosted parallel conferences during the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (ARF100) and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), which took place in Accra, Ghana. Both meetings provided opportunities for dialogue with local partners and stakeholders on issues of sustainable farming, and finding solutions to eradicate deforestation and degradation in Africa.

 The Fourth Annual AFR100 Partnership Meeting brought together restoration champions, private sector representatives, and technical experts from 28 partner countries. GLF’s meeting, “Restoring Africa’s Landscapes – Uniting actions from above and below,” hosted a panel of farmers, entrepreneurs, artists, foresters, pastoralists, policymakers, royalty, and national and international leaders. Over 500 people attended the event, more than 5,000, from 99 countries, participated online, and the forum reached over 17.5 million people on social media.

The Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), a partnership between FAO, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and AgriCord assisted with the planning and content of three sessions that took place over the four-day event. Several members from FFF partner organizations participated in these meetings on their behalf.

Alima Sajito from Peasant Farmer’s Association Ghana (PFAG) and Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet from the African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF) joined in a FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF) led session on the engagement of local producers, youth and women. They focused on gender inequality in the agricultural sector and made an appeal to the AFR100 secretariat to prioritize projects that, in particular, favour women. It was agreed that educational initiatives to change the gender paradigm was a crucial first step. They also discussed the benefits of providing women with access to higher market profits and income, as well as secure land tenure implementation.

During a plenary session, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), FFF partner, acknowledge the crucial role of smallholder producers and their organizations (including family farmers associations, local community organizations, indigenous peoples, women’s enterprises, and youth groups) in terms of their current contribution to the implementation of the UN Decade of Family Farming (2019- 2028) and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).

GLF plenary: https://events.globallandscapesforum.org/agenda/accra-2019/day-1-2/plenary-5-un-decade-the-decade-to-act/

An interactive session on “Linking Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and Bioenergy” was attended by Pragyan Pokhrel (FFF), Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet (RECAFOC, Africa), and Humphrey Ncheengamwa from the Choma Forest Service in Zambia (where FFF supports forest and farm producer organizations). The group were part of a panel discussion to determine how to achieve best practices in Africa to promote a positive contribution of Sustainable Wood Energy to FLR. The conversation focused on the valuable contribution of forest and farm producer organizations (FFPOs) in the area of conservation (particularly, women) and how FFF is working to support these communities, who foster both AFR100 and GLF’s mission for sustainable development goals in the African continent.

The event was hosted by FAO through the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP), the FFF and the FAO Forestry Department in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), International Energy Agency Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Program (IEA Bioenergy), IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Video of the session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeDK-KqzelQ&feature=youtu.be.

Description of the session: https://events.globallandscapesforum.org/agenda/accra-2019/day-1-2/interactive-session-6-3rd-dialogue-on-forest-landscape-restoration-flr-and-bioenergy/

CIFOR blog: "Realizing the potential of sustainable wood fuel value chains”  https://forestsnews.cifor.org/62759/realizing-the-potential-of-sustainable-wood-fuel-value-chains?fnl=en

The African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR100) Initiative is an Africa-led and country-driven effort to scale up Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) across 100 million hectares. It connects political partners, participating African nations, with technical and financial support to scale up restoration on the ground and capture associated benefits for food security, climate change resilience, and poverty alleviation. The AFR100 Initiative contributes to the Bonn Challenge, the New York Declaration on Forests and to the achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on sustainable land use, dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. They have connected 4,900 organizations and 190,000 participants to their gatherings in Warsaw, Lima, London, Paris, Marrakech, Jakarta, Bonn, Washington D.C., Katowice, Nairobi and Kyoto – and reached over 500 million people from 185 countries.