Experts to discuss Regreening Africa Programme during virtual meeting

Africa is faced with potentially devastating challenges owing to the climate crisis, population growth, urban expansion and, not least, millions of hectares of degraded agricultural and forest land: more than 80% of Sub-Saharan Africans depend on land-based activities for their livelihoods, yet two-thirds of land in Africa is already degraded to some degree.

Leading experts in land restoration from major global organizations will discuss the challenges in a webinar, 1600–1730 EAT (0900–1030 EDT), Thursday 14 May 2020, in the context of the massive Regreening Africa programme.

Garo Batmanian, Global Lead for Forests, Landscapes, and Biodiversity, World Bank; Susan Chomba, project manager of Regreening Africa, World Agroforestry (ICRAF); Mathew Reddy, senior private sector specialist, Global Environment Facility; Timothy H. Brown, senior natural resources management specialist, World Bank; and Ioannis Vasileiou, agricultural economist, World Bank will provide an overview of the challenges, discuss progress Regreening Africa has made and the relevance for similar landscapes in Africa and beyond.

Regreening Africa is a European Union-funded, five-year programme that seeks to reverse land degradation among 500,000 households on 1 million hectares in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia.

By incorporating trees into croplands, communal lands and pastoral areas, regreening efforts aim to improve the livelihoods and food security of hundreds of thousands of smallholders and increase their resilience to the worst impact of the climate crisis.