A Tammari house in Koutammakou, Land of the Batammariba and a UNESCO World Heritage site in Togo. Photo credits: Erik Kristensen/Wikipedia
Nairobi. 25 August 2016. The African Forest Forum (AFF) in collaboration with the University of Lomé, will hold a regional workshop on Sharing of knowledge and experiences to strengthen collaboration among stakeholders in African forestry from 26 to 30 September 2016 in Lomé, Togo.
The aim of the regional workshop is to share results obtained by AFF during the last two years from its work on African forestry. It will seek to provide information on priority and emerging issues on sustainable forest management (SFM) and resilience to climate change by forests and trees as well as the people who depend on these resources.
With the increasing focus by the global community on forestry compatible development, the demand for information and knowledge on forestry, and more specifically on forest management by African stakeholders, is equally growing. For example, information and knowledge on forestry and related issues are needed for: influencing policy-making at continental, regional and national levels; making investment decisions; monitoring impact of a diversity of changes and interventions; capacity building; and day-to-day forest management decisions.
It is in this regard that key issues that will contribute towards the exchange of experiences and lessons learned will revolve around the following broad areas:
Managing forests for improved livelihoods and environment under climate change
Building sustainable forest management in Africa: key areas that continue to receive inadequate attention, apart from climate change, that are critical for raising healthy African forests
Experiences and lessons with handling climate change in African forestry
Wood processing, marketing and trade in forest products and services: a fairly neglected area in African forestry
The policy arena: linking the forestry sector to the policy environment
The event is expected to draw participation from public forest administrations, non-governmental organizations, research, academia, media institutions, private sector as well as youth and women based organizations on forestry and related issues in sub-Saharan Africa. The five day workshop will also include round table discussions with African media to facilitate wider knowledge exchange and sharing of experiences that could better profile the forest sector.
The regional workshop along with the media roundtable discussions are made possible from the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for a project on African Forests, People and Climate Change ; and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) support for a project on Strengthening Sustainable Forest Management in Africa.
For further information on the regional workshop contact:
Prof. Larwanou Mahamane
Head, Programme Management Unit
African Forest Forum (AFF)
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri
P.O. Box 30677 00100, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel +254-207224000 Ext 4624
Email: l.mahamane@cgiar.org