Africa’s forests are set to play a major role in the implementation of continent’s Agenda 2063, the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.
That is according to the executive secretary of Kenyan-based Africa Forest Forum Prof. Godwin Kowero.
AGENDA 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future. It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance
Prof. Kowero says, African dry forests sandwich the agricultural belt, serving as a reservoir for additional agricultural land, and increasingly supporting irrigated agriculture because of its support for many river basins.
Combining all these benefits, he says, it would be clearly seen that the forests are critical to the socio-economic development and environmental stability of the continent.
Prof. Kowero, however, bemoans the level at which continent’s forests are under extreme pressure mainly due to agricultural expansion that leads to extensive deforestation, and land degradation.