Recently, African people and their institutions have become more interested in the sustainable management of their ecosystems and the role they can play in bringing about planetary balance and equity in natural resources management. With the increasing need for solutions to rapidly evolving natural and man-made phenomena like climate change, droughts, floods, and deforestation, among others, African bodies are actively putting in place measures to control the states of their ecosystems. The establishment of regional forest observatories is a key measure.
At the Hybrid Conference of the Global Landscapes Forum 2023, to be hosted at the campus of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya, regional bodies like the Central Africa Forests Observatory (OFAC) and the East and Southern Africa Forests Observatory (OFESA), will be defending the crucial role that monitoring and consequently knowledge sharing and exchange on African ecosystems can play in improving governance and promoting sustainable management. OFAC and OFESA, each respectively, play key roles in providing relevant, credible, and timely information on forest ecosystems, in a bid to promote the use of such information for the improved management of forest resources for biodiversity preservation, conservation, and local development in their respective regions in Africa.
Apart from OFAC and OFESA, the work of other regional observatories such as the Observatory for Biodiversity and Protected Areas in West Africa (OBAPAO), and the engagement of regional stakeholders such as the Commission of the Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC) will equally be highlighted. Understanding the work these observatories do in Central, East, and West Africa could be capital to influencing environmental action and curbing hazards that are threatening the well-being of Africa’s ecosystems and subsequently, its peoples. Featuring observatory experts, heads of regional institutions, and other stakeholders from coordinating institutions like CIFOR-ICRAF, and the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), the Expert session will be rich in analyzing ecosystem regional observatories as a tool in scientific research, producing data and structuring a new vision for nature preservation in Africa. According to Richard Sufo, Scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF, “the session will address not only the aims and activities of the observatories, and the contributions of observatories to improved forest management in Africa, but experts will equally evoke the challenges, and opportunities they face in implementing research and programs, and suggestions on how to enhance results for effective outcomes”, he says.
Overall, the session will promote the use of scientific knowledge in harnessing sustainable African ecosystems.
Join us in person or online: 11 October 2023, 9:00 – 9:45 am (UTC+3), Karura Hall
Media contacts:
OFAC: Meryline Ojong (o.nchare@cifor-icraf.org)
OFESA: Noella Ngunyam(N.Ngunyam@cifor-icraf.org)
