Kigali Conservationists meet for the ongoing Africa Protected Areas Congress) have urged African governments to approve the establishment of A Pan-African Conservation Trust (A-PACT), which will help mobilise resources for the conservation of Africa’s protected areas.
The call to ratify A-PACT was made by Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe, the former prime minister of Ethiopia during the discussions on “Needed African-driven innovative and sustainable financing solutions.”
Desalegn spoke in his capacity of chairperson of A-PACT’s steering committee and patron of APAC.
The A-PACT concept was co-created and co-organized by the Africa Protected Area Directors.
The initiative is seeking $200bn for a pan-African trust fund that would ensure Sufficient and sustainable financing for all of Africa’s 8,500 protected and conserved areas in perpetuity.
Not beggars
“We should have funding but we should have a segregated way of doing it. We need our own pan-African conservation trust. That is what we are trying to advocate for and maybe we will be launching very soon this fund which global community can contribute to it,” Desalegn said.
However, he said: “Africans we should contribute first. We shouldn’t be seen as beggars. We are not beggars. We should stand up and put our own resources into conservation.”
He observed that the African Union’s 2063 agenda had already clearly defined how it should be implemented.
“We need to understand the current status of African protected areas properly. Most of these protected areas are degraded parks,” Desalegn said.
Although Africa has 8,500 protected zones, the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia stated that it was necessary to identify those who are in the worst condition.
“They are underfunded, they are undervalued,” he said.
He encouraged African finance ministers and bankers to consider African assets as protected areas in their GDP.
“We have huge wealth in Africa but never valued it. We must see the intact areas first. For example, out of 8,500 protected areas, we have to see key areas for conservation and humanity and focus on community conservation areas where communities can do better than we do,” he said.
The Minister for Environment, Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya said that governments should put green finance at the heart of planning.
“Rwanda has put environment at the heart of every policy, programmes and projects. Finance ministers should sit together with ministers in charge of environment to ensure planning in finance; environment is put at the centre,” she said.
She advocated for financing to preserve protected areas so that communities can benefit from the tourism revenue.
She stated that Rwanda allocates 10 percent of its tourism revenues to support communities in the protected national parks.
Financing gap
“Africa spends less than 10 percent of what is needed to protect and restore nature. Now is the time to invest in the areas set aside as the backbone of natural infrastructure that underpins the aspirations we have set out in Agenda 2063,” reads part of a policy brief on financing protected areas.
“This is an investment we cannot afford not to make. It is central to a just transition for Africa,” conservationists said.
According to the trust fund cocreators, there is an opportunity to close biodiversity’s financing gap. This gap is estimated to be less than one percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and as high as $700billion globally.
Africa spends less that 10 percent of what it needs Protect and restore natureThey say.
They estimated that the cost of managing a protected area in Africa would be between $380 and $1000 per square meter. This means that financing is required to maintain these areas.
The majority of protected areas in Africa can be managed for less than $50/sq km
Protected Area managers find themselves in financial straits and are unable to pay their staff and other core operational costs.
Source of funding
A Pan-African Conservation Trust (A-PACT) would address this gap in Africa through a private, legally independent sustainable financing mechanism for Africa’s protected and conserved areas supported by an aligned African leadership and financed through global resource mobilization for ‘green growth’ Covid-19 recovery, among other sources, explains the concept.
editor@newtimesrwanda.com
Source: rnewtimes
