Forestry

British development finance institution, CDC (www.cdcgroup.com) has committed US$50 million to the GEF Africa Sustainable Forestry Fund (GASFF), the first private equity fund to focus solely on sustainable forestry in sub-Saharan Africa. The fund is to be run by the investment team of Global Environment Fund (GEF) which has a long history of investing in sectors that make a positive impact on the environment and quality of life.

The US and Brazil have signed an agreement whereby US$21 million (£13.5 million) of Brazilian debt will be put into a fund for the protection of the country’s rainforest and tropical ecosystems.

The US has agreed that instead of paying back its debt, the money will be utilised to protect the Caatinga and Cerrado ecosystems and conserve the rainforest on the Atlantic coast. These three areas in Brazil are currently under threat of serious deforestation but do not receive as much attention or publicity as the Amazon region.

Monster monsoon rains may have loosened the mud and rock that buried and killed more than 1,000 people in the northwestern Chinese Province of Gansu over the weekend, but the mudslide in Zhouqu was more than a natural disaster.

Official records show that government-run lumber companies cut 313,000 acres of forest from the slopes of Zhouqu county between 1952 and 1990, denuding the geologically vulnerable mountainsides and subjecting them to soil erosion.

World forests are in the spotlight for good reasons. Deforestation and forest degradation continues at an alarming rate. The multiple crises of climate, finance and food require the need for action to limit deforestation and to manage our forests sustainably. This is necessary in order to mitigate climate change and to adapt forests to changes in temperature, water supply and other factors affected by changes in climate.

Experts from various institutions including Forestry and Environment, Community Forest Organizations, Timber Re-export Association and other relevant stakeholders Tuesday gathered at Baobab Beach Hotel in Kololi to address the issue of deforestation and climate change by planting one million trees for sustainable management of forest resources, as they noted that the country’s forest is seriously facing increasing exploitation due to population growth. The event was organized by the Ministry of Forestry and Environment.