A reforestation camp was launched on 24 August 2023 in Diembering, in the south of Senegal. The initiative by the Ziguinchor regional youth council aims to combat coastal erosion. Senegal’s Atlantic coast is suffering from severe erosion. Nearly 65% of the coastline is affected by this phenomenon, which has dramatic consequences for the local population.
Toute l'actu sur la protection de l'environnement
A reforestation camp was launched on 24 August 2023 in Diembering, in the south of Senegal. The initiative by the Ziguinchor regional youth council aims to combat coastal erosion. Senegal’s Atlantic coast is suffering from severe erosion. Nearly 65% of the coastline is affected by this phenomenon, which has dramatic consequences for the local population.
Five days to plant almost 10,000 filaos, Niawli and other plants. This is the aim of the reforestation camp launched on 24 August 2023 in Diembering, a coastal town in the Ziguinchor region of southern Senegal.
At least 150 young people were mobilised for this reforestation camp, now in its fourth year. The Ziguinchor Regional Youth Council’s initiative is supported by the Ziguinchor Water and Forestry Department, which is supplying the seedlings used for the reforestation. The task is to create a plant barrier along the coast to protect it from erosion. « We’ve noticed that the sea has started to advance a few metres. That’s why we thought we’d respond by planting filaos, which can bind sand and slow the advance of the sea », explains Mamadou Talibé Diallo, President of the Ziguinchor Regional Youth Council.
However, this reforestation camp is only a local solution to a phenomenon that is national in scope and beyond. According to official figures, coastal erosion affects almost 65% of Senegal’s coastline, threatening the infrastructure and livelihoods of coastal populations.
A phenomenon with dramatic consequences
According to scientists, coastal erosion in Africa is caused by both global warming and human activity. The demographic pressure that towns have to cope with as a result of the rural exodus is leading to urbanisation that is often uncontrolled. To meet the need for building materials, uncontrolled sand quarries are springing up along the coasts, significantly weakening the coastline and reducing the alluvial potential of the coasts.
Coastal degradation is a threat to the livelihoods of the populations affected. In agricultural terms, marine submersions increase the salinisation of soil and groundwater and have a negative impact on farmers’ yields. For fishermen and people living off seafood, the advancing sea is destroying mangrove areas, which play an essential role in the reproduction of several species of fish and birds.
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France and Germany are joining forces to improve climate risk prevention in Africa. More than 60% of the continent’s population has no climate warning system. To make good this shortfall, the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research are organising Climate services for risk reduction in Africa 2023 (CS4RRA). The initiative consists of a series of four webinars, scheduled to take place in Togo, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal from September to November 2023.
Lomé, the capital of Togo, will host an international webinar on 28 September 2023. This will be the first in a series of four webinars on improving early warning systems and adaptation measures for disaster risk reduction in Africa. Supported by the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Climate Services for Risk Reduction in Africa 2023 (CS4RRA) initiative is taking place on four dates, in four locations and on four themes.
The webinar on « Improving the early warning system and disaster risk adaptation measures » will be held on 28 September 2023 at the University of Lomé. The one on « Excessive water management » is scheduled for October 2023 at the Université Felix Houphouet Boigny (UFHB) in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The other two webinars, on « Climate-smart agriculture and sustainable landscapes » and « Climate impacts and resilience in current and future scenarios », will be held in November 2023 at the Kwame-Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, and the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, respectively.
Implemented by France’s Institut de la Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in partnership with the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), these meetings, led by a cohort of African and European experts, aim to build climate resilience in Africa by raising awareness of climate knowledge, identifying key services for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
Low coverage of climate warning systems
Africa only accounts for around 2-3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but it suffers the consequences disproportionately. This situation is made more difficult by the continent’s poor coverage of climate warning systems.
The « State of the Climate in Africa 2021 » report published by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) indicates that 60% of Africa’s population is not covered by early warning systems for extreme weather events and climate change.
According to the same report, droughts and floods are the most worrying climate risks in Africa. Over the past fifty years, drought-related hazards have claimed the lives of more than half a million people and caused economic losses in excess of 70 billion dollars in the region. Over the same period, Africa has suffered more than 1,000 flood-related disasters, resulting in more than 20,000 deaths. The WMO estimates that by 2050, the consequences of climate change could cost African countries 50 billion dollars a year.
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AFRICA: a series of seminars to improve climate warning systems
France and Germany are joining forces to improve climate risk prevention in Africa. More than 60% of the continent’s population has no climate warning system. To make good this shortfall, the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research are organising Climate services for risk reduction in Africa 2023 (CS4RRA). The initiative consists of a series of four webinars, scheduled to take place in Togo, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal from September to November 2023.
The Biovers NG project aims to educate and mobilise around 200 young Nigerians on the role of biodiversity for the planet. The project, run by the SustyVibes organisation, is funded by the German embassy in Nigeria. The initiative comes at a time when biodiversity in Nigeria is steadily deteriorating. The West African country has lost more than 80% of its forest cover over the last thirty years.
SustyVibes aims to improve young Nigerians’ knowledge of biodiversity and its role in maintaining natural ecosystems. The Nigerian environmental protection organisation has signed a partnership agreement with the German embassy in Nigeria. The document, initialled on 10 August 2023 in the capital Abuja, formalises the collaboration between the two parties in setting up the Biovers NG project.
With funding from the German Embassy, the amount of which is yet to be determined, SustyVibes will carry out the activities of the Biovers NG project. These include organising a six-week virtual workshop that will provide around 200 young Nigerians with a wide range of knowledge about the links between climate change and biodiversity, as well as the daily lives of people living with disabilities, women, indigenous peoples and members of local communities who are on the front line of climate action and biodiversity protection.
This project will offer internships to the three best participants in the workshop. They will benefit from practical experience in climate action and biodiversity projects, and will be coached by professionals in the field. « The Bioverse NG project offers us a platform to rejuvenate the participation and leadership of Nigerians in dialogues on biodiversity and climate change. It is a project for young people and by young people, designed to help us build and maintain the optimism and resilience we need in these times of multiple crises », explains Jennifer Uchendu, the founder of SustyVibes.
Forest cover has shrunk by 80%
By highlighting the importance of disseminating knowledge about biodiversity, SustyVibes, with the help of the German embassy, aims to make its contribution to protecting nature in Nigeria. According to official figures, the West African country has lost more than 80% of its forest cover over the last thirty years.
In the rest of the world, the situation is no better either. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the planet is currently facing the greatest loss of biodiversity since the industrial era, with around a million plant and animal species threatened with extinction.
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NIGERIA: 200 young people trained in the role of biodiversity for the planet
The Biovers NG project aims to educate and mobilise around 200 young Nigerians on the role of biodiversity for the planet. The project, run by the SustyVibes organisation, is funded by the German embassy in Nigeria. The initiative comes at a time when biodiversity in Nigeria is steadily deteriorating. The West African country has lost more than 80% of its forest cover over the last thirty years.
The extreme drought that has been affecting the Horn of Africa since 2020 has not finished spreading its human consequences. In a report published on 15 July 2023, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) states that more than 43 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and 2.7 million others have been displaced in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia as a result of the drought affecting these countries in the Horn of Africa.
This is the latest report
on the relentless drought in the Horn of Africa, more specifically in Ethiopia,
Kenya and Somalia. The study published on 15 July 2023 by the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) reveals that more than 2.7 million people have been
displaced in the three countries and more than 13 million head of livestock
have died, destroying not only livelihoods but an entire way of life.
The UNFPA adds that of the
"43 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in these three
countries of the Horn of Africa, 32 million are acutely food insecure". The
same source also points out that recent rains in other parts of the Horn of
Africa have led to "further population displacement and increased risks
of disease, livestock losses and crop damage".
A phenomenon caused by
climate change
In another study published
on 27 April 2023, scientists described the historic drought affecting the
Greater Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan)
as the unprecedented combination of a lack of rain and high temperatures. These
climatic upsets could not have occurred without the consequences of human
emissions of greenhouse gases.
"Climate change
caused by human activities has made agricultural drought in the Horn of Africa
around 100 times more likely than in the past", states a report by the
World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of scientists that assesses
the link between extreme weather events and climate disruption without delay.
According to the nineteen
scientists who contributed to the report, climate change has had "little
effect on recent annual rainfall" in the region. But it has had a strong
influence on the rise in temperatures, responsible for a sharp increase in
evapotranspiration, which has led to record drying of soils and plants. For
these scientists, this is the worst drought to hit the region for forty years.
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EAST AFRICA: drought is starving more than 43 million people
The extreme drought that has been affecting the Horn of Africa since 2020 has not finished spreading its human consequences. In a report published on 15 July 2023, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) states that more than 43 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and 2.7 million others have been displaced in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia as a result of the drought affecting these countries in the Horn of Africa.
The Bonn Conference on Climate Change (also known as SB58) ended on 15 June 2023 at the headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Germany. This was the last chance for climate negotiators to meet before COP28 in Dubai in December. But the 10-day talks ended without any clear, concrete commitments from developed countries on the recurring problem of financing climate action in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) will be held from 30 November to 12 December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As is customary, delegates from around the world met in Bonn, Germany, to prepare the broad guidelines for the next COP. These guidelines appear once again to have overlooked the urgent financing needs of the countries most threatened by climate change, particularly African countries.
« According to current trends, Africa’s climate gap is around 1.3 trillion dollars for the decade 2020-2030. Unfortunately, the crucial issue of climate finance in particular did not gain much ground in the negotiations and discussions in Bonn. The failure to make solid progress in finding concrete and sustainable solutions to the ever-growing climate finance gap is particularly worrying in light of the debt crisis facing many African countries today, which is already being exacerbated by climate shocks », says John Asafu-Adjaye, Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET).
COP28 is billed as the most important since the one that led to the Paris Agreement in 2015. This summit will see the first global stocktaking, an assessment of the progress made towards achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The agreement calls for richer countries to provide $100 billion in climate finance each year, as well as an additional $40 billion to help developing countries adapt to climate change. But this provision has not been respected.
All is not lost, however. On 22 and 23 June 2023, around a hundred leaders will meet in Paris, France, for the Summit on a New Financial Deal to meet the needs of around 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in emerging economies (excluding China). To achieve this, they are expected to agree on transformational changes such as tripling World Bank lending to low- and middle-income countries, which could reach $1,200 billion by 2030, and agree on the use of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through similar banks.
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AFRICA: pre-COP28 negotiations show no promise for the continent
The Bonn Conference on Climate Change (also known as SB58) ended on 15 June 2023 at the headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Germany. This was the last chance for climate negotiators to meet before COP28 in Dubai in December. But the 10-day talks ended without any clear, concrete commitments from developed countries on the recurring problem of financing climate action in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.