The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is taking a major step towards preserving the environment by creating its very first fund dedicated to biodiversity. Backed by seed capital of 50 million South African rand (approximately $2.7 million) from the DBSA Green Fund, the fund aims to attract additional investment to protect the region’s fragile ecosystems.
Toute l'actu sur la protection de l'environnement
The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is taking a major step towards preserving the environment by creating its very first fund dedicated to biodiversity. Backed by seed capital of 50 million South African rand (approximately $2.7 million) from the DBSA Green Fund, the fund aims to attract additional investment to protect the region’s fragile ecosystems.
The DBSA Green Fund, endowed with 1.1 billion rand by the South African government’s Department of the Environment, will be the first source of funding for this new biodiversity fund. This initiative marks a significant commitment on the part of the DBSA to fill the funding gap in the area of biodiversity conservation, which is often overshadowed by climate funds focused on the fight against global warming.
An ambitious financing strategy
To strengthen the fund’s financial capacity, the DBSA plans to approach the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and other private investors. The GEF, with its 186 member countries, has already allocated 8.6 billion dollars over the last 18 years to projects aimed at combating biodiversity loss and land degradation. By attracting additional funding from this fund and other investors, the DBSA hopes to create a sustainable and significant momentum for biodiversity conservation in southern Africa.
To facilitate investor engagement in this new initiative, the DBSA published a white paper this month. This strategic document provides guidance on integrating biodiversity concerns into investment decisions. Michael Hillary, Head of Funding Operations at the DBSA believes that « the fund is one of the first really big steps in taking these things forward. By the end of this year, we’ll start to get a bit more traction. Wealth funds are recognising how essential biodiversity funds are. »
A response to environmental challenges
The creation of this fund comes at a time when investment in biodiversity conservation has been relatively slow to take off compared with climate funds. In southern Africa, deforestation, loss of natural habitats and land degradation threaten many species and ecosystems. The DBSA Biodiversity Fund represents a proactive response to these challenges, aiming to mobilise significant resources for conservation projects on the ground.
By attracting public and private funding, the DBSA hopes not only to protect ecosystems, but also to raise international awareness of the importance of biodiversity. The DBSA’s efforts to create this fund are part of a broader approach aimed at promoting sustainable management of natural resources and combating the harmful effects of climate change.
Fanta Mabu
Le Réseau des journalistes africains spécialisés sur le développement durable et le changement climatique a publié aujourd’hui les résultats d’un sondage révélateur lors de la 3e Convention annuelle des médias africains (CMA) qui se tient du 15 au 17 mai 2024 à Accra au Ghana. Cette enquête, menée du 10 au 13 mai 2024, met en lumière les défis financiers auxquels sont confrontés les journalistes couvrant les questions environnementales à travers le continent.
Parmi les 150 journalistes interrogés, une tendance préoccupante émerge : plus de 74,7% indiquent avoir abandonné ou réduit la couverture des sujets environnementaux en raison du manque de moyens financiers. Ces chiffres révèlent une crise pressante dans le secteur journalistique africain, mettant en évidence les défis persistants auxquels sont confrontés ceux qui cherchent à rapporter sur des questions cruciales telles que le changement climatique, la pollution et la durabilité.
L’étude montre que 85,3% des journalistes estiment ne pas disposer de moyens suffisants pour exercer leur métier correctement. Parmi les principales raisons invoquées, la pandémie de COVID-19, le déclin économique et l’absence de publicité figurent en tête de liste. De plus, 82,7% des répondants ont fait état de difficultés financières au cours des trois dernières années, citant des raisons telles que l’inflation, les loyers élevés et la rareté des publicités.
En outre, près de la moitié des journalistes (44%) reconnaissent un manque de préparation intellectuelle pour aborder les questions environnementales, soulignant le besoin crucial de formations spécialisées dans ce domaine. De plus, près des deux tiers des répondants ont été témoins d’une violation de la liberté de la presse au cours des trois dernières années, illustrant les risques inhérents à la couverture de sujets sensibles.
La voix des journalistes environnementaux
Malgré ces défis, une lueur d’espoir émerge : plus d’un quart des journalistes (26,7%) constatent un intérêt croissant du public pour les questions environnementales. Dans le même temps, près d’un tiers (32,7%) identifient une demande croissante de sujets tels que le changement climatique, le développement durable et la biodiversité.
Les résultats de ce sondage réalisé par le Réseau des journalistes africains spécialisés sur le développement durable et le changement climatique soulignent l’urgence d’une action concertée pour soutenir les journalistes environnementaux en Afrique. Alors que la crise climatique s’intensifie, il est impératif de garantir que ces voix continuent à informer et à sensibiliser le public sur les enjeux environnementaux critiques auxquels le continent est confronté.
La présentation de ce sondage intervient dans le cadre de la 3e Convention annuelle des médias africains (CMA) qui se tient du 15 au 17 mai 2024 à Accra au Ghana. Disponible dans sa version pré-rapport, l’étude sera entièrement publiée le 25 mai 2024 sur le site du think tank Africa21.
La CMA a été lancée en 2021 par l’East African Editors Forum, le bureau de liaison de l’Organisation des Nations unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture (Unesco) auprès de l’Union africaine (UA) et de la Commission économique pour l’Afrique des Nations unies (UNECA) et le bureau national de l’Unesco à Dar es Salaam en Tanzanie. Le CMA est devenu un forum essentiel pour faire progresser la liberté des médias, l’innovation et la durabilité sur le continent africain. Cet événement s’inspire de la Journée mondiale de la liberté de la presse, célébrée chaque année le 3 mai. Une journée mondiale qui a donné le ton cette année aux journalistes environnementalistes, via le thème «Une presse pour la planète : le journalisme face à la crise environnementale».
Boris Ngounou
AFRIQUE : plus de 74% des journalistes lâchent l’environnement, faute de financement
Le Réseau des journalistes africains spécialisés sur le développement durable et le changement climatique a publié aujourd’hui les résultats d’un sondage révélateur lors de la 3e Convention annuelle des médias africains (CMA) qui se tient du 15 au 17 mai 2024 à Accra au Ghana. Cette enquête, menée du 10 au 13 mai 2024, met en lumière les défis financiers auxquels sont confrontés les journalistes couvrant les questions environnementales à travers le 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.
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.
Fanta Mabo
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.
Oyéoussi Charles Balogoun is the Africa Representative of the NGO Panel under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The Civil Society Panel (CSO Panel) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) represents nearly 500 organisations accredited to the Convention. Charles Balogoun is also the Global President and Chairman of the Board of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Afrique Espérance. He answers ENVIRONNEMENTALES’s questions on the state of desertification in Africa.
What is your panel’s assessment of the advancing desert in Africa?
First of all, I would like to say a big thank you to your media organisation, which makes enormous efforts to support endogenous initiatives to combat the effects of climate change. You were with us from the start in 2020 after the Institut de la Francophonie pour le développement durable (IFDD), a subsidiary body of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), awarded us a grant for the implementation of the project « organic waste recovery to increase the income of women’s groups in the council of Zè in southern Benin ». And so to answer your question, before the COP15 UNCCD held from 9 to 20 May 2022 in Abidjan in Ivory Coast, the 2nd Review of the Global Land Outlook, Second Edition was launched. The conclusions of this report are alarming and worrying for our survival on earth. According to the experts involved in this scientific and research activity, more than 70% of the arable land is already degraded and therefore unusable and infertile; only 30% is left to feed more than 7 billion people on the globe. This state of affairs also affects the ability of our environment to absorb the influence of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, causing damage to the ozone layer and in turn reflecting the high level of global warming. Urgent and appropriate measures are therefore needed to address this. Hence the interest of the strong resolutions and recommendations of the « Abidjan Declaration ».
At the COP15 on desertification from 9 to 20 May 2022 in Ivory Coast, many delegates from the African continent wanted to see the adoption of an additional protocol on drought, inspired by the Kyoto Protocol on climate. What is your panel doing to support the adoption of such a protocol at COP16, which will take place in 2024 in Saudi Arabia?
The highlights of the UNCCD COP15 in Abidjan include planting one billion trees by 2030, restoring more than 30% of degraded land by 2030, building resilience to drought by identifying the expansion of drylands, creating an Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought for 2022-2024, improving women’s involvement in land management as stakeholders, combating sand and dust storms, and other increasing disaster risks, as well as promoting decent land-related jobs for youth and youth entrepreneurship, but also supporting their participation in the Convention process. To these various strong resolutions, the CSO Panel Africa branch in good understanding with the UNCCD CSO Panel (global) has already validated its two-year work plan. The first step is to take stock of the existing situation, i.e. the accredited organisations and what they are doing on the ground. This will allow us to have a reliable data base to make decisions and implement consequent projects. To support the adoption of such a protocol, and I must remind you that it is the « Parties » (delegates from the 195 States that have ratified the Convention, editor’s note) that have the right to vote, but the CSOs, also called « observers », can make proposals and are only taken into account if the General Assembly finds them very relevant as a proposal. This is why we are already preparing a call for contributions and ideas through a Google form to collect contributions from our peers. This long-term work will certainly result in what could be called « Africa’s contribution to the additional protocol ».
An intergovernmental working group on drought was created at COP 15. How does your panel relate to this group?
The aim is to support the work of the COP15 UNCCD presidency, whose high office is held by Donwahi Richard, and that of the Executive Secretariat led by Ibrahim Thiaw, a colleague of experts (delegates from member countries, members of the subsidiary structures of the convention, civil society, international NGOs, experts and consultants in the field of desertification and drought, and the private sector). Two civil society representatives have been nominated, one of them representing South America and the Caribbean (Ana Di Pangracio). You can see that the Panel is well represented in this important working group.
I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you about another Intergovernmental Working Group, the one on the Mid-Term Review of the UNCC Strategic Framework 2028-2030, to which I belong as Chair (or Chair of the CSO PANEL).
Given the ravages of desertification in Africa, a phenomenon that reduces food security in particular, what is your panel doing to give the UNCCD the same influence as the UNCCD?
This is a very important question because the purpose of the presence of CSOs alongside vulnerable populations at the grassroots is to help them deal with this important phenomenon. It is therefore a question of finding simple solutions to enable them to have fertile land useful for their crops and, in turn, save them from famine and ensure food security. This ranges from simple to complex and proven restoration techniques. All this is referred to as Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
In fact, the ultimate goal of the Convention’s long and hard work is to save our planet from the legacy of our Mother Earth, the lifeblood of everything that keeps us alive. Working tirelessly to ensure that the substance that gives it its flavour is not missing.
I would like to acknowledge in passing the support and frankness of other UN agencies that support the Convention in achieving its noble goals. These include the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and international NGOs such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
What are the projects of your panel in the fight against desertification in Africa?
It is essentially a question of listing all the good practices tried and tested on the continent in order to make a good database useful for sharing experiences through an official website dedicated to the cause. We are planning to start a series of webinars on training and capacity building of the panel’s actors on themes that we will make available very soon.
Beyond that, we are keen to organise an international African civil society forum on issues affecting the convention by the end of our mandate.
Interview by Boris Ngounou
Charles Balogoun: « Over 70% of arable land is already degraded
Oyéoussi Charles Balogoun is the Africa Representative of the NGO Panel under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The Civil Society Panel (CSO Panel) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) represents nearly 500 organisations accredited to the Convention. Charles Balogoun is also the Global President and Chairman of the Board of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Afrique Espérance. He answers ENVIRONNEMENTALES’s questions on the state of desertification in Africa.
The Republic of Congo will soon have a harmonised framework for the implementation of the green economy. Actors from various backgrounds were consulted to this effect on 31 March 2023 in Brazzaville. The workshop, co-organised by the Congolese Ministry of Forest Economy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was held within the framework of the Regional Programme for the Environment in Central Africa (CARPE).
The Republic of Congo has abundant natural resources and rich biodiversity. To reconcile economic requirements with ecological imperatives, the Central African country is opting to set up a harmonised framework for the development of the green economy. For the record, this type of economy includes two types of activities. Traditional activities carried out with less polluting or less energy-consuming processes, and eco-activities, whose purpose is to protect the environment or manage natural resources.
To this end, the Congolese government, through its Ministry of Forest Economy, organised a consultation workshop on 31 March 2023 in Brazzaville. The aim was to identify the best way to put in place a harmonised, multi-stakeholder and multi-scale national framework to support the development and implementation of green economy strategies and best practices.
Support from USAID
The Brazzaville workshop was part of the Conservation through Economic Empowerment in the Republic of Congo (CEERC) project, which helps communities in wildlife and forest-rich areas to seize economic opportunities, obtain a level playing field and increase the value of their products in order to reap the full economic and social benefits.
This project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as part of its participation in the Central African Regional Environment Programme (CARPE).
In June 2022, in the context of this cooperation in the field of the green economy, USAID released an envelope of 28 million dollars (about 17 billion CFA francs) for the Congo. Allocated under the Sustainable Development Goal Grant Agreement (SDGGA) between Congo and the United States of America, the funds support conservation, biodiversity, sustainable management of forest resources and the development of entrepreneurship in the green economy sector.
Fanta Mabo
CONGO: Towards a national framework for the implementation of the green economy
The Republic of Congo will soon have a harmonised framework for the implementation of the green economy. Actors from various backgrounds were consulted to this effect on 31 March 2023 in Brazzaville. The workshop, co-organised by the Congolese Ministry of Forest Economy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was held within the framework of the Regional Programme for the Environment in Central Africa (CARPE).