Central African parliamentarians adopt a common position to preserve the biodiversity of the Congo Basin and popularize the "One Health" strategy. One of the recommendations made from October 12 to 15, 2021 in Kinshasa by the Network of Parliamentarians for the Sustainable Management of Central African Forest Ecosystems (Repar-Ac) is to take into account the traditional African mechanism of resilience to climate change.
Taking into account the traditional African mechanism of resilience to climate change. This is one of the ten recommendations made at the end of the sub-regional workshop to validate the position papers of parliamentarians at the COPs on biodiversity and climate and the “One Health” strategy of the Network of Parliamentarians for the Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa (Repar-Ac), held from October 13 to 15, 2021 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In rural areas of Africa, global warming is causing land degradation, resulting mainly in bare soil and reduced agricultural yields. To adapt to this situation, farmers use water and soil conservation techniques (SWC), manure pits, irrigation and selective plant cultivation (varietal adaptation). It is therefore these traditional African techniques of adaptation to climate change that Repar-Ac would like to see taken into account during the debates at the COP 26 on climate (from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland), and at the COP15 on biodiversity, the second part of which is scheduled from 25 April to 8 May 2022 in Kunming, China.
The “One Health” strategy
Among the ten recommendations of the Repar-Ac workshop in Kinshasa, we also note, among others, the determination of precise proportions to be reached by the Congo Basin in the implementation of the new global framework of biodiversity, the need to insist on the connectivity between the 3 Rio conventions (Brazil), and the need to highlight the issue of compensation linked to the problem of sustainable management of biodiversity. These three recommendations are particularly relevant to the improvement of the One Health strategy of Repar-ac.
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As a reminder, the “One Health” approach calls for a rethinking of society’s perception of health, taking into account the interdependence of living things or the interconnection between people, animals and the environment. Revived in the early 2000s, this ancient concept aims to decompartmentalize the disciplines and teachings of human, animal and environmental health, in order to deal effectively with emerging diseases and zoonosis.
Boris Ngounou
