In Togo, a team of scientists and civil society actors will work to restore forests decimated by drought and natural disasters. The initiative set up by the West African government will help implement the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 15, which focuses on the protection of biodiversity.
Togo has its National Committee for Sustainable Development (CNDD). The team was recently set up by the authorities of this West African country with the main mission of “addressing the environmental, economic and social challenges that affect the management of natural resources”. The CNDD will collaborate with the Togolese branches of environmental protection organisations and other development partners.
These include the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Bank, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). These international institutions are also partners in the African Forest and Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).
This initiative, launched at the end of the 21st United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21) held in Paris, France, in 2015, aims to reforest 100 million hectares of land on the African continent by 2030. To this end, the Togolese CNDD’s technical expertise is expected to help implement the Sustainable Management of Semi-Arid Lands and Ecosystems in Togo project. The initiative, whose first phase was launched in March 2022, has already resulted in the planting of 634,502 trees on an area of 186,788 hectares in the Savanes region.
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The project is co-financed to the tune of 15.8 million dollars by the Togolese government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the FAO and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This funding aims to reduce the pressure on natural resources through the restoration of ecosystems such as agroforestry areas and pastures.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
