Regreening Africa recognized as one of seven UN World Restoration Flagships

The vision of Regreening Africa is to mobilise and work with a critical mass of diverse partners to scale-up locally appropriate ways of integrating trees into agricultural systems, to successfully reverse land degradation across Africa.

Nairobi, 13 February 2024 – Desertification affects around 45 per cent of Africa’s land, with 55 per cent of this area at ‘high’ or ‘very high’ risk of further degradation. Regreening Africa – a research-in-development initiative co-led by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) with a range of partners – is expected to bring 5 million hectares under restoration by 2030, boosting biodiversity and supporting local communities. Regreening Africa was today named as one of seven UN World Restoration Flagships.

The initiative is already regreening an area of over 350,000 hectares across Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, and Somalia by reaching more than 607,000 households through training and tree growing efforts, adopting new regreening practices or intensifying existing ones.

Over Regreening Africa’s first programme period, the number of households earning additional income from trees increased from under 600 to over 1,500, while the sale of tree-related products increased from 8 to 20 per cent, especially in Ghana and Mali.

The World Restoration Flagship awards are part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) – which aims to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. The awards track notable initiatives following global commitments to restore one billion hectares – an area larger than China. The award for the Regreening Africa initiative was announced by UNEP Goodwill Ambassador and musician, Rocky Dawuni.

“Over half of productive lands in Africa are degraded, with climate change exacerbating this challenge,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “The good news is restoration works and can bring major benefits to communities – from supporting smallholder famers to helping raise household incomes. As people begin to quickly recognize the benefits of ecosystem restoration, it makes perfect sense to extend regreening practices to more lands and kickstart a renaissance of nature.”

With current funding, Regreening Africa is expected to restore an additional one million hectares by 2030. With its recognition as a UN World Restoration Flagship, the initiative will now be eligible for technical and financial UN assistance. With this extra support, Regreening Africa now plans to bring almost five million hectares under restoration, an area twice the size of Rwanda.

“Restoring land – bringing back trees, shrubs and grasses, building and conserving soils and water – is critical to improving ecosystem function and supporting livelihoods and food security,” said Dr Éliane Ubaljoro, CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF.  “Regreening Africa is leading the way in this restoration effort, matching practices to local contexts, ensuring strong community engagement and facilitating collective learning and adaptation centered around evidence. We hope the recognition as a global restoration flagship will further propel these efforts.”

The success of the initiative’s land restoration is observed and monitored through regular surveys, and through the use of the Regreening citizen science app. Several participating countries are exceeding 50 per cent of their hectare target already, including Ghana, Mali, and Somalia. Others still need to catch up by bringing more areas under successful restoration.

Efforts are expected to contribute to a more stable climate worldwide – tree covered landscapes in Africa's semi-arid drylands, while not as carbon rich as wetter areas, can hold 1.54 metric tonnes or more of carbon per hectare according to a recent article in Nature. Tree species in the drylands have biomass both above and below ground, developing underground taproots. Restoration is underway on more than 352,500 hectares to date, which will result in many additional tonnes of CO2 equivalent per hectare per year being stored below and above ground.

As smallholder farmers differ in their needs, opportunities, and constraints, a key step in addressing land degradation is to start from a good understanding of which restoration options work best where, and for whom. Working across multiple countries assists in identifying successful and scalable local solutions, leverage existing expertise and resources -including local knowledge - and ensuring interventions are appropriate to local contexts. These include tree planting and growing, home gardening with trees, pastoral-managed natural regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, farmer-managed natural regeneration, soil, and water conservation practices, and more.

As a UN World Restoration Flagship, Regreening Africa is recognized as one of the best examples of large-scale and long-term ecosystem restoration in any country or region, embodying the 10 Restoration Principles of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The announcement of seven new World Restoration Flagships was made ahead of the 6th UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), to be held from 26 February to 1 March, 2024. The Assembly will convene the world’s Environment Ministers in Nairobi, Kenya to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.