Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, 3 September 2016 (IUCN) –
The Government of Malawi
and the Association of Guatemalan Private Natural Reserves have
committed to restoring a total of 4.54 million hectares of degraded land
as part of the Bonn Challenge initiative, as announced today at the
IUCN
World Conservation Congress
currently taking place in Hawai’i.
Today’s
announcements bring the total of Bonn Challenge pledges to just over
113 million hectares committed by 36 governments, organisations and
companies – exceeding the
100 million hectare milestone just five years after its launch and bringing the 150 million target within reach.
“This exciting news is evidence that forest landscape restoration is increasingly looked to as an avenue to achieving
the ambitions of the 2015 agreements,” says Inger Andersen, Director General, IUCN.
“We’ve watched it transform from a global ambition to a powerful
movement driven by governments, business leaders and local communities.
“Over
the next four years, we will be working with our partners to embed
forest landscape restoration into national
priorities, achieve restoration at scale and deliver real results to
the communities and individuals living in these landscapes.”
The
Bonn Challenge is a global effort to restore 150 million hectares of
degraded and deforested land by
2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. The initiative was launched in
2011 by Germany and IUCN, and was later endorsed and extended by the UN
Climate Summit in 2014.
Achieving
the 350 million hectare goal could generate US$ 170 billion per year in
net benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields and forest
products, and could
sequester up to 1.7 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent annually.
“The IUCN Congress has driven home the urgency of acting on environmental issues and the potential of using
nature as a tool to achieve sustainable development,” says Dr. Clement Chilima, Director of Forestry, Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Malawi. “Restoring 4.5 million hectares of degraded land will set Malawi on the path to a climate-smart
future.”
“The RPNG was instrumental in getting over 170 reserves declared in Guatemala – that is the power of working
together,” says Martin Keller, President of the Association of Guatemalan Private Natural Reserves (RPNG),
the first private reserve group to make a pledge to the Bonn Challenge.
“We’re delighted to join the Bonn Challenge and to share our lessons in
natural resource management and learn from other participating
countries and organisations.”
The
commitments made by Malawi and RPNG follow other recent pledges
announced by Panama (1 million hectares),
Côte d’Ivoire (5 million hectares), the Central African Republic (3.5
million hectares), Guinea (2 million hectares), and an additional 1
million hectares from Ghana at regional ministerial roundtables held in
Kigali
and Panama in July and August 2016.
These roundtables are part of a series of high-level meetings to accelerate action on forest landscape
restoration (FLR) in support of the Bonn Challenge. The Kigali roundtable provided a platform for the launch of the
Kigali Declaration
which – with an increasing list of signatories – is becoming a
testament to the Pan-African ministerial support for the Bonn Challenge.
For more information or to set up interviews, contact:
Sandra Caya,
Manager, Knowledge & Communications, Global Forest and Climate
Change Programme, IUCN, +41 79 832 7593, sandra.caya@iucn.org
IUCN Congress Media Team: iucncongress@iucn.org
Supporting quotes :
“We have passed the ‘magic’ 100 million hectare line. This is truly a remarkable achievement, and within only five years,”
says Schwarzelühr-Sutter,
Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for the
Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB),
Germany. “We must celebrate those who have shown leadership on restoration and continue to
attract more and diverse partners as well as developing scalable restoration investment opportunities.”
“The multiple benefits of restoration – climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation and the sustainable management
of water resources – are evident and inspired Panama to be a part of the global push for forest landscape restoration,” says
Mirei Endara, Panama’s Environment Minister.
Editor’s notes
Responding
to growing political will and regional cooperation on Forest Landscape
Restoration, IUCN and its partners are
focusing on scaling up implementation action and strengthening
monitoring processes. Supported by the Global Environment Facility
(GEF); IUCN will be working with the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of
the United Nations (FAO) in 10 countries
to accelerate community-driven restoration projects and support
South-South cooperation. Earlier today, IUCN announced the launch of the
Bonn Challenge Barometer of Progress supported by the International
Climate Initiative (IKI) of the BMUB. The Barometer
will be piloted in six countries with a focus on developing and
applying a progress tracking protocol for FLR interventions.
About IUCN
IUCN,
International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find
pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development
challenges. IUCN’s work focusses on valuing and
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solutions to global challenges in climate, food and development. IUCN
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all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs, the UN and companies
together to develop policy, laws and best practice. IUCN is the world’s
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and private sectors around the world.
www.iucn.org
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