In Makete, United Republic of Tanzania, forest, woodland and grassland resources are essential to the local economy, as well as for the conservation of vital watersheds and the environment, for agriculture and live-stock production. Widespread unsustainable land use has produced serious ecological losses and limited farm productivity. These problems have also been aggravated by a lack of institutional, legislative and fiscal capacity for effective natural resources management and consequently for the stability of the Makete ecosys-tem.
Using smallholder woodlot management practices, an ecosystem-based inclusive green growth project un-dertaken by the Climate Change and Development – Adapting by Reducing vulnerability (CC DARE) unit of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) created a new stream of income for local communities and revenues for the city, while enhancing resilience to climate vulnerability. Building on indigenous weather forecasting knowledge, the project trained 27 technicians on forecasting indicators, and disseminated data on silvicultural management practices, training disadvantaged women and girls who work in woodland man-agement and the marketing of wood products with empowering knowledge relating to species selection, land preparation, field planting and spacing, management for forest regeneration and marketing channels for wood products.
This was an incredibly innovative advancement that provided financial credits to low-income people who could then use their woodlots as collateral for microloans. The built-in incentive to maintain the woodlots created new sources of income and triggered the setting up of community savings and credit societies. The regeneration of the forest for the benefit of the watershed succeeded in promoting inclusive green growth and sustainable ecosystem management.
Source: Woodlot Management in Tanzania (www.unep.org/greeneconomy/SuccessStories/WoodlotManagementinTanza-nia/tabid/29893/Default.aspx).
Deforestation that constrains the invaluable ecosystem services provided by forests.
Climate change with direct impacts on the composition of individual ecosystems, ne-cessitating the need to adapt current prac-tices (unproductive or productive) to chang-ing future circumstances.
Water insecurity caused by weak govern-ance, urbanization and climate change.
Extractive industries affecting non-renew-able resources such as gold, diamonds and crude oil have had an untold impact on the environment.
Opportunities
Vast potential exists to harness ecosystems goods and services to achieve inclusive green growth, and ultimately, sustainable development in Africa:
Harnessing opportunities presented by the climate change challenge.
Promoting payment for ecosystems services.
Certification of environmental goods and services.
Learning from ecosystems conservation in-itiatives such as the Regional Coastal and Marine Conservation Programme for West Africa and Water and Nature Initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Na-ture (IUCN), which manages and protects water reserves and heritage in river and lake basins, such as the Nile Valley, the Volta, Tina, and Limpopo (IUCN, 2013).
Leveraging international agreements and platforms such as the Convention on Biolog-ical Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertifica-tion, and the Convention on Wetlands of
In-ternational Importance, especially as Water-fowl Habitat (RAMSAR).
Promoting a true measure of wealth by in-cluding natural capital in GDP measure-ments.
Leveraging international financing initiatives such as The World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds, the African Development Bank’s African Water Facility and the Global Envi-ronment Facility.
Conclusion and policy recommendations
Vast potential exists to harness ecosystems goods and services for the successful achievement of in-clusive green growth, and ultimately sustainable development in Africa. This is underscored by the fact that at 1.4global hectares (gha) of Africa’s per capita “ecological footprint” (a measure of a pop-ulation’s use of renewable resources) is below, not only the global average of 2.7 gha but also the globally available biocapacity of 1.8 gha per person (WWF/AfDB, 2012). Africa is well poised to implement inclusive green growth by moving forward with innovative approaches. From disas-ter risk reduction to energy generation, to wadisas-ter security, Africa has ample opportunity to seize the benefits of ecosystem goods and services for in-clusive green growth.
The provisioning and regulating services provided by ecosystems directly and indirectly link to every aspect of inclusive green growth: socially inclu-sive and environmentally conscious economic growth. Harnessing ecosystem services will spur inclusive green growth and lead to sustainable development. Most of the challenges to ecosys-tems-based inclusive green growth also provide opportunities that could be leveraged to spur this form of growth. These opportunities must be seized and good practices scaled up and scaled out for beneficial economic, social and
environ-mental outcomes. Lessons learned from the anal-ysis of ecosystems-based inclusive green growth are synthesized into the following policy recom-mendations.
Countries should:
Support research to ensure that the devel-opment and management of environmental goods and services are guided by the best available science;
Promote the application of environmental assessment tools in national development plans and strategies and in decisions and actions affecting environmental goods and services;
Promote knowledge exchange and the de-velopment of practical tools and guidelines for implementing ecosystems goods and
services management approaches, as part of broader inclusive green growth and sustain-able development planning strategies;
Develop education, training and communi-cation capabilities to, among other things, increase awareness of the role of ecosystems and ecosystem management for inclusive green growth and sustainable development in Africa;
Mobilize funding and promote value-ad-dition for ecosystem goods and services to consolidate gains and scale up and scale out good practices;
Strengthen capacity to implement multilat-eral environmental agreements, enhance institutional effectiveness and promote re-gional cooperation.
5. Energy
Amidst the abundance of energy resources, Africa is facing an energy crisis. Existing production ca-pacity has not met the growing energy demand to power and grow the economy, drive local de-velopment and tackle poverty. The high cost of electricity generation, emanating from the high dependence on fossil fuels, poor energy infrastruc-ture and low investments in the sector, among others, is affecting various facets of economic and social development. The unmet demand for energy has further resulted in high dependence on unsustainably harvested traditional biomass energy in the form of charcoal and firewood, as cooking fuels, with the attendant environmental and health problems.
Africa’s current energy development and deploy-ment approaches have, therefore, not delivered the desired level of energy services and security – and requires a rethink. Africa is rich in energy resources, with known reserves of oil standing at 12.1 per cent of global production. Only 5 per cent of Africa’s hydro potential of 1620GW in sub-Saharan Africa has been exploited.