Hello everyone!
As I find myself at the midpoint of the second week of COP28, I am truly invigorated by the collective dedication of global communities toward the goals of forest conservation and sustainable forest management. Since my last blog post, I have had the privilege of observing three negotiations on Article 6, exploring numerous country pavilions, and attending various side events focused on forests as a nature-based climate solution.
In this blog post, I am eager to share my insights and reflections on the international efforts surrounding forest conservation, forest restoration, and sustainable forest management. This will include key takeaways from my experiences at COP28, shedding light on the impactful strides being made in the realm of preserving our invaluable forests. Stay tuned for an in-depth exploration of the global commitment to safeguarding our natural resources and mitigating climate change through responsible forest stewardship.
Key Takeaways
- The critical role of forest finance
A key component to the discussions around forest conservation and restoration was the critical need to channel finance to these forest nations. During a session dedicated to achieving high-quality carbon markets, the spotlight was on Ghana’s innovative climate-smart cocoa practices aimed at curbing deforestation. While Ghana has commendably advanced toward its sustainable forest management goals, it struggles with severe debt, having received a mere $50 million in financial support from the program thus far. Further highlighting the financial challenges faced by forest nations, Indonesia’s ambitious concept note to plant 20 million trees remains unrealized due to a scarcity of funding resources. This underscores the pressing need greater efforts and increased financial backing to move these initiatives forward and ensure the success of global forest conservation endeavors.
- Women land ownership rights
One afternoon, Gambia took the initiative to host an important side event within their pavilion. The focus of this event was to look into the details of their ongoing mangrove restoration initiative and women’s land rights, shedding light on the progress made, as well as the challenges and barriers encountered along the way.
Gambia is a significant rice producer with agricultural practices primarily completed by the women within its population. During the event, experts closely associated with the mangrove restoration project raised awareness of the critical issues confronting Gambia. They specifically highlighted the adverse consequences of land conversion for agriculture, emphasizing how the soils have become infertile and unusable as a byproduct of deforestation of mangroves and other woody and vascular plants for rice farming. This underscored the interconnected challenges faced by Gambia and emphasized the need for sustainable solutions to safeguard both agricultural practices and vital ecosystems. The session placed a strong emphasis on the empowerment of women in Gambia, recognizing them as the primary contributors to rice farming and how women land ownership is a critical component to mangrove restoration initiatives.
The past few days have been so insightful as I have learned about the remarkable global efforts towards forest conservation and also the challenges they face. I feel very thankful to be here and am looking forward to learning more over the next few days.
Stay tuned!
Brook Hemphill
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