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Abidjan is for two weeks the world capital of the fight against desertification, on the occasion of the COP15 which opened this Monday, May 9. A dozen heads of state are there, including nine Africans.
Alassane Ouattara opened this Monday morning the COP15 against desertification painting a gloomy picture of the environmental situation. » Our summit is being held in a context of climate emergency which is having a severe impact on our land management policies and exacerbating the phenomenon of drought “, he warned. » Land degradation affects 52% of agricultural land and threatens 2.6 billion people. 12 million hectares of arable land are lost. »
The Ivorian Head of State recalled that his country was particularly affected by desertification and land degradation and, in particular, forests. The country has lost 80% of its forest cover since independence, reminds our correspondent in Abidjan, Peter Pinto.
There is also an urgent need, reminded the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat: » Africa’s arduous struggle against drought and its consequences has given rise to a multitude of strategies. In truth, all these strategies and all these conferences have not achieved the expected results. With each passing day, demography increases while the environment deteriorates leading to the scarcity of resources. It is for this reason that we must act quickly before it is too late. The Abidjan initiative responds to this imperative for action. »
1.5 billion over five years
To counter this phenomenon and restore 3 million hectares of forest by 2030, Alassane Ouattara wishes in particular to focus on agroforestry and involve the private sector. And to enable Côte d’Ivoire to restore these degraded lands and sustainably strengthen agricultural productivity, the Ivorian president has therefore asked international donors to contribute 1.5 billion dollars over five years.
Objective: to make Côte d’Ivoire – a quarter of whose GDP depends on agriculture – the laboratory of a new strategy for restoring degraded land. » The Abidjan initiative is not only designed as a model of sustainable land management, but also a model of sustainable production, likely to create jobs. It is above all a model that can be replicated in Africa and other regions of the world. “, he argued.
Nine African heads of state, including the Togolese Faure Gnassingbé, the Liberian George Weah, the Nigerian Mohamed Bazoum or the Nigerian Muhammadu Buhari, surrounded President Alassane Ouattara.
500 million trees per year
» The deterioration of ecosystems accentuates famines, malnutrition and population displacements. It generates social and community tensions producing social anomie “, underlined Mohamed Bazoum. The Nigerien president recalled that his country, of which 80% of the population lives from agriculture, is affected by this degradation with yields which drop from year to year.
He asks for help to plant 500 million trees a year as part of the Great Green Wall, this project to combat desertification between West and East Africa.
The participants in COP15, which runs until May 20, will thus attempt to propose concrete measures to combat soil degradation over the next ten years. The theme of this event “Lands. Life. Heritage: From a Precarious World to a Prosperous Future » is » a call to action to ensure that the earth, which is our source of life on this planet, continues to benefit present and future generations “, underlines the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in a press release.
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