A new programme was launched today to build the resilience of Cameroon’s three northern regions, in the face of demographic pressure and food crises that are being exacerbated by insecurity and climate change. Entitled Cameroun: Septentrion Vert et Résilient (CaSeVe), the programme opened with an official ceremony at the Hôtel le Ribadou in Garoua in the country’s North Region.

This five-year initiative (2023-2028), funded by the European Union, covers three key landscapes: Logone Valley in the Far North Region, and West and East Benoue, which sit mainly in the North Region with extensions into the Adamawa Region. The initiative will be divided into three components, each of which will be led by a consortium of international research institutions and organisations.

The Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), the Observatoire des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale (OFAC), and Care International will oversee Component One, entitled ‘Cameroun Septentrion Vert – Gouvernance Territoriale Intégrée (CaSeVe – GTI)’, which aims to consolidate decentralized governance and coordinate the many initiatives of the members of the Team Europe Initiative (TEI).

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Programme de Consolidation et de Pérennisation du Conseil Agropastoral (PCP-ACEFA), the Programme d’Appui à la rénovation et au développement de la formation professionnelle dans les secteurs de l’agriculture, de l’élevage et de la pêche (PCP-AFOP) and the Société de développement du coton du Cameroun (SODECOTON) oversee Component Two, ‘Cameroon Septentrion Vert – Adaptation of the agro-sylvo-pastoral sectors (CaSeVe – C2)’, which aims to promote intelligent agro-sylvo-pastoral management in the face of climate change and the increasing scarcity of land suitable for pastoral activities.

The last component, ‘Cameroun Septentrion Vert – Gestion des territoires et des ressources naturelles (CaSeVe – C3)”, involves the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), NOE, and Conserve Global. It aims to support private and public conservation stakeholders in the protection and enhancement of hunting zones and national parks where they are functional, and to identify and then support organisations capable of taking over the management of protected areas that are currently non-functional or in serious difficulty.

The launch was held under the patronage of the Governor of the Northern Region and was well attended by the presidents of the region’s councils, representatives of the decentralised services of the public administration, international research and development organisations, traditional and communal authorities, and many other stakeholders in the programme.

The programme is expected to produce several key results, including:

1. Land-use zoning and management decisions in the northern regions are more informed, inclusive, transparent, and respected by the various categories of stakeholders.
2. Degraded lands in the communes supported by the project are restored.
3. The natural heritage in the northern regions is better protected.

“We are very pleased to have organised this ceremony with the other organisations, which officially marks the launch of all the planned activities. We are very confident in the CaSeVe programme, and we will do our best to ensure that it produces concrete results”, said Ann Degrande, CIFOR-ICRAF country coordinator for Cameroon, during the launch.

Contact: Laurianne Gilda Mefan (m.gilda@cifor-icraf.org)

NAIROBI, KENYA (4 October 2023) – The Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) is staging the largest hybrid conference on local solutions to the global climate and biodiversity crises this month.

On 11-12 October, thousands of scientists, activists, women leaders, Indigenous leaders, financiers, policymakers, practitioners and private-sector representatives will gather for the GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference: A New Vision for Earth, which is organized by the Global Landscapes Forum.

More than 120 representatives from over 80 organizations are expected to speak in 32 sessions either online or in person at the CIFOR-ICRAF campus in Nairobi, Kenya.

Experts attending include Éliane Ubalijoro, chief executive officer of CIFOR-ICRAF; Marina Silva, Brazil’s minister of environment and climate change; Peter Minang, CIFOR-ICRAF director for Africa; Vivienne Yeda, director general of the East African Development Bank; Jochen Flasbarth, state secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); as well as Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous musician, author and community organizer.

“The climate and biodiversity crises are directly affecting communities in Africa and other regions of the Global South whose livelihoods are closely connected to natural resources,” CEO Ubalijoro says. “This hybrid event is the ideal forum to discuss local solutions ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) later this year.”

The first day of the GLF Nairobi 2023 Hybrid Conference will focus on sovereign solutions and how the African continent can create a prosperous and sustainable future. The second day will be about climate, highlighting ways to craft a “Survival Guide for a Planet in Crisis.”

The conference will cover thematic areas such as rural development and green jobs; women in landscapes; youth; environmental justice and rights; sustainable finance; and locally led landscape solutions.

CIFOR-ICRAF is hosting several sessions within the conference, covering topics including regional observatories for sustainable African ecosystems (11 October); shaping Africa’s future through locally-led landscape restoration (11 October); and scaling jurisdictional approaches for sustainable palm oil and agriculture (12 October).

Leading filmmakers and activists will also participate in a film festival at the conference, which will present a series of selected documentaries, Q&A sessions with the creators, and a discussion panel on the intersection of storytelling and landscape restoration.

The GLF is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use. It is led by CIFOR-ICRAF in collaboration with its 33 charter members, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank. Based in Bonn, Germany, the GLF seeks to create a movement dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement. It has connected nearly 10,000 organizations and over 215,000 participants, while reaching more than 1 billion people from 185 countries.

For more information and/or to arrange interviews with speakers or hosting organizations, contact Kelly Quintero (k.quintero@cifor-icraf.org).

By Cathy Watson

Almost 300 kilometres south of Addis Ababa in Halaba zone, a young man hits branches of a tree with a bamboo pole. As seed pods rain on to a tarpaulin, women and an older man gather them for processing, and another youth high in the tree shakes down more.

Once back on the ground, the high tree climber, Shemssu Seman, 20, says, ‘Seed is a really good source of income. We used to buy it. But the germination rate was low, and when we collected for ourselves, we had a problem of tree selection: we took from whatever trees we found. Today we collect from many.’

The group has its own nursery and now sells the seed they collect and the seedlings that ensue. It is win-win. Both are of higher quality than what was available before, and thanks to a seed collection protocol, members are growing superior trees for themselves for timber, fruit, shade, soil and water conservation, fodder for livestock, and forage for bees. Bees particularly like the flowers of Cordia africana, says Shemssu. The tree also provides timber and mulch.

This tree is one of 15 that are the focus of an innovation called breeding seed orchards. The group are among 2400 rural people newly trained in the business of seed and how to collect for valuable traits like stem straightness for timber. And the tarp and ladder that helped Shemssu climb the tree are part of a drive to equip the seed sector.

All this activity emanates from a large Norway-funded project called PATSPO led by CIFOR-ICRAF with the Ethiopian government. It is likely the most comprehensive push to build a seed sector in any country. It speaks to CIFOR-ICRAFs goal of transforming the quality of tree growing.

‘The objective is to support government to meet tree seed demand. Ethiopia has huge commitment to the Bonn Challenge. Bringing 20 million hectares under restoration by 2030 requires a huge amount of seed,’ says PATSPO leader Soren Moestrup, one of a generation of Danish foresters who have dedicated their lives to tree seed at home and abroad.

The government is fully engaged and recognizes the gaps.

‘Ethiopia’s flora is well characterized. We have rich knowledge on species distribution and diversity. But still the great majority of seed is from unknown sources from informal sector seed suppliers and is of uncertain quality,’ says Abanyeh Derero, Director of Plantation and Agroforestry Research at Ethiopia Forest Development (EFD), the country’s new forestry body.

Describing the challenge further, Yigardu Mulatu, EFD’s Tree seed unit coordinator, says, ‘Currently each woreda (district) decides which species to produce, and seed procurement is done by finance officers. We are still highly dependent on exotics yet restoration should bring back native trees to their niches. We need science-led tree planting.’

The ‘Provision of Adequate Tree Seed Portfolio in Ethiopia’ project started in 2018 and aims to support the government to strengthen existing tree-seed organizations and private and government seed dealers. Among others, it works with, the Central Tree Seed Centre in Addis Ababa and four regional ones, Gullele Botanical Garden, universities, and the government-owned Oromia and Amhara Forestry Enterprises.

It is on the 3.7 million hectares of natural and planted forest land managed by Oromia Forestry Enterprise that some of the 30 breeding seed orchards (BSOs) developed by PATSPO sit.

Danish forester Erik Dahl Kjaer, one of the originators of the BSO concept, defines a BSO as serving ‘multiple purposes’, producing seed, testing genetic entries (progeny trial), and providing a breeding population by establishing a seed orchard based on progenies from selected trees in a repeated block design’.

In simpler language, BSOs are created from seed collected from the best mother trees across areas where a species occurs; 2500 trees are planted per hectare, and 1-3 hectares per species. These are gradually thinned leaving an orchard that is a source of high quality and improved seed. Each tree has a bar code detailing where it originates from.

Gesturing to an orchard of East African Pencil Cedar (Juniperus procera), PATSPO project leader Abrham Abiyu explains that seed had been taken from 22-25 trees in each of six locations: Suba/Menegesha, Wof Washa, Dodola, Yegof-Wollo and Tigray.

‘This species is very important socially, ecologically and economically. It is termite resistant and very in demand for tools, houses, hedges, fences, woodlots and large-scale plantations. And people like the smoke.’

There are orchards as well of Grevillea robusta and Eucalyptus globulus. Of the latter, Abiyu says, ‘You can see why people plant them. It’s a cash crop that can be coppiced five times.’ The breeding objective for Cordia africana is a ‘branching habit’ of fewer branches.

‘The main thing for a BSO is that seed should be collected from 20 plus mother trees and spaced some distance apart,’ he says. ‘BSOs enable us not to wait long for elite planting materials. If we followed traditional tree breeding, it would take much longer,’ he says.

At the Amhara Forestry Enterprise in the city of Bahir Dar, Director General Biadglign Shiferaw said PATSPO had had a ‘right hand role’ in 2021 in helping them: describe and document more than 60 seed sources; set up 14 breeding seed orchards; and train 58 groups that collected 33,500 kg of seeds, earning on average $1206 each.

‘These BSOs will produce a huge amount of seed from a small plot of land,’ said the forester. ‘Without seed sources, there is no forest development. And if there is no forest development, there is no forest industry. ‘

Across the project more than 200 seed sources have been documented and described, and BSOs of 15 species assembled. Eight species are indigenous: Cordia africana, Albizia gummifera, Hagenia abyssinica, Juniperus procera, Podocarpus falcata, Olea europaea ssp. cuspidata, Moringa stenopetala and Faidherbia albida. Seven are exotic: Grevillea robusta, Eucalyptus grandis and globulus, Cupressus lusitanica, Acacia decurrens, Pinus patula and Casuarina equisetifolia.

Species for future BSOs include Prunus Africana, Boswellia sacra, the primary tree that produces frankincense, and Millettia ferruginea, which is endemic in Ethiopia. Separate activities are on-going for indigenous fruit trees such as Adansonia digitata (baobab) and Ziziphus mauritiana.

A PATSPO survey deduced that just 20 species constitute 99% of trees currently planted in Ethiopia, and Eucalyptus species account for 90%. There is a need for greater representation of some of Ethiopia’s 1200 trees.

‘This is a new model. We can recommend it. We are successful with promising results,’ says Abiyu.

‘We wish more people thought about tree seed,’ says Amhara Forest Enterprise DG Shiferaw.

PATSPO is funded by the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia (RNE). World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is responsible for the implementation of the project, in coordination with the Ethiopian Forestry Development. A second four-year project commenced in May 2022.

Professor Tony Simons one of five international experts bestowed the honorary title of ‘Lifetime Fellow of Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry’

Sweden is well renowned for its appreciation of science with some of the oldest science academies in the world, in addition to the annual awarding of the Nobel Prizes. Stunningly, the country has a disproportionately large number of patents and scientific inventions to its name.

The global positioning system (GPS), the zip, the flatscreen monitor and oat milk may not be as famous as Alfred Nobel’s dynamite invention but have all significantly helped change the world. Furthermore, we rely on the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus for the system for scientific naming of all living plant and animal species. Sweden is fifth in the world for the highest percentage of GDP spent on Research and Development (R&D), third country in the world for the highest number of scientists per million inhabitants, and first in the world for the highest proportion of individuals working in R&D who are scientists as opposed to being technicians.

Sweden’s high appreciation for science is both historical and recent. On June 12, 2022, this was evident in the awarding of fellowships and prizes by the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia. In a six-hour ceremony and banquet held at the prestigious Stockholm City Hall, the work of both Swedish and international scientists and their respective institutions was heralded with great fanfare and accolades. The Center for International Forestry and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) was among the select group of international institutions recognized for its great contributions to international research and Swedish scientific cooperation.

CIFOR-ICRAF Executive Director, Prof. Tony Simons, was one of five international experts who were bestowed the honor of ‘Lifetime Fellow of Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA)’ this spring. Though the honor was originally bestowed in 2021,  COVID delayed the in-person festivities for 18 months.

The Chairperson of the CIFOR-ICRAF Board, Professor Getachew Engida, who was formerly the Deputy Director General of UNESCO, commented with immense pride on the recognition that CIFOR-ICRAF and Tony Simons received from the Royal Swedish Academy. He said: “In an era of fake news, knowledge power grabs, and self-interested narratives, it is pleasing that the evidence-supported, nature-based and long-term work that we engage in is so prominently highlighted by KSLA. Tony Simons, along with Robert Nasi, has brought the research, development, policy and delivery dimensions of our scientific and operational work to new heights following the CIFOR-ICRAF merger in 2019.”

Dr. Lisa Sennerby-Forsse, the former Vice-Chancellor of The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and former President of KSLA – who was also previously the Deputy Chair of the CIFOR-ICRAF Board – attended the event. On the receipt of the fellowship by Prof. Simons, Lisa remarked: “Tony has a real gift to help explain complex science in powerful verbal imagery in his seminars and presentations, and this has really benefitted the communication and understanding of landscapes which are so fundamental to more sustainable management and wiser stewardship of agricultural, forest and other land uses.”

Alongside its excellence in science, Sweden ranks number one in Europe on the Gender Equality Index. One third more women (42%) than men (31%) go on to Tertiary education in Sweden, and 56% of all Board Members of Research Funding Organizations are women. Moreover, 52% of Government Ministers are women. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, the former Director of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) Gender Program based at CIFOR-ICRAF, credited Tony with similar priority attention to gender balance and equity: “Tony has been a real champion for Science in Africa but more specifically, a champion for women in Science across the continent. Tony’s support of AWARD has led to a notable strengthening of the pipeline of female scientists as well as adoption of gender responsive research practices across the continent.  AWARD owes its success to 12 years of Tony’s visionary support, a real testimony to his principled commitment to inclusion and fairness in science and management.”

The Royal Academy event coincided with the Stockholm +50 event the week prior. Simons shared his views on the juxtaposition of the two events: “Human prosperity can be measured in two main ways: standard of living and quality of life. The 300-year-old Swedish Academies and the 50-year-old first-ever UN conference on the Human Environment demonstrates how important nature is to Swedish society, and how long-term Sweden’s perspectives on science, research, technology and innovation are.”