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Urgent call for action at
Forest Day 5
Experts at Forest Day 5, held on the sidelines
of the United Nations climate change talks
in Durban in December 2011, warned of a
new wave of deforestation sweeping across
Africa, decimating wildlife and threatening
the resilience of its ecosystems to withstand
the effects of climate change – especially in
the area of food security.
‘Deforestation rates in Africa … are
accelerating,’ said Helen Gichohi, President
of the African Wildlife Foundation. ‘The
disappearing forests, the overgrazed
rangelands, and conversion to crop
agriculture of grasslands and wetlands that
had served as refuges during drought have
all diminished the resilience of ecosystems.’
Her message was echoed by fellow keynote
speaker, Bob Scholes of the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research, who
said, ‘If we can do something to influence
deforestation we can have a greater effect
on everything than what has happened
so far under the Kyoto Protocol … This
challenge is worth the effort.’
CIFOR convened Forest Day 5 on behalf of
the Collaborative Partnership on Forests.
More than 1,100 people from 82 countries
attended. This included 214 official
climate-change negotiators. The event
was a magnet for media and some 210
articles were tracked stemming from the
conference.
Some 90% of participants who later
responded to an independent survey
said they thought the event had been
‘successful’ or ‘very successful’. South
Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, said,
‘Forest Day 5, without doubt, highlighted
the urgency of the survival of the world’s
forests, biodiversity and the millions of
people whose livelihoods depend on them.’
© Neil Palmer/CIAT
Photo by Aulia Erlangga/CIFOR