Facilitating sharing of best mangrove conservation and restoration practices in Africa Wetlands International facilitated the development of strategic partnerships between the Atlantic Coast and the Western Indian Ocean region to enable collaboration and mainstream best mangrove conservation and restoration practices in Africa. The first of two learning exchanges was held in Senegal in March and the second in Tanzania in October. The exchanges so far have helped to: • Provide a platform for peer-to-peer exchanges around strategies for mangrove conservation, including lessons and best policy practices on mangrove governance, restoration, community engagement, innovation and financing, policy, monitoring impact and community resilience; • Disseminate best practice mangrove restoration approaches and tools, for example to inspire upscaling of Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR), which generally survives and functions better than conventional mass tree planting which fails in approximately 80% of all mangrove restoration initiatives. With EMR a broader set of interventions is implemented that put in place socio-economic and biophysical (hydrological and ecological) enabling conditions for mangrove to grow back naturally. It is essential to create those conditions at scale in order to yield meaningful results across wider landscapes.
From the perspective of
Representatives of the Global Mangrove Alliance receive the Food Planet Prize
Plenary at COP14
Special members, partners and supporters event at Ramsar COP14
Global Mangrove Alliance wins the Food Planet Prize
“Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades have been insufficient and global temperatures are expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C in the next 20 years unless there are rapid, sustained and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, the state of the world’s biodiversity is rapidly deteriorating, with more species than ever threatened with extinction which, together with the increasing impacts of climate change (such as droughts and floods), threatens the livelihoods of all people, especially the most vulnerable. One of the causes of global biodiversity loss is that for centuries the world’s wetlands have been considered unusable, and have been rapidly drained for other purposes. Where wetlands still exist, they play a key role. Both for biodiversity and, as a result, the ecosystem services they provide, and for climate change mitigation. The destruction of wetlands can lead to a net emission of greenhouse gases, but more importantly when the great capacity of wetlands to produce biomass is destroyed, they do not bind carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Wetlands International is a leading global organisation for wetland conservation through its focus on protecting and restoring these areas that are especially important to the vulnerable and often marginalised communities living in and around them.”
The Global Mangrove Alliance - of which Wetlands International is a founding member - received one of two USD 2 million 2022 Food Planet Prizes, to further work towards our Alliance goal to Halt Loss, Restore Half, and Double Protection of mangroves globally by 2030 and help support on-the- groundwork linked to food security through our National Chapters initiative. TheFood Planet Prizeawards initiatives that solve the dilemma of feeding a growing world population while saving a planet in peril, with the aim of rapidly scaling up their initiatives. Mangrove deforestation has resulted in a steep decline in mangrove crabs and fish, hurting communities’ ability to sustain themselves and their families. With support from GMA member organisations, communities around the world are taking up mangrove conservation leadership, replanting mangroves, and ensuring that resource harvesting is sustainable. As a result, crabs and fish are returning and mangrove beekeeping and other alternative livelihood programs have arisen in some communities, furthering the benefits community members can receive from the coastal ecosystems.
Wetlands International organised a special event for members, partners and supporters on the sidelines of the Ramsar COP14 in November in Geneva, an opportunity to meet again in-person in an informal setting and to share insights into promising initiatives and collaborations around the world that are scaling up wetland recovery for people and nature. There was widespread recognition of the opportunity to ensure the inclusion of wetlands in the Global Biodiversity Framework to be agreed at CBD COP15 later in the year, through the Resolutions of Ramsar COP14. Speakers and participants also discussed the urgency and need for better collaboration and stronger partnerships on scaling up action for biodiverse, healthy wetlands, and the critical role of Wetlands International in convening such action. With more than 100 people attending from government, civil society, academia and staff from around the network, we heard from André Hoffmann, prominent business leader, champion of wetlands and philanthropist; Jerker Tamelander, Director of Science and Policy of the Ramsar Secretariat; and Guangchun Lei, representative of the Chinese government and Chair of Ramsar STRP.
• Reinforce networks developed in the first phase of the exchanges.
The exchanges brought together participants representing communities, policymakers, civil society organisations, and researchers from 11 countries (Kenya, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and The Gambia). Development Partners from the Swedish International Development Agency’s Africa Regional Office were also involved.
For more information:
For more information:
https://www.mangrovealliance.org/news/winning-the-food-planet- prize/
https://www.wetlands.org/blog/wetlands-international- mangrove-conservation-and-restoration-practice-in-africa/
https://www.wetlands.org/news/global-mangrove-alliance-wins- the-food-planet-prize/
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Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
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