The overall goal of the Coalition for a Sustainable Africa (CSAfrica) Tree Conservation Program is to achieve an integrated, mutually reinforcing set of development activities, in a number of different project sites on the African Continent.
CSAfrica will achieve this goal through a tree planting, tree conservation, and tree research initiative under the UNEP "Billion Tree Campaign." CSAfrica believes this emphasis on planting, conservation, and research is important for the conservation of local biodiversity, enhancement of natural beauty, prevention of soil erosion and for the offsetting of carbon emissions.
Emphasis will be on local economic capacity building with locally focused, customized programs that are most relevant to each community. In short, these programs can be tailored to fit local needs.
The first region for implementation of this program will be in West Africa. A summary of the project is described below.
Revitalization, Conservation and Community Recovery Project for the Volta and Niger River Biosphere
Project description - Phase 1:
Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
The Jatropha cultivation project builds new economies and green energy for local communities in the northern region of Ivory Coast
Africa's new discovery of clean, green, renewable energy known as the Jatropha bush produces seeds with up to 40% oil content while the residue can be used into biomass to power electricity plants. The jatropha oil can be burned in almost any diesel engine with no modification. This biodiesel has proven to be less expensive and less polluting than traditional fuel. It generates less carbon dioxide and nitric oxygen and represents a long term alternative to hydrocarbon.
The overall goal of the Jatropha cultivation project is to strengthen the abilities of the local community in northern Ivory Coast of Toula, by improving their livelihoods through sustainable use of natural resources and reversing the land degradation. In an area that has been totally abandoned because of the civil war, since the mid-1990s, urgent work is now needed more than ever for this region to rebuild and give the local population the ability to stay in their villages. This project will focus on the empowerment of local community members, especially women and the youth, to be involved and reinforce the ideals of education for self-sufficiency.
Activities will involve:
- Training in tree planting and sustainable forest management techniques
- Training on basin protection, restoration and conservation techniques
- Education on importance of preserving the local biodiversity and combating climate change
- Promoting the use of jatropha as an alternative fuel source and income generating product
Benefits include:
- Reduce poverty
- Eradicate pollutions, wastes, brushfires, desertification...
- Stop actions leading to global warming
- Stop actions leading to water degradation
This project's promotion of economic recovery of populations within the landscape, managed in a sustainable manner will bring stability to the area and will provide the incentives and motivation needed to establish healthy relationships between public-private partnerships. The improved land use management practices will enable local communities to keep the last existing forest intact from further destruction, allowing movement of the animals.
For further information, you can download the project description here.
