First Africa-China International Workshop on „Forestland Governance, Investments and Sustainability“ – Yaoundé, 3-5 September 2019
The first AFORPOLIS Africa-China workshop on „Forestland Governance, Investments and Sustainability“ held in Yaoundé from 3 – 5 September 2019 brought together about 120 participants from China as well as 11 different African, North American and European countries. This workshop represented a great multi-stakeholder exchange setup involving policy makers, researchers and academics, journalists, representatives from civil society organizations, local communities and indigenous peoples, as well as international technical and financial partners.
This workshop was organized by the African Forest Policies and Politics (AFORPOLIS) organization, based in the University of Göttingen and the Global Environmental Institute (GEI) – China in cooperation with the University of Göttingen in Germany, the University of Dschang in Cameroon, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, The Congo basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) – Cameroon.
Since the early 2000s, the increasing activities by Chinese companies – in forestland conversions including for logging, agribusiness, mining and infrastructure development – have caught special international attention because of the related sustainability challenges. These increasing Chinese investments and trades in Africa are partly driven by the China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), with significant ecological and social implications for African countries under deforestation pressure. These Chinese investments and related trade implications have been disputed for their environmental (biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change mitigation) and social (forest-dependent people’s livelihood, labour conditions, etc.) effects in Africa. The workshop aimed to: (i) elucidate the effects of Chinese investments in forest sector in Africa; (ii) explore opportunities to enhance and promote sustainability in Chinese forestry investments; and (iii) promote a science-policy multi-stakeholders dialogue and interactions on Chinese forest-related investments in Africa.
Unanimously, the participants sincerely want this Africa-China dialogue initiative to continue because of its substantial contribution to discussions necessary to improve the governance of natural resources in Africa in general and the Congo Basin in particular. The participants and international partners at the workshop also 1) urged the workshop organizers and their partners to establish foundations for the sustainability of this Africa-China consultation and exchange initiative; 2) suggested that this cycle of dialogue on sustainability issues of African forests in relation to Chinese investments be included in the dynamics of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC); 3) encouraged greater experience sharing and interaction between Chinese and African stakeholders in forest production, management and control; 4) proposed the establishment of a development and financing mechanism for Africa-China international research programmes on ecological, economic and social issues for Chinese investments in the field of natural resources in Africa… To see more about this event, please visit: www.aforpolis.org
Contact:
AFORPOLIS
email: contact@aforpolis.org