Africa reminds COP30 that forests fight hunger, poverty

• In its technical document at COP30, Africa raises the issue of forest management which have multi-functions and provide key solutions to many global challenges that are brought about by climate change, and particularly environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, food insecurity and poverty.
• The document emphasizes agreements made in the Paris Agreement including the need for greater efforts to ‘halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and increase forest area worldwide.’

As talks at COP30 get underway in Brazil, Tanzania is placing emphasis on infrastructure development to address the effects of climate change in the country, the East African country’s Chief Executive Officer of the Rural and Urban Roads Agency (TARURA), Engineer Victor Seff, told the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30) in the City of Belem, Brazil.

Seff said the agency has restored damaged road infrastructure and built climate change resilient infrastructure that is capable of being used all year round. Describing it as ‘the road bottleneck removal program,’ the TARURA CEO said “Tanzania has built bridges and roads, thus opening up communication in villages and helping citizens transport their produce, and making it easier for them to access social services, including health services.”

The CEO called on other African nations to follow suit, a statement that mirrors a call that was made by the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) Chair, Dr Richard Muyungi in his speech at the closing ceremony of the third AGN Strategic Meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ahead of the COP30.

That meeting brought together some 54 African countries members of the AGN who agreed to have a unified continental stance the climate conference in Belém. “Unity remains Africa’s strongest asset in influencing global climate decisions, while disunity could weaken the continent’s negotiating power,” the AGN Chair cautioned the meeting.

The meeting agreed on two key engagement stand points at COP30, technical and political. The technical stand points is elaborated in a document known as the African Position Paper which outlines Africa’s collective stance on key climate issues. The other is a political document that serves as a roadmap for Africa’s ministers and heads of state as they head to COP30.

Dr Muyungi said; “…the new common position introduces fresh priorities for the continent, including clean cooking , industrialization, climate justice and reparations, and recognition of Africa’s special needs and circumstances. It also calls for greater focus on the blue economy and the role of oceans in sustainable growth.”

“These documents will serve as guiding beacons towards Berlin and beyond,” he underscored.

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COP30 : Collaborative Partnership on Forests

In its technical document, Africa raises the issue of forest management which have multi-functions and provide key solutions to many global challenges that are brought about by climate change, and particularly environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, food insecurity and poverty.

The document emphasizes agreements made in the Paris Agreement including the need for greater efforts to ‘halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and increase forest area worldwide.’

There is a silver lining here, according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 the global deforestation rate has declined in all regions. However, according to that assessment, which was released by FAO on 21 October 10.9 million hectares of forests are still lost every year, including an estimated 1.61 million hectares of irreplaceable primary forests, a fact that FAO describes as ‘the rate is still far too high.’

The FAO document, which is inline with the African technical one, says wildfires, pests, disease, and extreme weather are also damaging about 170 million hectares of forests annually. In the document, FAO calls for bold, urgent and innovative actions to prevent forests from turning from carbon sinks into sources of emissions.

“This would also protect the various environmental and economic benefits, including jobs that forests offer,” it reads.

In response, the COP30 Presidency Stance on forests, has agreed on setting up the Tropical Forest Forever Facility and issued a Call to Action on Integrated Fire Management and Wildfire Resilience.

The COP30 resolution is to “…support parties and all stakeholders, including indigenous peoples, local communities, youth and women, in their efforts to achieve forest and climate goals through enhancing policy coherence, strengthening forest science, data platforms and forest monitoring, supporting forestry innovation and partnerships, and unlocking the diverse values of forests.”

However, it has also been pointed out that “…the continuity of systematic observations is under growing threat, from declining in situ networks, uncertain follow-on satellite missions, and barriers to data access, including historical data.”

According to the FAO document; “These losses jeopardize our collective capacity to monitor the climate system and to track progress, as required by numerous UNFCCC areas of work.” In this regard, the GCOS is preparing its next Status Report and Implementation Plan, that are to be released together early in 2027. These reports will directly serve to guide the next Global Stocktake and advice on the needed investment that is required for sustained climate observations.

However, COP30 delegates have been informed that the GCOS itself “an existential challenge and if it does not get new and sustained financial support, the GCOS Secretariat will cease to operate after 2027, effectively ending the only mechanism that holistically assesses and coordinates global climate observations.”

“For the first time, we appeal to Parties for urgent and sustained support to safeguard the global observing system and the GCOS programme that serves it. In the spirit of mutirão, the collective effort that inspires COP30, let us act together to preserve the observational foundation of climate action, for the benefit of all and for future generations,” the GCOS appealed to the COP30 delegates.

COP30: Connecting climate ambition with farmers’ realities

The African delegation has called for a common consensus for what it describes as a just rural transition. The delegation calls for action that leaves no farmer behind and which reflects the realities of rural economies and farming systems as well as advancing bottom-up solutions that combine innovation and traditional knowledge.

It also calls for farmers’ engagement in turning NDCs from abstract targets into real-world solutions, and “…a shift in how climate finance is designed and delivered, making it available, accessible and predictable for all farmers, leveraging farmer organisations and cooperatives as direct and trusted channels and intermediaries.”

The delegation also calls for a Global Goal on Adaptation that reflects the diversity of agroecosystems and for the tracking of finance enabling recovery and resilience mechanisms.