African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100)
Africa restoring 100 million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2030
The African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) is a country-led effort to bring 100 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes across Africa into restoration by 2030. The initiative connects political partners—participating African nations—with technical and financial support to scale up restoration on the ground and capture associated benefits for food security, climate change resilience, and poverty alleviation.
AFR100 responds to the African Union mandate to bring 100 million hectares of degraded land into restoration by 2030. The initiative contributes to the achievement of domestic environment and development commitments, the Bonn Challenge, and Land Degradation Neutrality target-setting process among other targets. AFR100 contributes to the African Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI), and complements the African Landscapes Action Plan (ALAP) and the broader Climate Change, Biodiversity and Land Degradation (LDBA) program of the African Union. AFR100 accelerates progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate agreement.
A dynamic network of political, technical, and financial partners facilitate action towards the 100 million ha restoration target. To date 28 African nations have signed onto AFR100 and committed a combined 113 million hectares of land to be restored. Twelve financial partners and twenty-eight technical partners support partner countries to assess restoration opportunities, develop strategies, and accelerate implementation on the ground. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) supports the AFR100 platform and in-country engagement, alongside partners including the World Bank, which has earmarked $1 billion in development finance through the Africa Climate Business Plan, and impact investors, which have earmarked USD $481 million in private finance for restoration.
Please contact the AFR100 Secretariat at the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) for more information, or see the AFR100 Overview Document in English and French.
What types of restoration activities are part of the commitment?
The African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) will support two types of restoration activities:
- Restore to mosaic landscape: Establish and manage trees on agricultural land, either through planting or natural regeneration. This practice is known as “agroforestry” when trees are interspersed with crops, and “silvopasture” when trees are interspersed with livestock.
- Restore to forests: Planting or natural regeneration of trees on degraded or deforested land. Degraded land can be restored to natural forests for ecosystem services and a carbon sink. In some cases, degraded land can also be restored into productive forests for timber, fuelwood and other forest products.
How will the initiative be implemented?
AFR100 encourages national governments, regional institutions, local communities, public and private sector partners and international development programs to join the initiative to help restore productivity to deforested and degraded landscapes across Africa. Tools such as the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) by WRI and IUCN, and the Restoration Diagnostic will be used to help provide a framework for inclusive and effective restoration.
What type of monitoring will be in place to ensure the commitments are fulfilled?
Under the initiative a major monitoring effort in envisioned, capable of documenting the restoration process in some detail. Key elements in this effort include, remote sensing, on the ground sampling and modeling.
What will actually be accomplished by 2030? Do you mean that 100 million hectares will be restored by 2030?
Commitments to AFR100 are commitments to begin restoration activities on deforested and degraded lands by the year 2030. The process of restoration can take generations, and it is unlikely that the lands will be fully restored by 2030.
What is the relationship between AFR100 and the other restoration initiatives?
Commitments to AFR100 are in support of the Bonn Challenge, a global target to restore 150 million hectares of degraded land by the year 2020 through forest and landscape restoration as well as the New York Declaration on Forests that extends that challenge to 350 million hectares by 2030, and the African Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI), an initiative to promote integrated landscape management with the goal of adapting to and mitigating climate change.