Mozambican forests: US$100 million to contain degradation

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Mozambican forests: US$100 million to contain degradation

7:13 CAT | 16 Nov 2016

Noticias

Mozambique could receive US$100 million from the World Bank to fund actions to combat forest degradation, thereby preventing more than 15 million tons of carbon entering the atmosphere.

“There are promises that this money will be disbursed. Some of the funds have already been allocated, about US$50 million, and the implementation of the program will be led by the Government,” said Isilda Nhantumbo, the chief researcher of the natural resources group of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), quoted by Lusa.

Mozambique is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change and depends on resources to finance actions to adapt. In the 2017 Global Climate Risk Index, launched at the Climate Summit (COP 22) in Marrakech, four of the ten countries most impacted globally are Africans and Mozambique tops the list.

By 2015, more than 325,000 people had been affected and 163 had died as a direct consequence of climate change in the country, the report said.

Resources would be allocated first to Zambézia and Cabo Delgado provinces.

“In Zambézia, there is great social inequality and poverty is over 60 percent in some districts. It is one of the richest areas in terms of forests, but illegalities in the exploitation of wood predominate. Cabo Delgado has a similar situation,” Nhantumbo told the 22nd Framework Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP22).

According to Nhantumbo the objective is to minimise the loss of forests in these two provinces. The challenges are great for a country where forest cover is 51 percent of the territory and average deforestation is 219,000 hectares per year.

The main vectors of environmental degradation are agriculture and burning wood for charcoal, which almost 80 percent of the population uses as an energy source. Logging and informal human settlement also contribute to the devastation, he said.

Mozambique started elaborating a plan to reduce emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation in 2009, when it received US$3 million from the World Bank to establish an institutional framework for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Source: Noticias