Mozambique: President Nyusi leaves for New York

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Mozambique: President Nyusi leaves for New York

4:06 CAT | 20 Sep 2024

File photo: Lusa

President Filipe Nyusi begins avisit to New York this Friday.

Leaders of African States covered by the Miombo Forest will meet in New York on Monday to find ways to finance and defend the natural area, an initiative of Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, it was announced today

The high-level dialogue on the Miombo Initiative, promoted by Mozambique and which, in addition to heads of state and government of African countries, also brings together North American business leaders, will take place on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the Summit of the Future in New York.

“The President of the Republic intends to consolidate the financing mechanism of the Miombo Initiative, publicise the governance and management platform of the Miombo Initiative funds and reinforce the financing commitment for the operationalisation of the letter of intent adopted in Washington”, explains the Mozambican Presidency, in a statement.

The Miombo Forest covers two million square kilometres and guarantees the subsistence of more than 300 million inhabitants, constituting the largest ecosystem of dry tropical forests in the world, also facing problems of deforestation.

The Mozambican government hopes to mobilise investments to protect the Miombo Forest, estimated in the action plan at US$550 million (€518 million), of which US$154 million (€144.5 million) has been secured since 2022.

Filipe Nyusi begins a four-day visit to New York this Friday, where he will participate, in addition to the event dedicated to the Miombo Forest, in the Summit of the Future, which will take place on 22 and 23 September under the motto “Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow” and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly.

On the first day of the event, the Mozambican head of state will deliver two speeches, the first under the motto “Strengthening Multilateralism for International Peace and Security” and the second in the plenary session of the Summit, to “share Mozambique’s vision of building a better country and a fairer world”, as well as the “country’s commitment to multilateralism”, according to the Presidency.

READ: CPLP: Informal summit of heads of state, government during UN general assembly

The Mozambican president stated on 18 April, in the US capital, that the defence of the Miombo Forest “is already on the map”, following the international conference held at that time in Washington.

At the same time, the Charter of Commitment was verbally adopted by the 11 States, including Mozambique and Angola, which have the largest area of this forest, which includes, in its introduction, “the assumptions for its adoption, recognition of the impact of deforestation, low financing, need for financing on a large scale and collaboration between the parties”, as well as the provision of a financing mechanism and the need to create a fund to be based in Mozambique for its preservation.

“We have an extremely positive assessment of the work we have done. We are creating foundations, we are no longer just talking about the Amazon. Miombo is now on the map”, stated Filipe Nyusi, in Washington, when taking stock of the visit.

On 17 April, Nyusi closed the International Conference on Sustainable and Integrated Management of the Miombo Forest, which took place over two days in Washington, where the 11 southern African countries that make up the Miombo Forest adopted the Charter of Commitment to defend the area.

READ: Mozambique: 153 million dollars mobilized for management of miombo forest

The April conference was supported by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and was the result of an initiative by the Mozambican President, who in August 2022 brought together leaders from 10 other countries in the “Maputo Declaration on the Miombo Woodland” to promote a common approach to the “Sustainable and Integrated Management of Miombo Woodlands and the Protection of the Greater Zambezi Basin”, the largest trans-Zambezi basin in the region.

Miombo is a Swahili word referring to the “brachystegia” genus of tree that includes a large number of species. The miombo formation makes up the largest dry tropical forest ecosystem in Africa, being a source of water, food, shelter, timber, electricity generation and tourism.

Source: Lusa