Two weeks after Malagasy Forest Landscape Restoration experts came to Yaoundé, their Cameroonian counterparts visited Madagascar intensifying the South-South exchange on forest and landscape restoration in Africa.

The African Union Development Agency (AUDA) currently pilots targeted exchanges between member countries of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) to foster peer-learning on forest landscape restoration. “Cameroon is currently drafting its national forest landscape restoration strategy and our role as AFR100 secretariat is to support this process”, AUDA’s Mamadou Diakhité explains.

Madagascar is an ideal peer for Cameroon: The island country has pioneered the forest landscape restoration movement by finalizing its national strategy in 2017 and advancing multisectoral and multilevel governance on the ground. To attain its commitment to restore four million hectares of degraded land, Madagascar established an intersectoral dialogue between relevant ministries and partners and elaborated framework documents for the implementation of forest landscape restoration.

Watersheds and mangroves

The northwestern watersheds and mangroves of Boeny were the first sites the Cameroonian delegation inspected. Climbing down rocky hills reforested by farmers upstream and wading in the slick mud between young mangrove saplings, Mamy Arthur Randriamanana, mangrove forest restorator and local fisher, points out crab populations busily moving around.

“The crab populations so vital to sustain local fisheries returned half a year after we restored these mangroves”, he says. Jean Jacques Jaozandry from the Ministry of Environment appreciates the questions by the Cameroonians. “The exchange helps us to move ahead with working on monitoring these ecosystem services for local fisher men”.

Restored mangrove of Boanamary

Integrated forest landscape restoration management

For Valérie Ramahavalisoa, head of the watershed and soil conservation department, the visit in Boeny confirms that a landscape approach is crucial for the sustainable scaling-up of existing restoration approaches. “It is true that punctual interventions can lead to results, but if we intensify our rice cultivation in the valleys without protecting the water source and the hills upstream, the cultivation will silt up because of soil erosion,” she explains and adds that “this is the advantage of thinking in a landscape approach“.

„In Cameroon, we will have to involve all the sectors and not only the environment and forestry. Land tenure and use, agriculture, livestock — all these issues require an integrated approach”, says Christophe Bring, national forest landscape restoration focal point in Cameroon. “This is what became clear to us in Madagascar”. Therefore, he announced, Cameroon will move from “forest landscape restoration” to “forest and landscape restoration”.

Progress on the national Cameroonian forest landscape restoration strategy

The exchanges in Boeny and Tana helped the Cameroonian delegation to identify key questions about their strategy: Are all necessary data available? How could the different agroecological zones in Cameroon be included in a forest landscape restoration land management approach?

Bring thinks that “the great challenge for the Cameroon is to include different tools related to environmental, forest, land-use planning and poverty reduction into our strategy”. The debates culminated in late-night calls and last-minute changes to the Cameroonian strategy. The Malagasy experts accompanied these discussions sharing their experience with developing a common vision and integrating forest landscape restoration into each ministry’s budgets.

Experts from both countries agreed that the available data would suffice to finalize Cameroon’s national strategy, however, governance and land-use management require more attention. The group identified the design of secure land tenure options and the promotion of better land use planning as two bedrocks of successful forest landscape restoration on the ground: Favourable tenure conditions and spatial planning “catalyze large scale forest landscape restoration actions and should be promoted by national and regional forest landscape restoration committees”, says Ms Rajenarison, head of the Development Department at the Malagasy Ministry of Land Use Planning.

Towards a pan-African exchange on forest landscape restoration

“I am satisfied with this first exchange, but I am sure that we can make it even more productive”, says Julien Noel Rakotoarisoa, national forest landscape restoration focal point of Madagascar. The Cameroonian-Malagasy team recommends identifying common problems across AFR100 countries in preparation for the next exchange to intensify the technical discussions.

“How can reforestation initiatives by individuals be reinforced communally, secured in the long-term and be economically feasible even for the youth — all these questions still need answers,” adds Jules Leonel Tadong Saa from the Cameroonian ministry of economic planning and regional development.

For Mikhail Nelson Mvongo Mkene from the Cameroonian Ministry of Forests and Wildlife, such South-South exchange between AFR100 countries is a real opportunity to jointly design forest landscape restoration projects. The similarities between the issues and problems of each country, such as the sustainable management of pastures and fires in Madagascar and Cameroon should lead to formulating a joint project by forest landscape restoration promoters of the two countries.

More broadly, a South-South exchange platform serves as an accelerator for technical ideas and political engagement. Such thematic exchange and other forms of peer-learning should be managed and promoted by the forest landscape restoration secretariat at AUDA. It could include the creation of a pool of forest landscape restoration experts on national, regional and local level.

“Specialists from one country could be paired with interested colleagues from another countries. Thereby, a bush fire management professional, for instance, can share their very specific technical knowledge”, GIZ’s Malin Elsen concludes. She and her colleagues believe that these experts could develop hands-on solutions and accompany policy makers in other countries to advance a specific process.

The authors

The copy has been provided by Malin Elsen, Sven Schuppener, Désiré Tchigankong, and Joary Niaina Andriamiharimanana.