Conference Focuses on Land Restoration
Generating sufficient scientific knowledge to restore degraded land is critical in Africa because the continent largely depends on land and other natural resources for socioeconomic development, experts say.
Most populations, it was noted at the 1st African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR100) Regional Conference this month (11-12 October) in Ethiopia, depend on land for livelihoods, but there has been massive degradation and this calls for, among others, adequate knowledge for restoration, particularly by small-scale farmers.
"This requires inter-universities collaborations because not all African universities are well endowed with enough resources to generate needed knowledge and tools," says Alice Akinyi Kaudia, environment secretary in Kenya's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. "It will [also] be useful to develop centres of excellence within them to address this urgently."
Yoni Lerner