World protected areas leadership forum : the inaugural meeting. Airlie House report

NACOFA gathers community feedback on Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) and Natural Resource Management (NRM) challenges, such as degradation. It analyzes existing laws and policies to identify gaps and inconsistencies that hinder effective solutions. To empower its CFA members, NACOFA builds their capacity in policy advocacy, teaching them to influence policymakers, secure inclusion in consultative forums, and impact policy planning and implementation. Collaboration with government bodies like the Ministry of Environment, Kenya Forest Service, and County NRM departments addresses these gaps through policy reviews, amendments, and new regulations. NACOFA also formed coalitions with stakeholders to tackle policy issues. When governments are slow or resistant to change, NACOFA engages in horizontal advocacy by working within government oversight structures, such as Technical Working Groups and Forest Conservation Committees, to influence policy from within.

Propagation and regeneration of native plant species, such as the Red Pod Terminalia (Terminalia brownii Fresen), pose significant challenges, especially in developing countries where research is limited. Native to the semi-arid regions of East, Central, and West Africa, this drought-tolerant tree offers numerous benefits, including medicinal properties, timber, fuel, and materials for handicrafts. Despite its potential, the population of T. brownii in Kenyan drylands is rapidly declining due to deforestation, ecosystem fragmentation, and overexploitation. The lack of proper seed handling and germination guidelines has hindered the domestication and large-scale planting of this valuable species, affecting livelihoods and the sustainable development of drylands.

Wondong Wetland in Yangsan, Korea, is a rare habitat for Korea’s endangered plants, such as the Viola raddeana Regel and Pterygopleurum neurophyllum (Maxim.) Kitag.. In particular, it is known as the only habitat in Korea for Pterygopleurum neurophyllum (Maxim.) Kitag. Wondong Wetland is a wetland behind the Nakdong River that was once used as agricultural land and was restored to its natural state. However, as plants such as silver grass expanded, the population of endangered plants decreased due to competition. To expand the population of the two endangered plants, an event was held in February 2023 (winter season) with citizens to cut down grass, including silver grass, a competing species. As a result, the germination rate of the two plant species increased, and their habitat range expanded. Grass cutting was also carried out in February 2024, and it is planned to be carried out in the future before the germination period in February every year.

The TREEO Technology – the first dMRV tool certified under the Global Tree C-Sink standard from Carbon Standards International – lets you prove your tree planting efforts to your stakeholders through forest inventory and even carbon sequestration calculations. The TREEO App works through image processing and machine learning models based on tree allometry, which allow for the calculation of biomass (thus the amount of carbon in a tree) by measuring the tree’s diameter at breast height (DBH). The App then calculates the CO2 sequestered by tree in a matter of seconds. When the trees are small (with a DBH less than 3 cm and less than 1.3 m in height), you can still report tree evidence for your inventory and survival rate estimations via the App. The TREEO App also collects other data such as GPS coordinates, GPS accuracy, and azimuth, as well as tree species. This information is uploaded and stored on the TREEO Cloud, our data management system where you can manage your project, teams, and data.

Conserving critically endangered species may involve translocation, assisted migration, introduction, or reintroduction to suitable sites. The African Black Walnut faces extinction in Benin, because of the small size of its population and the habitat degradation from agriculture, forest fires, and logging. Our solution has focused on seed germination, seedling growth, and introduction into protected forest ecosystems. One of the foremost challenges in this solution lies in identifying appropriate microsites that can support the species restoration. Thus, we have introduced seedlings into three protected forest ecosystems, with significant differences in terms of soil properties. One of the three sites, the Lama Forest Reserve (LFR), exhibits the highest nutrient levels and optimal conditions for plant growth. These favorable conditions led to the impressive growth of the species at the LFR. Furthermore, the species was fruited within five years, demonstrating the potential for its reproduction and dispersal in these forests.

This second edition of The state of protected and conserved areas in Eastern and Southern Africa builds on the first edition published in 2020 and provides updates on how the region is managing and governing protected and conserved areas, effectively providing a regional update on the progress towards the achievement of Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity framework. While the first edition was published in relation to the previous global targets (in particular Aichi Target 11), this edition covers progress on the common indicators around management effectiveness and governance and expands to include additional information that corresponds to the revised target on PCAs (Target 3).