Africa's Biocarbon is key to mitigating climate change and benefiting millions of smallholder farmers. This was the message that Dr. Peter Akong Minang from ASB shared with legislators from across Africa at the
Pan-African Parliamentary Conference on Climate Change from 25-27 June 2009. Dr. Minang was invited to speak by the parliamentarians to give perspectives on the Africa Biocarbon Initiative, which promotes a broad AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses) perspective for emissions reduction and carbon storage.
[caption id="attachment_1071" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Agricultural landscapes, such as this one in Central Kenya, can play a major role in reducing emissions from land use change in Africa, while providing income to farmers. Photo: M. Makela (World Agroforestry Centre)"]
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The meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon, included MPs from Namibia, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Niger, Mali, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Ghana, representing the full spectrum of forested and semi-arid countries that stand to benefit from a REDD+ deal.
The meeting aimed to help the parliamentarians prepare their contributions to the United Nations framework agreement on climate change to take place in December in Copenhagen.
Dr. Minang's presentation, "Africa post-2012 Climate Change Negotiations: Some Policy Perspectives" focused on seven key messages.
