African leaders will gather in the Rwandan capital this week for the first continent-wide meeting to set out plans for the conservation of nature across Africa.
The IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (Apac) in Kigali will attract close to 3,000 delegates, including protected area directors from the continent’s 54 countries, youth leaders and Indigenous and community representatives, to discuss the role of protected areas in conserving nature, promoting sustainable development, and safeguarding the continent’s wildlife.
The meeting, led by the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, will outline long-term strategies to halt and reverse the rapid loss of species and habitats in Africa’s more than 8,500 protected areas, covering 14% of land and 17% of its marine area. According to a UN report, 6,419 animal species and 3,148 plant species in Africa are threatened with extinction.
Africa’s population of 1.3 billion is exerting more pressure on wild habitats, and well-managed protected areas offer the last hope for safeguarding the continent’s fragile biodiversity, according to Kaddu Sebunya, CEO of the African Wildlife Foundation.
“With population growth comes increased demand for land, unsustainable natural resource use and extraction and inadequate environmental governance. The continent stands to lose a significant proportion of its biodiversity value in the immediate future,” said Sebunya.
