2 October 2018: In just three years since its launch, pledges by 27 countries under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) have surpassed the regional target of restoring 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

With commitments totaling 111 million hectares, Africa currently accounts for nearly 75% of the 2020 global forest restoration target under the Bonn Challenge, which aims to bring 150 million hectares of land into restoration by 2020.

The latest tally follows pledges by Togo, Burkina Faso and Tanzania to restore nearly 12 million hectares. The commitments were announced at the third AFR100 annual meeting on the sidelines of the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2018, which brought together 39 technical and financial partners of the Initiative. Following the meeting, Sudan pledged to restore 14.6 million hectares of degraded land.

Returns on investment into AFR100 potentially amount to US$35 for every dollar put in.

According to Mamadou Diakhite, Team Leader for Sustainable Land and Water Management, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the initiative has received more than US$1 billion in development finance and US$481 million in commitments from the private sector. He noted that this represents substantial leveraging of public investment in land restoration, and that returns on investment into the initiative are “spectacular,” potentially amounting to US$35 “for every dollar put in.”

AFR100 is an initiative of the African Union’s NEPAD. Together with Initiative 20×20 for Latin America, AFR100 forms part of the large-scale efforts under the global Bonn Challenge initiative, which aims to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. [Global Landscapes Forum News Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on AFR100 Pledges at GLF Africa]