The Congo Basin received $10 billion in tree planting funding from the World Resources Institute
The World Resources Institute (WRI), a U.S.-based think tank specializing in environmental issues, has just received $100 million, or 59.8 billion CFA francs. The funds will be used to encourage tree planting in the Lake Kivu and Rusisi River basins that straddle the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, as well as the Cocoa Belt in Ghana and the Great Rift Valley in Kenya.
"These funds will be used to encourage tree planting in the Lake Kivu and Rusisi River basins, which straddle the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, as well as Ghana's Cocoa Belt and Kenya's Great Rift Valley," the WRI said in a statement released on April 17, 2023. From 2024 to 2028, this reforestation project will contribute to the AFR100 (Forest Landscape Restoration in Africa) target.
Launched in 2015, AFR100 is an African Union initiative led by the African Union's (AU) New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) agency in partnership with 27 participating countries to restore 100 million hectares (or 1 million square kilometers) of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2030. A total of $500 million would be needed to achieve this. Despite commitments, this funding has been delayed.
In September 2018, the two countries pledged to restore a total of 19.6 million hectares to meet the target of 100 million hectares. These include Burkina Faso (5 million hectares) and the Republic of the Sudan (14.6 million hectares). These commitments follow closely following those in Togo (1.4 million hectares) and Tanzania (5.2 million hectares).
