9 September 2015 - The Forests and Water five year action plan has been launched in Durban during the third day of the 14th World Forestry Congress.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA)'s Thomas Hofer says the five-year action plan is to integrate the Science sector and to work to together with policy-makers.
Hofer emphasised that there should be a political will to make the action plan work. "Trees and forests play an important role in regulating the availability of fresh water. For example, forests reduce run-off, soil erosion and sedimentation of waterways, trees improve soil infiltration and groundwater recharge and trees also evapo-transpire water and contribute to the transportation of water and energy resulting in local surface cooling as well as precipitation in other locations," explains Hofer.
The Forests and Water programme takes a holistic approach, integrating forest-water science, policy and practice.
The plan advocates for the recognition of forest-water interactions and the role trees and forests play in maintaining resilient landscapes and providing high quality water resources, taking into account forest water interactions for different climatic zones, forest ecosystems and at different landscape scales.
FAO has been a leader in bringing the forest-water issue to the forefront of international discourse and action, known as the Forests and Water Agenda.
The process involved various stakeholders representing the forest and water sectors, governments, academia, private sector and civil society. The Forests and Water programme engages in watershed management, disaster risk management, advocacy, ecosystem services, sustainable livelihoods as well as knowledge management.
South Africa's Deputy Director General in the Department of Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Lusenga called the launch a milestone. Lusenga accepts the 28 pages document on behalf of her department.
Some of the successes shared on the five year action plan included a project called South-South Knowledge transfer strategies for scaling up pro-poor bamboo livelihoods income generation and employment creation and environmental management in Africa.
The project which started in 2014 running to 2017, with a budget of USD 1 500 000 benefited countries including India, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Madagascar.
Learning from the African experience will benefit progress of India's bamboo projects. Activities will engage some 227,500 smallholder farmers, 12 500 women and nearly 2 000 young people in the three countries, who will directly benefit from the project through increased income, long term restoration of their lands for productive use and diversification of their farming activities.