Africa's Natural Infrastructure & Green Development

10/26/22 • 38 min

Africa has 30-percent of the world’s biodiversity, with much of it unique to the continent. It also has 1.3 billion people. And like people everywhere, they want social and economic well-being and hope to pass on a good life to their children. Africa’s biodiversity plays a big role in reaching those goals.

In this episode, we’ll delve into Africa’s biodiversity – the threats its facing, the ways it’s being preserved, and even restored. Above all, we’ll focus on the biodiversity economy, looking at how biodiversity should be valued. We’ll also explore ways in which Africans can sustainably use their natural resources to forge a new path forward where conservation and social and economic development work in harmony.

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Previous Episode

How African-led Conservation Protects Both People and Wildlife

In this episode host Carol Pineau discusses the need to rethink conservation in Africa from a Western model that walls off Africans, to one that puts people at the center of conservation and sees Africans driving their own conservation agenda. Africans tend to see themselves – not as the owners – but as the stewards of this biodiversity.

When you look back at the history of conservation in Africa. The Western model separated people from nature. It was a fortress model. Meanwhile, Africans, who for millennia had co-existed – and protected nature – they were often denied access to their own traditional lands.

Several studies have shown that indigenous groups have been far more successful in protecting biodiversity than the protectionist approach. According to the World Bank, while indigenous people make up just 5-percent of the world’s population, they safeguard 80-percent of the world’s biodiversity.

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Next Episode

Innovative Solutions to Financing African Conservation

In this episode, we’ll look at the economic aspects of conservation. How do we value nature, and how we should be valuing it? We’ll also look at financing conservation, and explore new and innovative ways that might free up more capital and create a sustainable funding pipeline.

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