In progress
5 years (2021- 2025)
Ecosystem Preservation
Restoration of Degraded Lands
Climate Change Adaptation
Migration
190 000 €
National, regional, and global decision-makers
The scientific community
Local actors and civil society
Populations and the general public
AFD Partnerships Committee - COPAR
The COPAR initiative stands as an opportunity for consolidated dialogue and strategic reflection on pressing environmental challenges. By developing and disseminating advocacy tools, while convening high-level roundtables and scientific events, it seeks to align the visions of its partner institutions and embed their actions within the broader continuity of their respective strategies.
Its first phase focused on one of the world’s most vulnerable regions: the Maghreb and the Sahel that are already marked by fragility and whose vulnerabilities are deepened by the impacts of climate change, which directly threaten water resources, ecosystems, food security, housing, and public health. The Sixth IPCC Report, released in 2022, further confirmed this alarming reality, underlining the magnitude of the challenges these regions face.
Building on these foundations, the second phase of COPAR seeks to broaden its scope by mobilizing the international scientific and political community around critical issues such as sustainable land management, climate change adaptation, and the governance of natural resources in Africa. The initiative aims to deliver a strong and reliable advocacy for ecosystem protection as a means for protected and stabilized populations, while enhancing their adaptive capacity in the face of growing climate pressures. At the same time, it seeks to give room for sustained debates on land degradation and the pathways for restoration, guiding environmental, climate, and natural resource discourse toward constructive perspectives and concrete solutions.
- French Development Agency - AFD
- Drafting of two advocacy notes on 1. climate change adaptation in the Maghreb-Sahel region and 2. environmental migration and population movements in the Sahel-Maghreb region
- Writing of a synthesis on ecosystem restoration in Africa
- Production of a film on African ecosystems, available in multiple versions
- Organization of two high-level round tables, in June 2022 in Tunis, and in September 2022 on the theme of African ecosystems
- Organization of a high-level international conference on ecosystem restoration in Africa, held on June 8-9, 2022 in Tunis, marking the 30th anniversary of OSS
- Organization of a second international conference "African Lands, Degradation, and the Imperative of Sustainable Management", held on June 25-26, 2024 in Tunis
- Organization of a Side event at CRIC 21, 15 November 2023
- Organization of a Side event at COP 28, December 2023
- Participation in major international events for the promotion of COPAR products (9th World Water Forum, CoP 15 of the UNCCD, Continental Workshop on Land Degradation Monitoring in Africa, 5th Desertif’actions Summit, Regional Workshop on "Earth Observation: a Decision Support Tool in Water and Natural Resource Management in Africa", CoP 27 of the UNFCCC).