Rabbah Calls for a Multilateral Fund Dedicated to Biodiversity in Africa

Rabat – Minister of Energy, Mining and the Environment, Aziz Rabbah, has called for the establishment of a multilateral fund dedicated to biodiversity, to enable African countries to meet the challenges in terms of managing and developing their natural resources.

Speaking at the 8th Extraordinary Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) held remotely under the theme “Strengthening Environmental Action for Effective Recovery from the Covid in Africa,” Rabbah stressed that the post-2020 global biodiversity framework is a new opportunity to catch up with previous delays and prioritize this issue at the international level.

“If the Covid-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented global crisis in an already alarming situation in terms of global warming, biodiversity loss and pollution, it nevertheless offers an opportunity for African countries to establish a sustainable and low-carbon growth with several investment opportunities, jobs and added value,” said the minister, as quoted in a statement by his department.

Highlighting the progress made in the operationalization of the three climate commissions launched at the initiative of HM King Mohammed VI on the occasion of COP22, namely the Congo Basin Commission, the Sahel Commission, and the Commission of Island States, Rabbah reaffirmed Morocco’s commitment to continue to cooperate with its African counterparts to achieve the goals set for effective recovery from the pandemic in Africa, while ensuring a sustainable, resilient and low-carbon development path.

African Ministers in charge of Environment, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the President of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) and the Executive Secretaries of the UN Conventions on Climate Change and Biological Diversity were among the participants in this special session of the AMCEN.

The event aimed to reach an agreement on a common African position for the future deadlines of 2021, namely UNFA5, COP15 on biological diversity, and COP26 on climate.

It was also an opportunity to review Africa’s Green Recovery Package aimed at supporting the continent’s hardest-hit sectors, including ecotourism and the economics of biodiversity.

At the end of this session, African Ministers in charge of the Environment adopted a declaration in which they committed themselves to work together to accelerate green and inclusive economic recovery, to stimulate the continent’s economies and social systems in the aftermath of the shocks associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.