Global conference to accelerate nature-based solutions: Interview with Self Help Africa’s Patricia Wall

This week, more than 150 conservation and community organizations, experts and policymakers are gathering in Zambia for the Accelerating Nature-based Solutions conference. Billed as the largest land restoration programming conference in the world, it is hosted by the Global EverGreening Alliance, the government of Zambia, and partners, and is taking place from March 11-15. Mongabay corresponded via email with Patricia Wall, program operations lead with Self Help Africa and a member of the Global EverGreening Alliance’s strategic advisory committee, to learn more about the conference and the work that Self Help Africa (SHA) is doing. Her answers have been edited for length and style. Mongabay: What is the goal of the conference? Why is it needed now? Patricia Wall: The conference is going to be a space for dialogue and shared learning and is structured to include as wide a group of stakeholders as possible. The current list of organizations attending is on the website and the events on each day are now being posted. The opening plenary on day one will set the scene, following days will include deep dives into critical issues and concerns and, by the end of the week, we will regroup to adopt key messages from the conference. It is urgently needed as no one organization or institution can solve the impact of the climate crisis. An agroforestry nursery in Ethiopia. Wall says that community-managed agroforestry programs have been successful in a variety of locations. Image by Trees ForTheFuture via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Mongabay: In what…This article was originally published on Mongabay