29 Aug 2018

By hosting the eighth general assembly of the Consortium of African Funds for the Environment (CAFE) Botswana is being afforded a platform to showcase its tourism products and conservation efforts to delegates from Africa and other parts of the world.

Addressing a media briefing August 28 CEO of Forest Conservation Botswana (FCB) Mr Joshua Moloi said hosting the assembly would also open Botswana up for partnerships and collaborations in the implementation of conservation projects, something which he noted would result in increased economies of scale and strengthened capacity as a result of the sharing of best practices among delegates.

Mr Moloi explained that the general assembly, scheduled for Kasane from September 3 to 5, would feature among other things a capacity building workshop for members.

The capacity building workshop, he indicated, would be held under the theme: Fundraising and climate financing.

“It is a well-known fact that lack of access to climate finance affects environmental funds in Africa and one of the main objectives of CAFÉ is to catalyse support for environmental funds to access resources from financial partners, part of which could be done through collaborations by partner countries,” he said.

Giving a background of CAFÉ, Mr Moloi said the grouping was set up in 2011 after a period of informal collaboration between several African environmental funds.

He stated that the experience of the success of a similar network established in 1999 called Latin American and Caribbean Network of Environmental Funds was a motivating factor for the setting up of CAFÉ.

“It only made sense that like-minded colleagues facing similar challenges specific to Africa and others common to environmental funds would come together to learn from each other and build stronger organisations,” he noted.

Regarding this year’s FCB Annual General Meeting (AGM), which will be held after the CAFÉ general assembly, Mr Moloi stated that the media awards which were introduced last year would still form part form of the AGM’s activities.

He said the awards were introduced to appreciate journalists for their contribution to environmental conservation efforts. ENDS