The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
From Gaborone, leaders pledge unity, funding, and action to protect the continent’s vulnerable natural wealth
Tlokweng, Botswana | RONALD MUSOKE | The early morning air in Tlokweng, on the eastern outskirts of Gaborone, was thick with anticipation as delegates from across Africa gathered in Botswana’s capital for the inaugural Africa Biodiversity Summit. The first day of the conference, November 2, opened under a bright, hot sky, but by the following days, the weather turned cloudy, as if mirroring the mix of urgency and uncertainty that hung over the discussions inside the conference halls of the Royal Aria Convention Centre.
For four straight days, policymakers, scientists, financiers, and community leaders from around the continent debated how Africa can safeguard its extraordinary biodiversity while still pursuing economic growth. Convened by the African Union and the government of Botswana under the theme “Leveraging Biodiversity for Africa’s Prosperity,” the summit set out to redefine Africa’s relationship with nature –not as a passive custodian of global heritage, but as an active investor in its own natural wealth.
From the convention centre’s main hall came a clear consensus that time has come for Africa to fund and manage its biodiversity on its own terms, through inclusive models that bring together communities, national governments, the private sector, and international partners.
A continent’s inheritance under threat
The delegates heard how Africa is home to some of the planet’s richest ecosystems; from the Congo Basin’s rainforests to the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean; from the Serengeti plains of eastern Africa to the Okavango wetlands of southern Africa and the Sahara dunes in the north of the continent. Yet these lifelines, as several speakers noted, are under siege from what the United Nations calls the “triple planetary crisis”: biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution.
Leo Niskanen, the Regional Head of Biodiversity Conservation for Eastern and Southern Africa at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), set the tone on the summit’s opening day. In his “State of Biodiversity in Africa” presentation, Niskanen shared a sobering picture: a 76% decline in wildlife populations across Africa since 1970, with over 2,300 species now critically endangered.
“Twenty-one percent of Africa’s freshwater species are threatened with extinction,” he said, adding that coral reefs along the Western Indian Ocean — some 12,000 square kilometres of them — are approaching ecosystem collapse.
The drivers, Niskaneni said, are well known: habitat loss, overexploitation, poaching, invasive species, and the relentless pressure of unplanned urbanisation. “Biodiversity conservation is not a luxury,” Niskanen reminded the delegates. “It is development in every way.”
Still, amid the grim data, he struck a note of cautious optimism. Africa, he said, holds about a quarter of the world’s total biodiversity, a potential engine for regenerative development if managed wisely. The IUCN’s new Regenerating Africa initiative, Niskanenen said, aims to help accelerate that vision through partnerships with the African Union, civil society, and private actors. He said there’s need to move fast, beyond strategies, and into action.
From speeches to strategy
For Botswana’s President, Duma Gideon Boko, the host of the summit, the issue is both national pride and continental responsibility. Standing before the assembled delegates, President Boko framed Africa’s plant and animal wealth not just as natural beauty but as “the foundation for livelihoods, culture, identity, climate resilience, health, and prosperity.”
Perhaps, for these very reasons, Botswana has set aside 40% of its land for protected areas — one of the highest proportions globally. “Our track record in conserving our wildlife, including elephants, is second to none,” Boko said. “Yet, the world today stands at a crossroads.”
Boko’s call to action underscored a critical shift; that Africa must move from preservation to prosperity-based conservation. Biodiversity, he argued, should be mainstreamed into economic planning; through green bonds, biodiversity credits, and payments for ecosystem services. “Prosperity must be defined not only by GDP,” he said, “but in secure food systems, clean water, and resilient communities.”
That sentiment found resonance in the words of Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, the current African Union Chair, whose message was delivered by his environment minister, Ana Paula Pereira. “For us Africans,” Lourenço said, “conserving biodiversity is much more than an environmental duty; it is a matter of sovereignty, dignity, and climate justice.”
He urged three priorities: strengthening governance, mobilizing finance, and deepening regional cooperation. “Biodiversity knows no borders,” he said. “Our shared rivers, forests, and ecosystems require joint management.”
The push for in-continent funding
If there was one theme that dominated every conference corridor conversation, it was money. The financing gap for biodiversity conservation across Africa stands at over US$100 billion annually, a figure repeatedly cited by AU officials.
To address this, Botswana and other member states threw their weight behind the proposed Africa Biodiversity Fund, a continental mechanism designed to pool domestic and international financing, attract private capital, and support nature-based economies.
“We must collectively mobilise domestic and international finance,” President Boko urged, “while redirecting harmful subsidies into nature-friendly initiatives.”
But for many experts, the deeper issue is structural; the way conservation finance is currently designed. Chanda Mwale, the Senior Sustainable Finance Coordinator at the Sustainable Finance Coalition, told delegates that most funding is “short-term, rigid, and insufficient.”
“Nature doesn’t heal in a one- or two-year project cycle,” Mwale said while leading a side-event bootcamp on sustainable conservation finance. “We need long-term, flexible, and dependable funding if we are to achieve real conservation outcomes.” She argued for a reframing of Africa’s priorities. “Nature is not a competing need. It is the backbone of our economies and our health,” she said.
The summit’s final declaration went further, urging each African government to allocate at least 1% of their GDP to biodiversity, a significant step toward in-continent ownership. It also called for the integration of natural capital accounting into national budgets so that ecosystems are valued as assets, not afterthoughts.
Harsen Nyambe, the Director of Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy at the African Union Commission, reinforced this vision saying “Biodiversity has been marginalized all along, despite being central to food security and trade.” He said it is time to make biodiversity part of the country’s mainstream development planning, from agriculture and infrastructure to finance and education.
Africa’s new biodiversity diplomacy
If financing is the muscle of biodiversity management, then governance is its spine. The summit’s political discussions often returned to one strategic question: Can Africa speak with one voice on global biodiversity?
Prof. Jon Hutton, a veteran conservationist with more than four decades of experience, offered a sharp reflection during his key note address. “African biodiversity is widely considered a global asset,” he said, “but if it is a shared responsibility, the world must share the cost. However, Hutton noted that that has not been the case over the years.
He also noted that African countries have been active in global conventions like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), CITES, and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), yet their priorities are “not always adequately reflected in global decisions.”
Fragmentation, he warned, weakens Africa’s bargaining power. “[On] elephant management, for example, the positions vary so widely that Africa often enters negotiations divided,” he said. “That limits what we can achieve.”
His prescription? A stronger institutional backbone: A permanent African biodiversity working group, structured training and mentorship for negotiators, and high-level AU diplomacy that elevates biodiversity to a strategic continental issue. “Through unity, capacity, and political resolve,” Hutton said, adding that “Africa can move from the margins to the centre of global environmental governance.”
Dr. Andrew Seguya, the Executive Secretary of the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration, echoed a simila sentiment from an East African vantage point. His tri-country treaty, between Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a model of regional cooperation that could inspire broader continental frameworks.
“For so many years, Africa has gone to conservation negotiations disjointed,” Seguya told The Independent on the sidelines of the summit. “The European Union, with only 28 states, votes as a bloc and shapes global outcomes. Africa, with 54, has not had a common platform — until now.”
For Seguya, the Gaborone summit signaled a turning point: “A single voice in negotiations, fundraising, and programming is long overdue. The AU is finally stepping into its role as the political unifier for conservation.”
Communities at the heart of conservation
While presidents and policymakers debated frameworks, many speakers insisted that Africa’s biodiversity future will be won or lost in its villages, forests, and fishing communities.
The African Union Commission’s Deputy Chairperson, Amb. Selma Malika Haddadi, reminded the summit that biodiversity is “the lifeblood of our economies and the foundation of our cultures.” She emphasized that protecting it requires “a triple commitment: to act, to invest, and to transform.”
In her remarks, she said indigenous people, women, and youth should be placed at the centre of implementation, not as beneficiaries but as co-managers. “Biodiversity is not protected only with laws or parks,” she said. “It is protected with the involvement of populations.”
That view aligns with the experiences of transboundary projects like the Greater Virunga Landscape and the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), where local communities manage resources alongside governments. “Conservation will only be legitimate,” Seguya argued, “when it brings tangible benefits to those who live with wildlife.”
The final Africa Biodiversity Summit Declaration recognized this, pledging to ensure that benefit-sharing from genetic resources and bio-industries flows fairly to custodians and local communities. It also urged countries to update their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to reflect inclusive governance models.
Turning Biodiversity into prosperity
Beyond protection, delegates in Gaborone spoke of biodiversity as a driver of economic growth, a shift from “preserving nature” to “profiting with nature.”
This includes promoting bio-trade, sustainable tourism, bio-industries, and nature-based enterprises that add value locally while maintaining ecological integrity. The declaration called on member states to develop bio-economy strategies and unlock Africa’s competitiveness in the global green economy.
As Moses Vilakati, the African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment put it, “Biodiversity is part and parcel of our life — from trees and rivers to forests and wetlands. We must ensure co-existence between biodiversity and communities.”
Vilakati urged member states to include biodiversity in their agriculture and fisheries budgets, arguing that conservation spending is not a luxury but an investment. “Most of our medicine comes from the trees and fruits out there,” he said. “We must teach our children that when they see wildlife, they should think not of meat first, but of preservation.”
He called the summit’s endorsement of the declaration “historic,” adding: “From now on, we will be quoting what was agreed at the first Biodiversity Summit in Botswana.”
A unified vision for the future
As the summit drew to a close, the Africa Biodiversity Summit Declaration captured a rare moment of consensus. It reaffirmed Africa’s leadership in global biodiversity governance, committed to mobilizing at least 1% of GDP toward conservation, and demanded fair representation in international environmental decision-making. Most significantly, it reframed Africa’s role; not as a passive recipient of global conservation aid, but as an active architect of biodiversity models that work for its people and ecosystems alike.
The declaration called for harmonized laws, mainstreamed biodiversity across sectors, and a push for resource accounting with the main aim of valuing nature as economic capital. It pledged to “invest in harnessing the full potential of biodiversity and traditional knowledge to drive sustainable economic growth, diversification, and resilience.” In the words of Angola’s President Lourenço: “There can be no lasting development without a balance between economic growth and the preservation of natural resources.” And as Prof. Hutton reminded delegates, unity is the secret to endurance. “If you want to walk far,” he said, quoting an African proverb, “walk together.”
