Nairobi, Kenya - 16th March 2015. WWF Regional Office for Africa has hosted the Regional Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Awareness Workshop to discuss environmental sustainability in the trade and investment between African countries and China. Established in 2000, FOCAC is a high-level forum that has made major strides in the development of political and economic relationships between China and African Countries. Key areas for the China-Africa cooperation include peace, security, poverty reduction and sustainable development as well as civil society exchanges.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Fredrick Kwame, the WWF Director for Africa said, ‘it is my hope that this Nairobi meeting will contribute to promoting FOCAC as the political platform used by African countries and China to build the future we all want.’ `Sustainable use and trade of natural resources is at the interface of conservation and development. As Chinese imports energy and natural resources from Africa, the cooperation between China and Africa countries is particularly important in ensuring that economies develop following a sustainable path’ added Kwame.

‘China is striving to create awareness on the importance of sustainable development between China and Africa’ stated Mr. Liu Ning, Deputy Representative of Chinese Mission to UNEP during his opening remarks. Speaking on behalf of the China Ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Liu said that as a sign of their commitment to environmental protection, China has since 1976 established a permanent representative mission to UNEP in Kenya and has put aside USD 6million for the next 3 years to continue supporting this agency.

Mr. XU Qinghua, the Deputy Secretary General of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) also gave opening remarks where he said, ‘the Chinese Premier in 2014 speaking at the Africa Union in Ethiopia put forward 6 key cooperation programmes with African countries, the programme for biological conservation is one of them.’ He further added, ‘China is willing to share its lessons in sustainable development and environmental protection with African countries and to promote communication and dialogue on strategic issues.’

During her keynote address, Prof Judy Wakhungu, the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources said ‘this forum provides unique opportunities for jointly reviewing the challenges facing economic globalization and promotion of common development for Africa and China in regard to environmental matters.’ She emphasized, ‘it is noteworthy that increased credit lines for environmentally sensitive sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture stand to achieve tangible benefits if strong environmental considerations are applied.’

This FOCAC awareness workshop will be used to create a platform of dialogue, exchange, and sharing of good practices and lessons learned. The conference will deepen government officials, civil society organizations and opinion writers’ knowledge and understanding of FOCAC.

Some of the key action points derived from the workshop include; formation of an Intra-African technical committee for the environment that will report to relevant ministerial agencies in each of the countries participating in FOCAC. This will ensure that the countries go to FOCAC with concrete proposals and targeted policy positions. The role of the Regional Economic will also need to be enhanced so as to coordinate regional sustainability issues. In essence, Africa governments should support and provide resources for participation by all relevant stakeholders in development, environmental and social sustainability sub-sectors.

It has also been agreed that the China-Africa cooperation on matters of environment and development should be substantially elevated in the high-level dialogues. The need for clear monitoring systems for the FOCAC action plan at continental and international level will be vital to ensure the streamlining and enhancement of environmental and social safeguard standards. Africa states should make clear proposals for capacity building, human and technological transfer to scale up deployment of clean technology and sustainable environment.

For more information please contact

Laurent Some [email protected], Jackson Kiplagat [email protected], Robert Magori [email protected], Amina Dubow [email protected] or Yiyi Lu [email protected]

About WWF

WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisation, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

For more information on WWF go to: www.panda.org

About FOCAC

Established in 2000, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has made strides in the development of political and economic relations between China and African countries. A key example is the 5th Ministerial Conference of FOCAC in 2012, where for the first time environmental degradation and energy security were recognized as major global threats. In addition, it included commitments on social responsibility of Chinese companies operating in Africa, renewable energy and sustainable forest management.

The 6th FOCAC conference will be held in South Africa in 2015. This awareness meeting is set to demonstrate how cooperation is evolving to encompass new areas of mutual concern thus deepening the structural engagement between China and Africa.

For more information on FOCAC go to: http://www.focac.org/eng/