Ayaan Zeinab Adam, CEO of AFC Capital Partners, has emphasized the importance of monetizing Africa's vast forests to combat global warming. The continent is home to the massive Congo Basin tropical forest and almost a quarter of the world's mangroves. Forests help absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, creating carbon sinks which mitigate the effects of burning fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases. Therefore, Zeinab maintains that African countries should focus on monetizing these critical natural assets.
She believes that creating value for people living in forests could be Africa's most significant contribution to achieving net-zero emissions. Although Gabon has been commended for its efforts to preserve forest cover, most African countries have not monetized their forests' natural resources. To address this, AFC Capital Partners, a subsidiary of the African Finance Corp, aims to raise $2 billion for climate-resilient infrastructure funds.
In addition to monetizing forests, Zeinab calls for initiatives to provide alternative cooking fuels such as propane and butane to reduce deforestation. Income or benefits from the natural assets - forests - could be leveraged via carbon credits (purchased by polluters to offset their emissions) or debt-for-nature swaps (debt reductions in exchange for conserving natural assets). Such initiatives would not only help combat climate change but also create value for Africa's forests while supporting economic development.