Ensuring rural energy security: a path to sustainable land restoration movement in Africa.

Every year in Africa, nearly 3 million hectares of forests are lost and sixty five percent (65%)
of the land is affected by degradation. An estimated 3 percent of GDP is lost annually from
soil and nutrient depletion on cropland. This places forest loss and land degradation among
the key challenges facing Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Exacerbated by climate change and
poor management of agricultural lands, forest degradation threatens the water supplies and
ecological functions vital to all SSA economies. Rural smallholder farmers and households
suffer the most from degraded land as they cannot finance counter-measures if there is
disruption or loss of stable weather patterns, healthy soils, tree cover and water