The C4C team was thrilled to host Corrado Clini, Italian Minister for the Environment, Land and Sea at the World Bank headquarters at a special meeting on Monday, April 9. The Italian Ministry is one of the key donors that makes C4C’s work possible. Lucia Grenna, C4C’s Team Leader, gave a presentation on the progress the team has made in less than a year since the launch of the initiative, and both Cyril Muller, Vice President of External Affairs, and Andrew Steer, Special Envoy for Climate Change, spoke about C4C’s valuable contribution of creating a climate-conscious community and a space where local voices can be heard in the global climate conversation.

We were honored that Mr.Clini was able to pay us a personal visit, and we are empowered by our shared vision of not only raising awareness about climate issues, but also our quest to change hearts and minds around the world which will lead to concrete action to combat climate change.

We have posted more pictures from the event on our Facebook page here.

In Africa, land is our source of wealth, a source of life. But two-thirds of the continent is desert or drylands and nearly three-fourths of the land is degraded and exposed to a changing climate. This means hunger and poverty for 700 million people.  Where will we find the land to feed the world? We need solutions, and we need them now.

TerrAfrica, an African driven initiative, is part of the solutions. This partnership addresses land degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa by supporting innovative solutions that sustain landscapes and increase countries resilience to a changing climate.

Burkina Faso, North. Yacouba Sawadogo, a 60 year-old Burkinabe farmer who has led an economic and environmental transformation in his community’s corner of the Sahel by replanting his own forest. He is known as “The Man Who Stopped the Desert”, as in the title of a 2011 documentary on his 38 years of recreating the forest. Photo: Andrea Borgarello/TerrAfrica

"The World Bank has supported the use of sustainable land and water management practices in Africa as they help deliver more secure livelihoods, economic growth, less hunger, adaptation and mitigation to climate change," said Magda Lovei, Sector manager in the World Bank Sustainable Development Network for the Africa region. "Our new President, Doctor Kim, has asked us 'What will it take to end poverty?' Well, ending land degradation would take as a big step toward that goal. We need to find and scale up solutions, and strengthen our partnerships like TerrAfrica to advance our shared goals of combating land degradation in Africa."

TerrAfrica has partnered with Connect4Climate on building a community, leading a campaign, and fostering a coalition that cares about climate change. Through this partnership, TerrAfrica leverages Connect4Climate's online community which provides a participatory, open knowledge platform to engage youth community in a climate change discussion. Together, TerrAfrica and Connect4Climate launched the Voices4Climate competition to invite young people to submit photos, videos, music videos, and podcasts that tell powerful climate change and sustainable land and water management stories. The Snap it. Sing it. Shoot it. Say it. Competition kick starts an interactive dialogue amongst African youth and gives them a voice in the global climate change conversation.

The two winners of the TerrAfrica Podcast category were invited by TerrAfrica to COP 18 in Doha where 190 nations met to find solutions to climate change issues. "The interaction we had with fellow journalists, the interviews conducted, and the plenary sessions attended broadened our horizons in covering climate change and environment issues within our countries and across the world," said Pilirani Tambala, one of the winners working for Zodiak Broadcasting System in Malawi. Look for more information on their winning entries and their trip to Doha in Wednesday’s blog post.

COP18 was also an opportunity to present the World Bank Drylands and Adaptation to Climate Change Agenda. The new the World Bank/GEF Sahel and West Africa Program in Support of the Great Green Wall is an example of initiative supported by TerrAfrica as it strengthens a country-driven vision for sustainable and climate-resilient development in 12 African countries.

Ethiopia, Tigray region: Women on a break after working at the tree nursery part of the World Bank funded Sustainable Land Management Program. Photo: Andrea Borgarello/TerrAfrica

In Africa, the integrated challenge of land degradation and climate risk requires an integrated solution. Sustainable land and water management practices have been proven at small scale, but are often neglected in national strategies due to the highly fragmented nature of land related institutions, lack of knowledge sharing, and minimal investments. Single sector approaches, isolated projects, and individual institutions cannot sufficiently address the multidisciplinary challenges posed by land degradation and climate change.

TerrAfrica partners like the World Bank have helped make durable progress by promoting country-led, multi-stakeholder coalitions that identify and promote good practices, harmonize policies, share knowledge, make domestic and international financing more efficient, and ultimately, strengthen the ability of land users, farmers and herders to individually and collectively reduce land degradation and climate risks.

Climate change is a serious issue that will affect the youngest generation most. It’s happening now, and it affects every single thing on Earth. In April 2011, tornados devastated Raleigh, destroying homes, cars, and roads. Luckily, my house didn’t get hit.  But if you drove a few blocks down the street, almost every house had a blue tarp over the roof. Then, a year and a half later, Hurricane Sandy swept along the East coast, wreaking havoc in countless coastal towns and cities, even more violent than the 2012 tornadoes.

Increasingly violent storms are just one side effect of climate change.  They hurt people and affect tourism and the economy. A 2010 report by the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission said that the sea level along the coast will likely rise by about one meter by the end of this century, threatening up to 2,000 square miles of land.  That’s a lot of North Carolina.

I have been concerned about climate change ever since I read the kids’ version of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth when I was in third grade.  I am only 10 years old, but this issue is really important to me.  It will change the world I and my children will grow up in. 

I joined the iMatter Youth Council of Kids vs Global Warming to make a difference. We are committed to raising the voices of the youngest generation to stand up for our futures and for our planet. KvGW and the iMYC are part of a group of organizations that are meeting with the White House to ask President Obama to take leadership on climate change by hosting a Presidential Summit on Climate Change, with linked-in community satellite meetings to focus on solutions.

We are also working to get local leaders involved.  I recently met with Mayor Nancy McFarlane in Raleigh, NC, to ask her to support the proposed Presidential Summit.  During my meeting, I told Mayor McFarlane about what the Climate Summit would be, how iMYC and I were involved in it, and the two things I wanted her to do. I showed her the list of other governors, mayors, and civic and business leaders who had already signed a letter of support. She was impressed by the length of the list! She thought it was cool that youth are involved, and she immediately agreed to sign her own version of a letter supporting the Summit.

I am really happy that my Mayor cares about my future and this issue.  I hope that more mayors join the list and that other kids like me will make their voices heard. The youth of this nation need our leaders to stand up for us and to take action to protect our future from climate change!

At 12:19 am this morning, our Facebook page crossed 100,000 fans. In the span of 3+ months, we've built a community that truly cares about climate change. When C4C launched in September, we had no idea how massive we could actually grow this community on our way to Durban. Every step of the way, we have learned new ways to engage with you, new ways include everyone in the conversation, and most definitely, we have learned how to listen to what you have to say.

You shared over 670 stories on climate change through our photo/video competition, and you wrote over 25 blog posts during African Voices on Climate Change (AVCC) week. Your comments, your shares, your photographs and your videos have made C4C what it is today. We set out to learn from you and hear from you and you did not disappoint.

This is not simply a community of people that just "like" a page and then don't engage. Our Facebook community actually engages in global climate change discussions on the page. On average, you are having 15,000 daily conversations on our wall. Your contributions ensure that over six million people are exposed to the climate change conversation on a weekly basis.

The underlying beauty of this engagement is not that it is a conversation happening in Africa, but it is truly a global engagement. For example, Indonesia, Pakistan, Peru, Algeria, and Egypt drove a majority of the conversation on our wall this week. The age range of those engaged in this critical climate change conversation is also very encouraging. The youth bulge is truly showing  that it is concerned with its future. By far, the greatest engaged demographic was between the ages of 13 and 24. The gender gap narrowed slightly in the last month and could use some improvement. So far the spread sits at 64% men and 36% women. We could use more voices from girls and women. We have highlighted how climate change has a gender dynamic, where women are  more negatively impacted than men, especially in Africa, so raising the voices of women in this conversation is of critical importance.

Of course, the C4C team shouldn't take all of the credit for all this engagement. Behind our success is the institutional power of over 110 partners, from small grass roots NGOs to large UN organizations. This network of partners has shared content and promoted the C4C platform to their global audiences. This has served to drive traffic to our various social media platforms and growing our global audience.

As the C4C team packs up to head to Durban this week, we are more than ecstatic at crossing this symbolic milestone and representing your voices at Durban. We will share your views, your concerns, and your stories. Stay tuned this coming week as we announce the winners of our photo/video competition. But don't stop engaging because COP17 is finally here. The conversation must now continue on towards Rio+20 next June. Make sure to check this blog, Facebook wall, and Twitter streams for updates from Durban.

Thank you, everyone, for your valuable contributions so far.

Take a lot at that fancy number on the bottom left. Yes, that's 75,000 fans on our Facebook page as of earlier this afternoon. Crossing the above 75,000 milestone was not an easy task, and we couldn't have done it without the dedicated participation of all of our partners. More than 100 partner organizations make Connect4Climate what it is today. From the World Bank all the way down to individuals like Maurice Kirya. 

Of course, behind the scenes is the tireless team C4C manning the keyboard to keep all of your engaged and passionate about climate change.

Our quest for climate change global domination continues. OK, we are really just looking for you to engage and perhaps along the way, together, as a team, we'll come up with some sustainable solutions. So please invite your friends and join us for this global conversation!

Here are some interesting user data we have collected so far on our 75,000 fans:

1.   On average, there are just over 100 posts about our page per day

2.   Males 11-17 make up a large majority of our visitors (where are you ladies?)

3.   Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Algeria, and Pakistan round out the top 5 countries from which your followers live (That's quite the global spread!)

In response to the pressing issues of climate change and sustainability the South East African Climate Consortium Student Forum (SEACC SF) was formed in February 2010. SEACC SF is a non-profit, non-political (i.e. not attached to any political organizations) student forum that aims to lead a student crusade to tackle issues of sustainability and climate change. We recognize that students, as potential leaders and key players in society, have a responsibility to respond to what has become one of the strongest moral callings of our time by exerting our influence to creating more sustainable societies in order that we can protect our natural environment, and the rights of current and future generations to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being, as enshrined in Section 24 (a) of the South African Constitution.

SEACC SF espouses a commitment to the principles of the Green Generation:

• An evolution of energy production, based on sustainable carbon-usage and renewable energy, thereby reducing our dependency on fossil fuels;
• Collective individual commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption;
• Establishing a green economy, to lift people out of poverty and create sustainable green jobs;
• Creating a green global education system

Although we are a young organization in just under two years we are developing into one of the biggest and more progressive student organisations in South Africa. The South East African Climate Consortium Student Forum (SEACC SF) has moved from strength to strength in 2011, and is emerging as one of the biggest and most progressive student organisations in South Africa. SEACC SF has official nodes at four universities in the Eastern Cape, namely Rhodes University, the University of Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, with Walter Sisulu University quite recently establishing a newly-fledged committee. At each university there is a committee of students who are working in a professional and responsible manner to further the goal of SEACC SF, which is, as the SEACC slogan suggests, sustainability through knowledge and action. Not only that, but SEACC SF has managed to secure a number of dedicated partners, such as the Sustainable Seas Trust and the Environmental Learning and Research Centre, and together we are working on creating a more sustainable future for all. SEACC SF has access to a pool of hundreds of different students in varying academic disciplines, year of study, culture, and backgrounds, which is a truly valuable resource, which has allowed us to push forward with some great projects in the 14 months that we have been running for, and here are just some of the awesome projects we are running (for more info on us visit our temporary site  or stay tuned for our new site.

WildREACH – Since its conception in late 2010, WildREACH (Wildlife Outreach) has grown to become an exciting, progressive and active project fostering a valuable relationship between student volunteers and local communities in which knowledge is shared and applied in an effort to promote social and environmental sustainability through wildlife conservation.
The WildREACH vision realises that knowledge is a prerequisite to shifting attitudes and perceptions and it is these attitudes and perceptions that will determine the success of any conservation effort.  WildREACH focuses on developing an interest in wildlife in a fun and exciting way and lets those who have been empowered with knowledge discover for themselves why wild areas are worth conserving. With the recent and substantial financial support provided by the Wildlands Conservation Trust, WildREACH looks forward to moving from strength to strength and reaching more and more children with this powerful vision. In 8 months WildREACH reached over 200 children in the Grahamstown area.

SEA Pledges and SEAS Centres (http://sst.org.za/pages/14?project_id=3) – SEACC SF in partnership with the Sustainable Seas Trust has put together a team of passionate individuals who are developing and pioneering the way forward on an exciting community development, environmental conservation and charity initiative. We have developed a strong strategic plan for the roll out of SEA Pledges, which is a project aimed at getting members of the public to make moral and monetary pledges to protect our oceans and natural environment. The monetary pledges will in turn go towards the development of Sustainable Education and Skills (SEAS) Centres in rural and underprivileged communities in the Eastern Cape. SEAS Centres aim to impart skills and education to the communities so that they may end their dependence on unsustainable usage of natural resources through developing sustainable livelihoods. We aim to develop SEAS Centres through bringing together the strengths of all of the partners within SEACC, while also taking into account the importance of indigenous knowledge and its contribution to this endeavor. SEA Pledge also acts as a vehicle to raise environmental standards by getting individuals and organizations across South Africa to pledge to raise their environmental standards. Much of the project has been made possible due to the generous support of Artists Project Earth.