For the next one week starting on Monday, July 18, Rwanda will play host to over 2,000 delegates from across 52 African countries at the Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC). 

This is the first gathering of its kind to bring together African political leaders and different stakeholders to exclusively discuss the conservation of the continent’s protected areas. 

It is envisaged that the meeting, which will be concluded on July 23, will culminate into the adoption of "The Kigali APAC Action Plan” that will lay concrete plans to conserve these protected areas, which are fast disappearing. 

Among the key outcomes from the meeting include an agreement on practical measures to enhance effective governance and management of protected and conserved areas to achieve their biodiversity and social outcomes and ensure social and environmental sustainability. 

It is a meeting that was long overdue but like they say, best to come late than not turn up at all. 

The reason Africa should have convened such a meeting and come up with the outcomes it is envisaged to come up with, is because, as the home to 30 per cent of the world’s biodiversity, Africa ought to be in the driving seat, leading the discourse on the subject matter, other than waiting for invitations from elsewhere to attend meetings where they end up being on the menu rather than the high table. 

Most importantly however, the forum should midwife a unity of purpose for all the countries in the continent to speak with one voice on matters that concern conservation. 

This unity will ensure Africa gets its fair share of the bargain on the global arena, especially in the ongoing conversation on carbon emission and the resultant trade-offs that countries need to make to salvage the global environment. 

Speaking with one voice is important because, as previous experiences have proven, notably on the usage of the River Nile water a few years back, it turned out that countries eventually walked back on their commitments leading to a deadlock. 

If whatever is agreed in the Kigali Action Plan is to have any meaningful impact, it must be owned both in text and implementation by all African states.