GENEVA, Sept 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) approved the creation of an Olympic Forest Network to step up the fight against climate change.
The project, inspired by the IOC’s Olympic Forest project set to plant around 590,000 native trees in Mali and Senegal, is an initiative driven by National Olympic Committees to create forest network in their own countries and regions.
The IOC announced its commitment to be climate positive in 2024 in alignment with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in April 2021.
“As the Olympic Movement, we want to contribute to the fight against climate change within our area of influence. With the new initiative we are recognizing local Olympic Movement projects delivered according to best practices that contribute to this goal,” said Marie Sallois, IOC Director for Corporate and Sustainable Development.
Projects within the Network will not be limited to planting new trees. They can include protection or restoration of existing forests, wildlife corridors and coastal watersheds and ecosystems, as well as regenerative agriculture.
Healthy forests, wetlands and other ecosystems not only capture carbon from the atmosphere. They also safeguard nature, and help communities become more resilient and adapt to the effects of climate change, such as droughts, heatwaves, floods or landslides.
The IOC Executive Board agreed that the IOC would support the creation of the Olympic Forest Network by establishing a series of principles, based on which NOCs would be able to join.
In order to include a project in the Network, an NOC will be required to submit details for the IOC’s review and approval, based on specific criteria. Projects will be required to:
Several NOCs have already proposed existing projects that are in line with the above principles, and expressed an interest in including them in the Olympic Forest Network.
In Papua New Guinea, the NOC has partnered with the local communities, the National Fisheries Authority and the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority to restore a 3km strip of endangered mangroves, supporting a vital ecosystem. This project will be extended in the coming years and is connected to the Love Your Coast programme, which involves athletes in advocacy and education.
In Slovenia, some 30 athletes and 100 other stakeholders are planting 13,000 trees in partnership with the Slovenian State Forestry Company.
Spain’s NOC, under the agreement with the Spanish Environment Ministry and in partnership with their global sustainability sponsor and the Spanish Municipality Federation, has launched a project to plant new forests to compensate for their residual carbon emissions.
Following the Executive Board’s approval, the IOC will work with its partner, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to provide support on this initiative.
