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September 23, 2022
The Olympic Movement is increasing its commitment to fighting climate change and preserving the natural environment by creating the Olympic Forest Network. The initiative, driven by National Olympic Committees (NOCs), promotes environmental protection and restoration and has been approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The initiative was inspired by the IOC’s Olympic Forest project, which is set to plant around 590,000 native trees across 90 villages in Mali and Senegal in West Africa. The project is being held in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as part of the Great Green Wall project – Africa’s flagship initiative to combat the effects of desertification. It aims to restore degraded landscapes across the Sahel region in Africa, between the Saharan desert and the Sudanian savanna. The project is a key milestone in the IOC’s commitment to becoming climate positive by 2024.
There are currently 206 NOCs around the world. Together with the International Sport Federations, they are a constituent of the Olympic Movement under the IOC’s leadership. Their collective mission is to develop, promote and protect the Olympic Movement in their respective countries in accordance with the Olympic Charter. NOCs will build on the overall project by creating forest networks in their own countries and regions. Beyond planting new trees, the initiative will include the protection and restoration of existing forests, wildlife corridors and coastal watersheds and ecosystems, as well as regenerative agriculture.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), land degradation has accelerated during the 20th and 21st centuries due to increasing pressures of agricultural and livestock production, urbanization, deforestation and extreme weather events such as droughts and coastal surges. The impacts of degradation and desertification include higher threats of malnutrition, an increase in water and food-borne diseases and the inevitable migration of these diseases. Additionally, the world has lost one-third of its forest with half of this occurring in the last century. Studies from the Global Forest Watch and World Resources Institute show that altogether 12.2m hectares of tree cover were lost in the tropics in 2020, an increase of 12% from 2019.
“Addressing climate change and preserving the natural environment are among the top responsibilities of everyone,” said Marie Sallois, IOC Director for Corporate and Sustainable Development. “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.”
The IOC will support 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, a NOC will be required to submit details for the IOC’s review and approval aligned to specific criteria. Projects will be required to:
- Contribute to enhancing climate and nature protection and resilience;
- Support and be delivered in partnership with local communities;
- Be developed and implemented in collaboration with the relevant experts and authorities; and
- Have a long-term maintenance plan in place.
Several NOCs have proposed existing projects that align with the above principles. One of these is in Papua New Guinea, where 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 program which involves athletes in advocacy and education.
In Slovenia, around 30 athletes and 100 other stakeholders are planting 13,000 trees in partnership with the Slovenian State Forestry Company. In addition, Spain’s NOC 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.
The IOC will work with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to provide support for the ongoing creation of the Olympic Forest Network.
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