‘Africa Alive Corridors’: Forging a new future for the people of Africa by the people of Africa

Abstract

‘ Africa Alive Corridors’ (AAC) addresses major stewardship goals in Africa through a selection of 20 heritage Corridors (varying from 1000 to 4000 km in length and 50 to 100 km wide). These include more than 400 heritage nodes (World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves, biodiversity hotspots, Geoparks, etc.). AAC tracks Africa’s journey from around 4 billion years ago to the present day through these chronologically sequenced Corridors. And so, the 4-billion-year autobiography of the continent is told. It encompasses the geological, biological and anthropological/cultural history of Africa’s 54 nations – a (hi-) story without borders. The wealth of scientific and biographical knowledge archived in this network of Corridors tells the story of continental drift, mega-geohazards, climate variability and change, and the origin and extinction of biodiversity; and includes our human roots, culture and spirituality, our impact on the Earth and our potential to influence its future. In telling this story of Africa, new research avenues will be discovered and new learning methodologies will be experienced and developed and shared. In this way, the AAC provide loci along which the eight UN-Millennium Development Goals may be readily and realistically achieved. In concert, they can form the basis for a new collective endeavour – of Pan African Earth Stewardship Science. In this, the final – 2010 – phase of IYPE (the International Year of Planet Earth), we aim to make a start at bringing the ‘ Africa Alive Corridors’ into real-life context. Whilst the concept of the Corridors has been formulated and presented at various international forums—most recently in Africa at the launch of IYPE in Arusha, Tanzania, in May 2008—here we present in brief their conceptual framework, and summarize the rationale behind the selection of the 20 African Corridors. Then, we describe, for the first time, how the AAC concept might evolve. To achieve the latter, we focus on an exploratory design of one Corridor (AAC 4 – through Cameroon and Nigeria) that we have named the ‘ African Pole of Rotation’ Corridor. We outline its significance in Africa, and the world, and formulate an approach in forging its reality in the countries through which it passes. We show how the uniqueness of this and other Corridors, as “global heritage trails”, might translate into holistic lasting benefit for all. AAC aims to draw all 900 million Africans of every background and persuasion into co-curating, co-documenting and together keeping alive their continent’s unmatched heritage – an epic and unfolding story.