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- Restore Local, Africa
Restore Local, Africa
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Ghana
last update:
7 months agoProblems
Degraded African farmland
60% of Africans rely on the land to provide food for their families and communities. But as degraded soils grow tired from unsustainable farming and grazing practices, farmers struggle to produce enough, shrinking their incomes and exacerbating malnutrition. Meanwhile, erosion is polluting rivers, and biodiversity is being lost at unprecedented rates — with climate change accelerating all these impacts. The good news is it is possible to restore land, making it more productive and resilient. Growing new trees can accomplish this — in forests and farms, on pastures and slopes — and by nurturing the land so native vegetation can grow. Many across the continent are embracing restoration — setting up businesses and nonprofits to help local farmers and communities plant trees. Restore Local is a bold plan to bring the land back to optimum health by supporting local tree-growing champions.
Solutions
Accelerating locally led land restoration across Africa’s vital landscapes
Author: The Audacious Project
The Restore Local, Africa program is an initiative that aims to support local organizations and communities in restoring degraded lands across the continent. It is part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), which has a goal of restoring 100 million hectares of land by 2030. The program is led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and its partners, who believe that locally-led restoration projects are more likely to achieve long-term success and bring environmental and economic benefits to their communities. The program works by helping local Restoration Champions to build their capacity, connect with financing, secure policies that incentivize restoration, and measure their impact. The program focuses on three anchor landscapes: the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin, Kenya’s Great Rift Valley and Ghana’s Cocoa Belt. These landscapes have high potential for restoration and represent diverse ecological and socio-economic contexts. The program aims to restore productivity for large tracts of land, deliver immediate and enduring results for more than 600,000 smallholder farmers, and ignite local economies. The program also plans to scale up its blueprint to other AFR100 nations, sparking an African-led land restoration movement that can address the challenges of climate change, food insecurity, poverty, and biodiversity loss. The program builds on the existing successes and best practices of African restoration efforts, such as the community-led restoration of 1 million hectares of degraded land in Tigray, Ethiopia, and the natural regeneration of trees on farms to improve the food security of 2.5 million farmers across 5 million hectares in Niger. The Restore Local, Africa program is an example of how small-scale farmers can save Africa’s degraded lands by working together with local organizations and partners. The program demonstrates the power of evergreening approaches that help farmers rehabilitate their land, protect their forests and rivers, increase their incomes and resilience, and contribute to global climate action
Source: https://www.audaciousproject.org/grantees/restore-local
Gallery
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Timelines
2015
The AFR100 (the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative) was launched. It is a country-led effort to restore 100 million hectares of African land into restoration by 2030.
2018
WRI developed the Land Accelerator, the world’s first training and mentorship program for businesses restoring forests, farmland and pastures, with demand for the program far outstripping capacity. In addition to mobilizing the political will for restoration, WRI, One Tree Planted, and Realize Impact have also launched TerraFund for AFR100. This platform has provided financing and on-call consulting to over one hundred Restoration Champions.
2021
The Global EverGreening Alliance launched its flagship project, Restore Africa, at COP26. Together with financial institution Climate Asset Management, a US$150 million finance package into a carbon program to restore trees and livelihoods across six African countries was announced to enhance the livelihoods of 1.5 million farming families and restore around 1.9 million hectares of degraded agricultural land across six countries – Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
2023
Between April 5 and May 5, 2023, TerraFund for AFR100 called upon locally-led organizations that restore the land by growing trees. If they operated in one of TerraFund for AFR100’s three target landscapes, restoration champions could have applied for $50,000 to $500,000 USD in funding.
2024
Building on existing programs established since Jan 2023, Restore Local has already supported restoration champions in growing 21.6 million trees, restoring over 50,000 hectares of degraded land and creating more than 62,000 jobs, in an effort to drive local economic growth, boost biodiversity, strengthen climate resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As Africa faces increasing climate challenges, Restore Local is proving that locally led restoration is not just possible — it’s essential. By mobilizing communities, policymakers, and investors, the initiative is turning grassroots action into large-scale impact, ensuring that Africa’s landscapes are not only restored but also sustained.
2025
February
Restore Local, an initiative dedicated to accelerating locally led land restoration across Africa, has officially launched in Ghana. Convened by World Resources Institute (WRI), this drive provides critical support to community organizations and entrepreneurs— helping these “restoration champions” revitalize degraded landscapes, strengthen community resilience and drive environmental conservation at scale. Focusing on three key landscapes - Kenya’s Greater Rift Valley, the Ghana Cocoa Belt, and the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin spanning Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo - Restore Local works with these groups. Among those bringing Restore Local's vision to life is Afrex Gold, an avocado company in Kenya that bridges agriculture and restoration. “Since partnering with Restore Local, we have increased seedling production from 6,000 to 500,000 annually", said Shiro Ndirangu, Managing Director, Afrex Gold. “Being a part of this initiative means restoring the environment while strengthening the community around you. Restore Local is turning action into impact, and I'm proud to be a part of it.” Tropenbos Ghana echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the restoration work their organization has been doing in the degraded Ghana Cocoa Belt.
