Green Resilience Africa

The Green Resilience Africa team will synthesise available data to generate evidence-based recommendations to support forest landscape restoration practices in countries including Ethiopia, Togo, and Madagascar. These countries remain under-researched in existing debates on the benefits and trade-offs of different forest restoration and reforestation approaches.

Deforestation and land degradation in Africa is worsened by climate change and by other human activities such as unsustainable agriculture, land management, and logging. These issues, compounded by climate change, have serious repercussions for ecosystems, biodiversity, and local livelihoods, affecting millions of people now reliant on degraded lands. Initiatives such as the Bonn Challenge and the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) aim to reverse these trends by restoring millions of hectares of land. However, a lack of knowledge and systematic monitoring hinders the full realisation of Forest Landscape Restoration efforts.

Transdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners will generate a comprehensive understanding of forest landscape restoration practices, offering measurable evidence on environmental and socio-economic benefits and trade-offs. This will help inform decision-making to ensure forest landscape restoration efforts are tailored to specific needs, benefiting both ecosystems and vulnerable communities across Africa.

Project Team:

• Kouami Kokou and Kossi Hounkpati – University of Lomé, Togo
• Katharina Löhr and Shibire Bekele Eshetu – ZALF (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research), Germany
• Ousseynou Ndoye and Diana Mawoko – AUDA-NEPAD/AFR100 Secretariat, South Africa
• Tsegaye Bekele and Asmelash Tesfaye – Hawassa University, Ethiopia
• Harifidy Rakoto Ratsimba and Hamy Raharinaivo – LlandDev (Land Landscape and Development Research Lab), Madagascar
• Lydia Atutonu and Essodouna Kpatcha – Ministry of Environment and Forest Resources, Togo
• Komla Mensah Gatonnou and Rachel Awoussi Boyindjo – DFS/ F4F/GIZ Togo
• Sélome Adoussi Houetognon – INADESFORMATION, Togo