Climate change threats are growing in Africa and across the world, and Africa’s forests can be a part of the solution. Forests contribute to about one-sixth of global carbon emissions when cleared, overused, or degraded. Healthy forests absorb emissions and store them into perpetuity.

Nearly 20 percent of the African continent is covered by forests, including the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, the Congo Basin Forest — known as the “green lung of Africa.”

AWF works with governments and communities to ensure the sustainable management of Africa’s forests, like the Congo Basin, to conserve wildlife habitats, while also protecting water towers and enhancing forest carbon stocks.

Through the U.N. Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), we have collaborated with partners to provide the forest communities in Chyulu Hills in Kenya with monetary incentives for adapting land-use to support conservation. Instead of logging and clearing portions of the forest for small-scale agriculture, landowners can sell carbon credits and invest the revenues into community-led enterprises.

As part of the Central Africa Forest Ecosystems Conservation program, AWF's work with both forest communities and wildlife management agencies is helping to secure the world’s second-largest rainforest. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local-level initiatives provide alternatives to bush meat hunting and agricultural practices driving forest loss. For communities in Cameroon, economic opportunities from non-timber forest products are transforming lives and protecting biodiversity. In southern Tanzania, AWF is increasing forest cover through tree planting and helping to secure existing forests by improving planning and management in partnership with the Tanzania Forest Service.

As part of AWF’s land-use plans, we build community capacity to adapt to climate change and provide practical solutions so communities have options that work for them.

For rural small-scale farmers, this involves learning new sustainable farming techniques that ensure higher crop yields, promote soil health, retain water and ultimately increase incomes.

We also train and organize groups to develop alternative livelihoods from non-timber forest products and beekeeping, depending on their priorities. By providing alternatives to communities reliant on forests, we help to protect key forest resources while providing benefits to communities.

By 2030 water scarcity will impact as much as two-thirds of Africa. Our reforestation initiatives help recover Africa’s lost forest cover and when focused around riverine areas, they create shade and stop the erosion of river banks, helping to improve water flow and quality for wildlife and people.

In southern Tanzania, we have supported water user associations with training to manage their water resources, restore riverine forest areas, demarcate riverine boundaries, and assess the quality and flow of their rivers with affordable tools that involve all members of the community. This is just one component of the watershed management plans that are designed with the input of multiple local stakeholders in line with national policies and natural resource management goals.

AWF also equips Maasai households in northern Tanzania’s Manyara Ranch with tools to harvest rainfall — instead of digging shallow wells or scooping riverbeds — transforming how communities access water in semi-arid landscapes. Tailored for traditional manyattas, each structure in the homestead is covered with a waterproof tarpaulin and a guttering frame to collect rainwater. It passes through a filtration system to remove dust and other solids before it is stored in an underground tank — out of elephants’ reach. Previously the burden of fetching water fell on women and young girls, often pushing them out of school or other income-generating activities. Now, this simple solution alleviates pressures on households, requiring only a hand pump to draw out clean water as needed. Collecting rainwater also mitigates various social and health impacts while also improving the community’s capacity for climate change adaptation as droughts become more frequent.