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High up in the Plateaux region of Togo, the land tells a complicated story. 

The mountainous Kloto, Agou, Kpélé, Amou and Danyi prefectures that form the spine of the country’s interior are among the most agriculturally productive and ecologically significant landscapes in West Africa. Mist-covered slopes channel rainfall to the valleys below. Smallholder farms where families grow coffee, cocoa and food crops rely on land that rewards careful stewardship and punishes carelessness. 

In the northwestern corner of Madagascar, where the rice plains of Marovoay stretch towards the Ankarafantsika National Park, water is everything. 

Water determines whether the rice harvest will come in or fail. It governs whether the mangroves that line the coast can regenerate or continue their slow retreat. It shapes the lives of every community across the 27 microwatersheds that surround one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the country. For the past few years, water patterns have been getting more and more unusual and unpredictable. 

In Malawi, the rivers are shrinking.  Walk the banks of any waterway through Ntcheu or Mangochi districts and the evidence is visible: eroded margins, thinning tree cover, soils slipping into water that should be running clear. Critical ecosystems, including riverbanks, mountains and forests, are frequently treated as a no man’s land, lacking clearly defined ownership, effective enforcement mechanisms and functional governance structures. The result is the slow accumulation of unchecked encroachment, weak compliance with environmental regulations, and widespread land degradation that no government notice has been able to stop. 

Across the dry and fragile landscapes of the northern United Republic of Tanzania, where drought, soil erosion and deforestation have long shaped daily life, women are leading a quiet but powerful transformation. 

In Karatu, near Arusha, the land tells a familiar sto...

The AFR100 Programme in Togo, “Supporting AFR100 by engaging with small-scale forest and farm producers” carried out a joint technical mission from the 10th to 14th of November to reinforce collaboration with key stakeholders and accelerate forest landscape restoration effort...