Africa is at heart of rising global ecosystem restoration wave

Across Africa, thousands of community efforts are healing degraded soil. [Courtesy]

Where there's a tree, there's hope. That is the philosophy of the Forest of Hope Association (FHA), a small local organisation in northern Rwanda that demonstrates what community-driven restoration looks like. After decades of uncontrolled farming and grazing, the Gishwati landscape had shrunk to just 2 per cent of its original size and was considered lost. But local conservationists refused to give up. They sold their own assets, mobilised neighbours, and began restoring the land, one tree at a time.

Today, Gishwati-Mukura National Park is a thriving landscape. Forest cover has more than doubled, from 680 to 1,570 hectares; chimpanzee numbers have increased from 17 to nearly 40; and wildlife such as golden monkeys, birds, and rare amphibians have returned. FHA's model is simple, but powerful: deep community ownership, long-term care, and the belief that restoration begins with one tree, one person, one act.