Project overview

NGOs often play a critical role in civil society worldwide. They advocate for the interests and needs of local communities and minorities and secure access and maintenance of natural livelihoods. Nevertheless, local NGOs in Africa often face challenges: Restrictive national NGO laws often prohibit political involvement and restrict fund access. Consequently, many NGOs are struggling to secure long-term funding and see their influence on political decision makers for conservation topics limited – both at national and regional level. To strengthen NGOs in Africa, NABU and six green NGOs from West and East Africa are setting up regional cluster networks for enhancing organisational development and capacity building.

All six African NGOs work at the focal point between conservation in and around protected areas and the needs for livelihoods of local people. In particular, land use of all kinds lead to permanent conflicts between local communities and the respective protected area management, as well as to increasing pressure on wildlife, forests, water bodies and other habitats. The effects of climate change such as heavy rain falls, unexpected frost, extreme dry spells and erosion are exacerbating poor harvests and crop failures. This in turn results in poverty and increased dependency of people on the natural resources of their environment. The way forward here is the conversion of current land use to sustainable forms taking impacts of climate change into consideration so that yields can be stabilised and livelihoods secured. Therefore, the six partner NGOs are introducing Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) with local farmers at six selected sites.

Visit Project website