How we work

Future Ecosystems for Africa supports research to impact conservation and development issues across the continent by managing a portfolio of projects which work closely together to:

1) Promote strong voices coming from within Africa creating diverse African-led futures that are just and sustainable.

Future Ecosystems for Africa (FEFA) has diverse, desirable futures for human-nature relationships on the continent at its core. Our tools to achieve this include:

  1. Using storytelling and in particular African speculative fictions as a starting point for re-imagining futures
  2. Drawing on the deep knowledge of diverse African cultures through engagement with Royal Households
  3. Creatively integrating scientific data (from the social and natural sciences) with an African futurist approach

FEFA will leverage and strengthen existing regional networks and activities within the continent which provide platforms for African scientists to come together to increase their impact.

2) Support cutting edge multidisciplinary science that taps the wealth of knowledge and data existing on the continent.

A key goal of Future Ecosystems for Africa is helping prioritise ecosystem interventions in Africa, including what to protect, what to rehabilitate. This is informed by partnerships that engage on the economics of restoration, how we value and assess landscape degradation and sustainable utilisation, and environmental and social justice.

The program funds primary data collection, large-plot networks, and modelling (see activities page). These activities are all designed to feed into the impact pathways and visioning activities of FEFA and to fill critical gaps in our ability to quantify:

  1. Desired ecological states for different ecosystems on the continent,
  2. Rates of recovery and rates of change across different ecosystems, and
  3. The environmental tipping points where appropriate interventions could make the biggest difference.

3) Empower African citizens to drive and respond to global change by providing useful tools and mechanisms for decision making and action at all levels.

The outputs of our work can drive action from the bottom up (through targeted interventions and innovative local projects and case-studies) as well as at higher levels (feeding into national policy and global negotiating platforms).

We work to:

  • Engage multiple audiences
  • Integrate ecological, social, and economic information
  • Draw on data developed within Africa
  • Draw on ethical systems and ways of valuing biodiversity from within Africa
  • Provide tools to help decision making across multiple governance levels

The Future Ecosystems for Africa Program is designed to ensure that activities ranging from data collection to visioning workshops all have maximum impact through active integration and collaboration between core project activities

Our Guiding Principles

We recognise recognise that traditional approaches are not enough. That’s why we are:

  • Driving transformative change across economic, social, economic, and environmental spheres
  • Creating practical tools for informed decision-making
  • Ensuring African voices and priorities shape global conservation efforts
  • Building partnerships that amplify our collective impact

An Africa-led, Africa-centred program to influence thinking and action in new ways.