There is growing concern that tackling complex environmental challenges requires multifaceted approaches to engaging stakeholders and driving meaningful, lasting change. Mentorship and capacity building, for instance, are recognized as viable means of developing agripreneurial capacity and innovation among youth, thereby enabling food systems transformation.
Climate change constitutes one of the most pressing global challenges of our time. Its impacts fall disproportionately upon indigenous communities who have contributed least to its causes yet possess generations of adaptive knowledge (Dorji et al., 2024). Across Africa, dryland ecosystems cover 40% of the continent’s landmass and support nearly 50% of its population, making pastoral communities particularly vulnerable to climate variabilities (FAO, 2018). This blog draws on insights from my AFAS-funded fieldwork to examine how Indigenous Knowledge systems shape adaptation strategies among Maasai pastoralists in the Kitenden-Amboseli ecosystem, focusing on indigenous grass reserves as a Nature-based Solution for climate adaptation.
When I arrived in Korhogo, northern Côte d’Ivoire, for my master’s fieldwork under the African Climate and Environment Center – Future African Savannas Programme (AFAS), I expected to study agroforestry diversity in typical savanna landscapes. In Côte d’Ivoire, Korhogo is considered one of the pioneering regions of agroforestry, a Nature-based Solution that integrates trees and crops on the same land to enhance biodiversity, improve soils, and strengthen resilience.
The Battle for Laikipia is a documentary film set in Laikipia County, Kenya. It highlights the complexities of land conflicts between indigenous pastoralist communities such as the Samburu and large-scale landowners that include ranchers and conservancies. Both parties have competing claims on land resources and clashing ethnic claims of place identity, all exacerbated by frequent climatic extremes such as the 2017 drought that was experienced in the area and political tensions that arose in the same election year.
In June 2025, Julius Toba Malika paid a visit to the Musul pastoralist community in Northern Kenya to gather insights on how grass reseeding is building climate resilience in this livestock- dependent community. While interacting with the community, Julius learned that reseeding is more than just a restoration strategy. He shares these insights in this blog.
Protected areas, often described as sanctuaries for biodiversity, are central pillars for global biodiversity conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines them as clearly defined geographical spaces, recognized, dedicated, and managed through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values (Dudley, 2008, p8).