Tropical forests across Africa are under relentless pressure.
If the forests don’t flourish, neither do the people
nor the wildlife that depend on them.
For over 25 years, A Rocha has been a witness to the pressure put upon African forests and in response has committed for the long-term to protecting unique forests across the continent. As captured in the motto of a new community group we work with in Ghana, “We won’t look on while something spoils”.
A Rocha Ghana and A Rocha Kenya are leading the way with their ambitious work for the Atewa Forest and Dakatcha Woodland, and they have now been joined by newer projects to protect the forests of West Bugwe in Uganda, Ferncliffe in South Africa, and Kwande in Nigeria.
The African Forest Programme has proven to be an efficient way to support our established and nascent forest conservation projects across the continent. The programme supports both groundwork and regional collaboration. As a result, we have seen new South-South as well as North-South cooperation.
Conservation is about hope. Through the work of our African Forest programme, this is expressing itself via the programme’s four core interventions:
- Constituency building: Fostering a long-term conservation mindset. Building constituencies helps create a broad and inclusive support base, essential for the forests’ long-term future.
- Practical conservation interventions and research: Our interventions aim to directly improve the conservation status of the forests and their wildlife through research, monitoring, protection and restoration.
- Green development pathways and environmental education: These play a significant role in ensuring conservation efforts are understood, sustainable, socially inclusive and aligned with the needs of local communities.
- Regional cooperation: We aim to address shared challenges and to achieve common goals. Collaboration enables the sharing of work, resources, knowledge and strategies.
All of this is helping us better protect 50,000 hectares of biodiversity-rich forests across five countries.
Atewa Forest in Ghana
A Rocha’s work to protect the Atewa Forest from both near term and long-term threats has made a great deal of progress over the years. We now have a higher degree of confidence that our efforts to prevent mining the forest for bauxite have made an impact and we can seriously contemplate success in permanently protecting this unique forest and turning Atewa into a National Park.
Alongside these efforts, we continue to support and organise local communities to sustainably manage their natural resources through a system known in Ghana as Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs). We are looking at developing the eco-tourism capacity around Atewa Forest, and continue to undertake forest monitoring to understand its health and what illegal activities are sadly affecting it.
“Yenhwe mma nsei – We won’t look on while something spoils”
Dakatcha Woodland in Kenya
Witnessing the rapid destruction of the Dakatcha Woodland, A Rocha started in 2014 an ambitious conservation programme which, guided by its biodiversity surveys and community work, is establishing a nature reserve so the landscape maintains some of its ecological integrity.
We have successfully secured nearly 9,000 acres of the Dakatcha Woodlands and protected it permanently.
To date, the protection of endangered and endemic vertebrates of Dakatcha, like the Sokoke Scops Owl has directed our conservation strategy, however Dakatcha is also home to a number of endangered trees. A new project is integrating the protection of threatened tree species to deliver a more complete conservation outcome for the landscape.
West Bugwe in Uganda
West Bugwe is one of the most important natural forests in Eastern Uganda. But it often feels forgotten. The chopping down of trees to make charcoal is the leading cause of habitat degradation and loss, and this activity affects 49% of the forest.
Encouragingly, our plants, birds, mammals, butterflies and reptile surveys have confirmed that despite all of this, this forest continues to be a haven for a great diversity of species. In fact, in 2024, our surveys revealed the presence of an endangered species of pangolin, not known to the scientific community to be present there.
This survey work is going hand and hand with our community and habitat restoration work. The appreciation for the forest has increased since our work started there, and we look forward to continuing our engagement with the communities to ensure this forest is in better condition and no longer overlooked.
A Rocha’s approach to this work
Our Christian identity often differentiates us from many other conservation organizations. We believe that it is a completely normal part of the Christian life to care for the natural world. In practice, this has allowed us to develop approaches, alongside conventional practices, to make advances where more secular organizations have not, working with churches to conserve the environment for example. Yet importantly, in all situations, across all our projects, we are respectful of others and their worldviews and work daily with people of all faiths and none.
A Rocha has a strong commitment to the places where we work, anchoring our efforts in landscapes we have come to know well and of which we are a part. This connection to a place reinforced by international exchange under this programme, offer a powerful and lasting approach, as it brings together local, national and international knowledge, practices and networks.
Together, A Rocha wants to learn, share, grow and innovate, making use of the rich diversity of expertise found across its network. Our work is interdisciplinary and collaborative by nature and spans across such disciplines as ecology, forestry, agriculture, education and sustainable economic development. We want to build resilience into the outcomes of our work. We also want to catalyze local, national and international constituencies to act in support of forest conservation.
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