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Saving the savanna

Inside the fight to restore Africa’s grasslands

Few places on Earth are as evocative or timeless as the vast grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa. Fewer still host as much iconic wildlife.

Yet in recent years, these savannas have suffered under unsustainable practices that threaten their biodiversity — as well as the communities who have thrived here for millennia.

Working with partners and with local people, Conservation International is helping write a new chapter for these vital landscapes — in no small part by reviving ancient practices that helped to sustain the land.

In a new series, “Saving the savanna,” we highlight some of the people and projects key to saving Africa’s endangered savannas.

The Series

Can an ancient tradition save an African savanna?

South Africa – Eastern Cape

In South Africa, people raised livestock alongside wildlife, mimicking the rhythms of nature — until apartheid arrived. If the country’s fragile savannas are to survive, communities must look to the past, Conservation International experts say.

In the fight to save a unique desert, tradition meets innovation

South Africa - Namaqualand

Resilience is life in South Africa’s dry shrublands — but for those who have farmed here for centuries, climate change is pushing the limits of that resilience. Can they adapt?

Long silenced, an African park roars back to life

Mozambique – Great Limpopo

Sixteen years of civil war left Mozambique’s parks in ruins. Yet in one park, a decade of conservation has brought the savanna back to life. Now, an ambitious partnership aims to replicate this success on a massive scale — protecting an area the size of Iceland.

In Kenya, global crisis sparked 'a new way to do conservation'

Kenya – Maasai Mara

In 2020, wildlife conservancies owned and managed by Indigenous people almost disappeared overnight. But out of that crisis, emerged a new conservation model — one that could be key to saving Kenya’s most endangered wildlife.

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