Wanjira Maathai, the managing director of Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and daughter of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, will lead a new restoration initiative in Africa after WRI secured a $100 million grant through TED’s Audacious Project.
The Restore Local project will focus on locally-led land restoration in three African landscapes, namely the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin, Ghana’s Cocoa Belt and Kenya’s Greater Rift Valley.
Ms Maathai emphasized the importance of restoring degraded land to mitigate climate change, protect communities, and improve land productivity and family incomes.
The initiative aims to accelerate the AFR100 movement, an initiative to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land in Africa by 2030.
Ms Maathai stressed the need for support from governments, development banks, investors, NGOs and others to achieve this goal.
