Africa has tremendous potential to turn its natural resources into massive capital for growth and prosperity, experts at one of the continent’s leading forums have reiterated.

More than 70 speakers and 2,500 participants from across the world on Thursday, June 19, 2025, engaged in insightful discourse at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Africa 2025.  

The event at the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi, highlighted Africa’s progress, priorities and possibilities in building healthy, resilient and prosperous landscapes, communities and economies.

Participants from 118 countries at the forum learned from experts how communities and ecosystems across the continent can thrive under a nature economy and explored how communities are spearheading the green transition across Africa.  

GLF Africa 2025, which has reached over 9 million people on social media, convened African and global innovators, scientists, investors and community leaders to raise their voices, share insights and spotlight how grassroots action is leading the way in ecosystem restoration, land rights, diverse knowledge systems, green jobs, natural capital and AI.

“When raw data is given meaning, it becomes information. When information is put into context, it becomes knowledge. And when knowledge becomes actionable and applied, only then does it become wisdom. This is the work we all need to do – to move into wisdom territory. To turn data into gold,” CIFOR-ICRAF CEO and Director-General Eliane Ubalijoro, told the forum’s closing ceremony, noting that the continent already has immense natural capital and it is therefore our responsibility to bring intelligence, meaning and context towards a nature economy.

Natural restoration

Ubalijoro distilled key messages from GLF Africa 2025’s discussions on what is next for Africa’s nature economy in developing a roadmap to scale up a new development model for the continent, and the growing landscape restoration movement.  

A rapt global audience learned about the tools, partnerships and innovations needed to turn the continent’s restoration and nature economy goals into reality – from blended finance and impact investment to AI and local upscaling.

GLF Africa 2025 participants charted an investable, people-centred, tech-supported roadmap to scale up Africa’s natural economy and create millions of jobs for communities across the continent.

Discussions analysed opportunities for the continent to reverse land degradation, biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.

Focusing on how nature can power Africa’s present and future, GLF Africa’s seventh edition, titled ‘Innovate, Restore, Prosper’, brought together leading voices from diverse sectors and backgrounds.

Hosted by GLF and CIFOR-ICRAF, the event covered four key themes – forest and landscape restoration, land and tree use rights and livelihoods, natural capital and sustainable finance, and AI, technology and data for intelligent landscapes.

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, connecting people with a shared vision to create productive, profitable, equitable and resilient landscapes.

It is led by CIFOR-ICRAF, co-founded by UNEP and the World Bank, and its charter members.

GLF Africa 2025 reflected on the ongoing mid-year United Nations climate conference in Bonn, Germany, and November’s climate summit (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, as government negotiators discuss how to put into practice an idea that emerged from the COP29 talks in Baku, Azerbaijan – the ‘Baku to Belém Roadmap to US$1.3 trillion’  

This exercise, which aims to propose approaches for scaling climate finance flows for developing countries to over a trillion dollars per year by 2035, is due to be presented at COP30.

Disgruntled developing nations complained over the US$300 billion a year in climate finance deal reached after fractious talks in Baku.

Experts at the Nairobi GLF event noted that today’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) finance frameworks are still largely focused on screening out risk – and they’re not doing enough to tackle the climate emergency.

They called for a radical rethinking of sustainable finance: one that shifts capital flows to the frontlines, where they can support locally-led solutions for climate resilience, ecosystem restoration and improved livelihoods.  

Trailblazers are already turning ESG and impact investing into tools for regeneration, inclusion and sustainability. Participants learned how finance can help achieve the SDGs by investing in smallholder farmers, rural communities and landscape restoration.

The session, ‘Innovation meets impact: How Africa is leading AI agri-tech transformation, sought to find out what it takes to ensure AI is solving real, context-specific challenges, driven by African leadership.

Leveraging AI

African-led tech solutions are reshaping agri-food systems to be smarter, more inclusive and adaptive to today’s challenges.

Leading African innovators and practitioners at the intersection of digital transformation and sustainable development shared solutions that integrate AI and technology with traditional knowledge to develop real-world solutions for local ecosystems.

“AI technology is going to help us only when we include the farmer, not just as the end user, but as a co-creator in our solutions. Leveraging what people know is one way we can find better-fitting solutions for them,” said Esther Maina, a geospatial developer at the Kenya Space Agency.

According to Kate Kallot, Amani AI founder and CEO, data and AI play a pivotal role in unlocking some of those insights that we’ve never had access to before and bring a level of transparency that can restore trust in our ecosystem.  

“Data creates transparency, transparency creates trust, and trust accelerates investments. It will only work, though, if we really start treating our natural capital as a core economic driver… with the potential to unlock trillions in capital,” she argued.

Rights and Resources Group President Solange Bandiaky-Badji said land rights are the foundation for Africa’s nature economy, posing: How can we make sure that Africa’s relationship with the West or the private sector is based on a win-win situation?  

“We all know that the West has the technology, but we have the resources, so that should put Africa in a very powerful bargaining position,” Bandiaky-Badji said

INUKA Project coordinator, Youth4Nature, Melyn Abia, called for the creation of enabling ecosystems that support people to do more restoration and tap into nature-based economies because “policies without people is just poetry”.  

“We need a shift from aid to investment-centred development. Africa is home to 6.5 trillion in natural resources, a population that is about to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, and 60 per cent of the world’s renewable energy potential. This is not a charity case, but a compelling investment case the world cannot afford to ignore,” said Jacob’s Ladder Co-founder and CEO Sellah Bogonko.

“Africa’s nature economy has the potential to sustain ourselves, so there’s no need for us to heavily rely on foreign aid. We are our own resource,” said Stevi Misati, director of Youth Pawa and 2024 Ocean Restoration Steward.