Africa's Nature Transition
Conservation International hired me to work on Africa's Nature Transition: A Roadmap for People, Nature and Climate - a report on how sub-Saharan Africa's ecosystems, if they're protected, managed and restored, can bring down emissions while supporting the people who live alongside them. It was published in April 2026.
It's a spiritual successor to a couple of my older projects. The Exponential Roadmap reports that I edited for Future Earth took a global, all-sectors perspective. The Exponential Roadmap for Natural Climate Solutions, which I edited for Conservation International, zoomed in to look at how protecting, managing and restoring nature can bring down emissions. This new report zooms in again - to natural climate solutions in sub-Saharan Africa specifically.
The report was led by African scientists and co-developed with a bunch of local partners, and it tackles many of the thorny questions around development head-on. In particular, it pays a lot of attention to making sure local livelihoods are protected while emissions come down. The whole thing is built around six principles - from acknowledging Africa's development priorities and needs, to using data that accurately reflects the situation on the continent.
I spent many months working on it - the most challenging part of the editorial work was bringing together the writing of many different authors into a single voice, keeping it consistent, and making sure the whole thing was jargon-free and accessible to its intended audience. That's always tricky in NGO contexts!
You can download the full report as a PDF from the Conservation International website.
If you'd like me to help you make something similar for your organisation, head over to my data visualization studio site, Klimat Studio:
