The African CSOs Biodiversity Alliance (ACBA) has launched the ACBA Biodiversity Academy (ABA), a new learning platform aimed at strengthening knowledge sharing, capacity building and collaboration among biodiversity practitioners, researchers, conservation organisations and community leaders across Africa.
The academy is intended to serve as a platform for African-led learning and innovation, bringing together experiences and solutions from across the continent to address biodiversity loss and climate change.
According to ACBA, the initiative was established to create a shared learning space where African perspectives and locally driven conservation approaches take centre stage.
“Across the continent, there is a wealth of knowledge, innovation and experience in biodiversity conservation. The Biodiversity Academy seeks to bring these voices together, creating a space where African practitioners can learn from one another and build a shared vision for a sustainable future,” said Yemi Katerere, Executive Director of ACBA.
It will facilitate learning through webinars, peer-to-peer exchanges, case studies and practical training sessions aimed at enhancing the skills of conservation practitioners while promoting African conservation success stories.
At the launch, the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST), one of ACBA’s founding members, was unveiled as the lead organisation for the Academy’s inaugural learning series.
Founded more than 27 years ago, ECOTRUST has built a reputation for promoting conservation finance and landscape restoration initiatives that combine environmental protection with economic benefits for communities.
The organisation's flagship approach, known as “Landscape Restoration as a Business,” encourages communities to view environmental restoration as both a conservation responsibility and an economic opportunity.
The model promotes investments in tree planting, forest restoration, sustainable agriculture and nature-based enterprises that generate income while restoring degraded ecosystems.
Following the Academy's launch, ECOTRUST commenced a three-part webinar series designed to share lessons from its conservation finance journey and practical experiences from Uganda.
The first webinar was led by ECOTRUST Executive Director Pauline Nantongo, who outlined the evolution of the organisation’s conservation finance model and its efforts to support communities through restoration-based livelihoods.
The session explored how conservation projects can be structured as sustainable investment opportunities capable of generating environmental, social and economic returns.
“ECOTRUST treats every participating household as an individual economic unit,” Nantongo said. “The financial incentives from carbon and biodiversity credits allow families to safely shift their financial planning away from short-term, degrading cycles such as sugarcane or maize production towards long-term, sustainable forestry.”
Upcoming sessions in the series will focus on nature markets, conservation financing tools and community-owned investment models. Participants will also be introduced to practical approaches that organisations can adopt in their own conservation programmes.
The Academy will further highlight experiences from local communities involved in restoration initiatives, with ECOTRUST presenting case studies from farmers and community groups that have improved household incomes while contributing to ecosystem restoration and environmental conservation.