Nature rises: Southern Africa turns to natural solutions amid drought crisis

Just as they occur globally, the region is trapped in a spiral of climate crises hitting back-to-back. For instance, in March 2023, Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar were battered by Cyclone Freddy, which killed thousands of people, displaced hundreds of thousands more, and swept away hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops.

When the current drought hit, these communities had not recovered from the effects of Cyclone Freddy and a series of other natural shocks over the past decade.

Worryingly, science shows that these climate disasters will continue to occur with increased frequency and severity.

As these catastrophes keep communities in their grip, biodiversity protection bears the brunt.

When communities that are predominantly reliant on agriculture for livelihood have their crops burnt down by drought or swept away by floods, they will turn to other means to survive, including poaching and encroachment into protected areas to extract resources for food or income.

Conversely, as Phillip Kuvawoga, director of the landscape conservation programme at IFAW, explains, for southern Africa, these natural disasters exacerbate human-wildlife conflict as animals roam out of protected areas in search of food and water, negatively impacting an already food-insecure population.

The effects of climate disasters on wildlife conservation are challenging. Still, they increasingly highlight the need to adopt impactful approaches that make human livelihoods and wildlife conservation resilient to climate change. This nexus of climate crisis, human welfare, and biodiversity conservation makes a strong case for nature-based solutions.

IFAW pushed for this approach at COP28 in Dubai in December 2023, where we also unveiled a report amplifying what nature-based solutions can achieve for climate, biodiversity, and communities.

IFAW argues that nature-based solutions put nature at the heart of climate action. They demonstrate that nature is not just a victim of climate change but also a powerful ally in humanity's fight to heal the Earth from the climate crisis.

Harnessing nature-based solutions means addressing human-induced climate change while ending biodiversity loss, restoring ecosystems, and protecting wild animal populations.

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