Ecosystems & Biodiversity
Restoring and protecting Africa's natural capital for generations to come.
Overview
Africa's ecosystems — from the Congo Basin rainforests to the Sahel drylands and the Eastern African Rift Valley — are among the planet's most important repositories of biodiversity and natural capital. Healthy ecosystems underpin food security, water availability, and climate stability for hundreds of millions of people.
CLEEN's Ecosystems & Biodiversity practice works at the intersection of conservation science, land governance, and sustainable finance to design, implement, and monitor landscape-scale restoration and protection programmes.
We apply evidence-based methodologies including ecosystem services valuation, biodiversity net-gain frameworks, and nature-based solutions to help clients generate measurable environmental outcomes while delivering co-benefits for local communities.
Capabilities
What we offer
Landscape & Forest Restoration
Design and implementation of large-scale reforestation, afforestation, and natural forest restoration programmes, with robust monitoring, reporting, and verification systems aligned with international standards.
Biodiversity Net Gain & Offsetting
Biodiversity baseline surveys, net-gain calculations, and the design of offset programmes that enable infrastructure and extractive-sector clients to meet no-net-loss and net-gain commitments.
Blue Carbon & Coastal Restoration
Assessment, restoration, and carbon crediting of mangrove, seagrass, and saltmarsh ecosystems along Africa's Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines.
Protected Area & Conservation Management
Strategic planning, financial sustainability analysis, and community-engagement frameworks for national parks, game reserves, and community conservancies.
Case studies
Related work
Department of Environmental Affairs · 2019
Subnational Water-Biodiversity Nexus Model (Four South African Provinces)
Development of a subnational system dynamics model of the water-biodiversity nexus across four South African provinces.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) · 2020
KAZA Transfrontier Water–Wildlife–Resources Nexus Model
Part of a four-member system-dynamics modelling team that worked with stakeholders across the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area to model the humans–wildlife–resources nexus, developing a water model to inform transboundary conservation decisions.
International Water Management Institute (IWMI) · 2025
Continental Water Accounting & Hydrological Modelling
Continental-scale water accounting and hydrological modelling for IWMI — processing Africa-wide datasets, running the VegET model and building WA+ water accounts to turn hydrological data into decision-ready products, alongside capacity-building workshops in Ghana and Ethiopia.