Painted Lady: this beautiful butterfly is the one with the widest global distribution - photo: NABU/Antje Schultner
Female leadership for nature in Africa – and your sustainability strategy
Did you know that Painted Ladies are true globetrotters? Every year, these delicate-looking, colourful butterflies fly up to 15,000 kilometres. Their journey takes them from Europe to Africa, across the Sahara. They live in open landscapes, and they love flowering meadows and savannahs. But dry ecosystems, pesticides and the loss of available land are threatening the Painted Lady. Protecting its habitat in Germany is not enough – we need nature conservation in African countries to protect its flight route and our biodiversity.
The flight of the Painted Lady stands for the great network of nature – the basis for our lives and our economies. What happens in Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria affects us all: vast African forests protect our climate, and genetic diversity is the foundation for food security, medicine and technology. Ever since NABU was founded by conservationist Lina Hähnle in 1899, our motto has been: conservation knows no borders!
Working with local partners, we’ve triggered a transformation where it is most effective: in rural regions of Africa, it is mainly women who drive change. They use fewer resources, raise the next generation, and often make more sustainable decisions. Women are key actors in nature and climate protection. Our mission is to strengthen women in Africa as the new leaders of sustainable economic activity. For this mission we’re looking for innovative companies in Germany which are putting female leadership into practice – for local nature conservation with a global impact.
20,000 women, one thousand hectares of forest, sustainable products:
our work in Africa at a glance
Eco-friendly agriculture is the key to preserving ecosystems – in Africa and elsewhere. The dramatic loss of species can be halted with climate-resilient methods of cultivation and sustainable land use. Growing produce in forests – be it wild coffee, wild bananas or wild cardamom – not only protects habitats and rare species, it also ensures climate resilience in the region.
NABU’s work in Africa concentrates on globally relevant ecosystems such as forests and wetlands, the protection of rare species and sustainable regional development.
NABU and its local partners have projects underway in the following African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In all these countries, we protect threatened ecosystems and collaborate with women to market sustainable products: not just coffee, but also macadamia nuts, honey, salt, soap, spices and shea.
NABU’s achievements for people and nature in Africa
✔️ Reforestation of over 1300 hectares of Afromontane cloud forest in Ethiopia
✔️ Establishment of nine organic coffee cooperatives and organic certification of garden coffee
✔️Restoration of 700 hectares of forest in Côte d'Ivoire
✔️ Collaboration with more than 20,000 women in six African countries – for climate-resilient land use and green value chains
✔️ Establishment of the Lake Tana Stakeholder Alliance and improved protection for Ethiopia’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Tana
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Nature conservation in the hands of women
The project “AfricElle” supports over 20,000 women throughout six African countries in operating climate-resilient forms of agriculture.
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Green Change
The project promotes sustainable land use through the planting of climate-resilient varieties and supports women and youth in Ethiopia.
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Sustainable water, sustainable lives
NABU Ethiopia counters strain on the Lake Tana ecosystem by enhancing regional sustainability and conservation through community-driven efforts.
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Women power for Lake Tana
At Ethiopia's Lake Tana, sustainable livelihoods and circular economy are empowering women and yielding concrete wins for nature conservation.
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Nigeria: Rare forest elephant spotted
In a joint effort with the local population, NABU protects the community forest Iko Esai and its extraordinary biodiversity in Nigeria, Africa.
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Community-based waste management in Ethiopia
To fight the pollution in Ethiopia's cities, NABU and its partners are developing a more effective, community-based waste management system.
This is how you and your staff can benefit from working with NABU
We’ll help to make your commitment visible by connecting your company with our experienced consultants and conservation experts.
✔️ Effective sustainability
Strengthen your CSR strategy and make your commitment to sustainability visible.
✔️ Motivated staff
Make your commitment tangible for your staff.
✔️Sustainability communication
We’ll help you prepare communications about our joint project.
✔️High flexibility
We offer various options for your commitment to sustainability.
This is how you can get involved
Donations
Your donations help us to fund important nature conservation projects. For example, they can help support our women’s conservation networks in Africa. This is a voluntary payment: donors receive no service in return and are not entitled to use the NABU logo. A donation receipt will be issued
Sponsorship
Sponsorship involves support for NABU projects, in cash or in kind, and high-profile communication of nature and environmental topics. Benefits: use of the NABU logo (after signing a licensing agreement), promotion by NABU, and the right to commercialize the collaboration.
Consultancy
The aim of a consultancy agreement is to work on company-specific sustainability issues and to jointly develop environmental policy objectives. NABU will advise you on specialist topics, such as value chains for sustainable coffee production.
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A paradise for rare species and wild coffee – the Afromontane cloud forest in Boginda, Ethiopia - photo: Bruno D'Amicis
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Local, sustainable economic activity: the cardamom drying process - photo: NABU / Maheder Haileselassie
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At the coffee harvest: in the Kafa Biosphere Reserve this is usually between October and December - photo: Angelika Berndt
Interested in supporting our projects in Africa? Please get in touch!
Anette Wolf, Project manager
+49 162 9084205
Anette.Wolff@NABU.de
