Between forest and desert: savannas suffer climate stress

Text: Luca Rehse-Knauf

For many regions of Africa, savannas are what forests are for Germany: a vital ecosystem, wildlife habitat and economic factor, cultural heritage and carbon store. These wide swathes of open landscape are under threat, however – from overuse, and from floods, droughts and other climate change impacts. This is where the African Climate and ­Environment Center – Future African Savannas (AFAS) comes in, which has been funded since 2021 by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office as part of the DAAD’s Global Centres for Climate and Environment programme. The scientific consortium is committed to preserving biodiversity in African savannas and to adapting them to climate change.

AFAS comprises four partner institutions: the University of Bonn, the University of Cologne, the University of Nairobi in Kenya and Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast. At its core is a joint master’s degree programme – the first institutional cooperation of its kind between a French- and an English-speaking African country. The aim of AFAS is to foster academic exchange and thereby transfer scientific findings into policymaking practice.

Kenya and Ivory Coast are 5,000 kilometres apart, as the crow flies – roughly the same distance from the Portuguese coast near Lisbon right across the Atlantic to Boston in the US. What the two countries have in common is their climatic zone and savanna vegetation. “AFAS is thus an attempt to bridge the gap between West and East Africa on a scientific, political and practical level,” explains Claire Anulisa from Kenya. ­After graduating with a BSc in agricultural ecosystem management, she took the AFAS master’s degree at the University of Nairobi. “Students from West Africa travel to East Africa during their course, and vice versa. The summer schools in Cologne and Bonn are another highlight.” During their time in Germany, the students benefit from an intensive programme of ­scientific study and various excursions, including to the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

Academic exchange is essential for young researchers, agrees Nouhou Zoungrana, an AFAS graduate from Burkina Faso. A qualified geographer, he did the master’s programme in the West African city of Abidjan in Ivory Coast. “We had the oppor­tunity to work with African and international colleagues from Benin, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Cameroon, Kenya, Togo, Sierra Leone and Germany.” He admits that the language barrier posed something of a challenge at first. “I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to join AFAS because I come from a French-speaking country,” says Zoungrana, who did not speak much English when he began his master’s. “After the two-year programme and several language courses, however, I can now express myself pretty well.” So well, in fact, that he now publishes his papers in English, the global language of ­science – including one he co-authored with Claire ­Anulisa. Both say that AFAS has made an enormous contribution to integrating the two regions.

What sets AFAS apart is its practical orientation. Savannas cannot be studied from a desk. “We went out and did field research, working alongside farmers and local communities,” reports Claire Anulisa. She conducted her agroforestry research in southern Kenya’s Tana River County, where many farmers are battling with the impacts of climate change. Agroforestry is all about sustainable approaches to land use. “Planting flood- and drought-resistant species of tree makes savannas resilient to potential flooding, for example. Farmers can also harvest fruit from the trees, get firewood and feed their animals – especially during droughts.”

Once scientifically sound solutions have been proposed for environmental or climate problems, the next step is to make sure they are implemented. “We also learnt at AFAS how to prepare scientific findings so that politicians can easily understand them,” says Nouhou Zoungrana. “For example, I compiled a brief dossier that has already been published.” Following his master’s degree, one of the places Zoungrana worked was at Burkina Faso‘s Environment Ministry. Currently he is a research assistant at a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Burkina Faso.

“If you get to know other regions and take part in international conferences in different countries, you develop a more holistic ­understanding of problems.”

Claire Anulisa, AFAS master’s graduate

Claire Anulisa also works for an NGO. A merger ­between the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry, CIFOR-ICRAF en­gages on a high scientific level with forestry and agroforestry. Anulisa reports that she was recently promoted thanks to her AFAS degree. She has fond memories of her course. “It hugely broadened my horizons. If your own experiences are confined to the national level, it is easy to develop a one-sided view. But if you get to know other regions and take part in international conferences in different countries, you develop a more holistic understanding of problems – and that is vital when it comes to envir­onmental and climate issues.” —

For the second time, the “DAAD Climate Lecture Series” run by the Global Centres for Climate and Environment will be taking place online until November 2025. On 9 September, for example, Lucy Waruingi, Executive ­Director of the African Conservation Centre, will be speaking on local reforestation of pasture land, while Professor Germán Poveda from the National University of Colombia will be talking on 4 November about the ways in which climate change and deforestation are affecting water resources in the Amazon region. All information about the lectures, including recordings of previous talks, can be found here: www.daad.de/globale-zentren