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“If you want to go fast – go alone. If you want to go far – go together.” – origin unknown, often attributed to an African proverb

In tropical biodiverse landscapes, forest loss, fragmentation, and degradation are major drivers of biodiversity loss. Forest landscape restoration interventions, a popular strategy to address these issues, most often focus on tree planting and overlook other tree-rich systems such as home gardens (HG). This recent study in western Rwanda’s Afromontane rainforest landscape by Sun et al. (2026) aims to assess these two land use types and their respective roles in supporting landscape connectivity and biodiversity.

Rwanda, like many biodiversity-rich tropical countries, is facing land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change, all of which are exacerbated by anthropogenic disturbances and further driven by historical aspects which have placed enormous strain on the country’s landscapes and natural resources...

Agroforestry, woodlots, and terraces were at the heart of our latest data collection round for the RESTORE project. How did we study them? Find out through stories from our research team in Western Rwanda. 

In the Gishwati–Mukura Landscape of western Rwanda, ongoing agricultural expansion and deforestation are placing increasing pressure on an already fragile ecosystem. Once part of the vast Afromontane rainforest, this area has become highly fragmented due to decades of land-use change, population growth, and conflict...

We are pleased to announce the upcoming Global Conversation 2025, hosted by the Social-Ecological Systems Institute, taking place on June 5th at 2:00 PM CEST. This year’s discussion will focus on the theme: Regeneration – An Emerging Paradigm for Social-Ecological Systems. The event will feature a diverse panel of international experts who bring insights from research, policy, and […]

In February 2025, a meeting in Kigali was organized by our research group to share diverse insights on social-ecological restoration among a range of different organizations representing both research and practice. The meeting resulted in seven concrete recommendations for improved restoration practice in Rwanda. These recommendations have been shared with policymakers in the position paper attached to this blog post.

Following the Rwanda Restore project kick-off in Kigali in January 2024, and a restoration stakeholder conference held in Kigali from February 19 to 21, 2025, the “living lab for social-ecological restoration in western Rwanda” sub-project of the “A Social-Ecological Systems Approach to Inform Ecosystem Restoration in Rural Africa” DFG Research Unit, Kicked-off the Living Lab […]

Following the workshop and conference in Kigali from February 19 to 21, 2025, Dr. Dula Wakassa Duguma and Susanne Vögele visited three pre-selected living lab sites in one of the two designated cells in Rutsiro district. These sites were presented on February 24 by SP7 team member Dr. Apollinaire William, who leads the planning and […]

Our DFG research unit on social-ecological restoration, in collaboration with the University of Rwanda and its Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management (CoEB), held a mini-conference on February 21, 2025, in Kigali, Rwanda. The yearly event brought together stakeholders actively engaged in ecosystem restoration science and practice, providing a platform to share […]

A year ago a consortium of German universities, in collaboration with the University of Rwanda and its Center of Exellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management, started ecosystem restoration research in Western Rwanda. Over the past year the team has been actively engaged in stakeholder workshops, household interviews, tree population assessments and a range of […]

Prof. Dr. Joern Fischer (Leuphana University, RESTORE coordination – SP1, SP8), Prof Dr. Stefan Sieber (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/ZALF – SP7) and Dr. Katharina Löhr (ZALF/HUB – SP4) jointly chaired two sessions on social-ecological restoration in the Global South at the landscape2024 conference in Berlin (16.-20.09.2024). The first session kicked off with a keynote by Joern […]

Preliminary results of photovoice research for SP6 In this blogpost Laura Kmoch shares reflections and preliminary results from her first fieldwork for our research unit’s subproject six. Having spent the past months in the project’s study landscapes, she just returned to Kigali – ready to share her experiences with you.  The glittering paths of Rwanda […]

Interview with Marina Frietsch, Leuphana University Lueneburg In this interview, Marina Frietsch introduces us to the hopeful and dynamic world of ecosystem restoration. Marina is part of the subprojects for coordination and integration within the DFG research unit. She has explored the different temporal and spatial scales of restoration in her PhD and highlights the […]

Half-year Meeting on May 2nd On May 2nd, members of the research unit gathered at Leuphana University in Lüneburg to discuss the state of their work, including successes and setbacks. To this end, participants shared what they have accomplished in the initial project phase and coordinated further steps. At the centre of the meeting were […]

An Introduction to Subproject 7 Aside from the assessment of already restored sites that forms the main focus of this research unit, subproject 7 will be focussing on live restoration in co-creation with local stakeholders. From 2024 through 2027, a Living Lab will be implemented in Northwestern Rwanda within the four nW districts,(Rutsiro, Nyabihu, Ngororero […]

Impressions from the KickOff in Kigali Ecosystem restoration is now centre-stage in terms of providing potential options for restoring biodiversity as well as mitigating or adapting to climate change. It is also a global challenge given multiple demands on limited land, particularly in Rwanda, a country that is currently facing serious climatic pressures in a […]

Our KickOff on Dec 14 & 15, 2023 In December 2023, a kick-off workshop took place at Leuphana University Lueneburg, and this marked the official start of the work of our research unit funded by the German Research Foundation which will specifically approach ecosystem restoration from a social-ecological systems perspective. Rwanda was chosen as the […]