Nature Cannot Do It Alone: Putting People at the Heart of Africa’s Climate Resilience

Congnitive transformation and mindset practical trainings can naturally scale nature-based solutions. After attending many conferences, a Nigerian professor’s words continue to stay with me: “The hand that causes the problem must also help solve it.”

I also carry an important lesson from my former boss and mentor, Cordie Aziz-Nash: people, their skills, and the impact of their training must be central to our work in the climate space.

These reflections raise a question we cannot ignore: how can we expect nature to repair the damage caused by human decisions without changing those decisions?

Nature-based solutions are not an invitation to step back and let nature do the work. They require us to protect, restore, and responsibly manage ecosystems while improving people’s wellbeing. Restoring forests, wetlands, and coastal ecosystems can strengthen climate resilience, support biodiversity, and sustain livelihoods but lasting results require community ownership, technical knowledge, and accountable institutions.

My call is simple: put people at the centre of nature-based solutions, green growth, and a just transition in Africa.

From conference participation to community transformation

We must move beyond counting workshops, attendance sheets, and certificates. Training matters only when it changes what people can do and what institutions deliver.

A training-of-trainers programme should produce more than another presentation. It should equip farmers to restore soil, teachers to guide practical environmental learning, young people to maintain community nurseries, and local authorities to protect wetlands and monitor results.

Ghana already offers an example of this approach. ActionAid Ghana reports that a coastal-resilience project has trained 250 residents in mangrove restoration and restored 15 hectares through community participation. This connects learning to practical restoration rather than treating awareness as the final outcome.

How do we transform Ghana and act now?

1. Make environmental learning practical from childhood

We should connect classroom learning with school gardens, native-tree nurseries, water conservation, waste separation, and supervised ecosystem observation.

Japan offers a useful education lesson not proof that every environmental challenge has been solved, but an example of sustained commitment. It has integrated Education for Sustainable Development into national curriculum standards across school levels. Ghana can adapt that principle to our own languages, ecosystems, and community needs.

2. Let communities shape the solutions

For Keta and other coastal communities, restoration must begin with listening to residents, fishers, women, traditional leaders, and young people. Suitable mangrove and wetland restoration can support fisheries and strengthen natural protection against coastal hazards. However, it must be based on local ecological assessment, not an assumption that planting trees anywhere will solve flooding or erosion.

I propose community-led restoration plans that clearly identify responsibilities, livelihood concerns, maintenance needs, and how benefits will be shared.

3. Turn green growth into dignified work

I propose paid opportunities for community nursery workers, restoration teams, ecological monitors, environmental educators, and local maintenance enterprises.

We must not ask low-income communities to provide unpaid labour while others receive project contracts and recognition. A just transition should support the workers and households whose livelihoods may be affected by changing environmental rules, with training, livelihood options, and meaningful participation.

Nature restoration can support livelihood opportunities; the challenge is to ensure that these opportunities are accessible and fairly distributed.

4. Measure survival and resilience—not publicity

I propose that projects report:

•           Ecosystem condition and restoration survival over time.

•           Paid jobs created and retained.

•           Women’s, youth, and disability-inclusive participation.

•           Changes in livelihood security and community preparedness.

•           Maintenance funding and community feedback.

UNEP’s approach to nature-based solutions emphasises community awareness, enforcement, and measurable benefits for people and the environment. Our project reporting should reflect those priorities.

5. Begin with a community action plan

My proposal is for district assemblies, EPA, relevant sector agencies, schools, civil society, and community leaders to develop locally owned action plans. Each plan should identify one priority ecosystem, one practical training programme, one livelihood opportunity, and a funded monitoring arrangement.

Nature-based solutions should complement not replace necessary emissions reductions, functioning infrastructure, effective regulation, and disaster preparedness.

Africa’s transition must leave no community behind

The responsibility for environmental harm is not shared equally. We must not place the burden of repair on people who contributed least to the problem.

Our task is to connect knowledge with action, restoration with livelihoods, and policy with accountability. We cannot continue discussing resilience while overlooking the people expected to deliver it.

Let us train for impact, fund community leadership, protect ecosystems, and create dignified green opportunities. Nature can help us build a resilient future but we must change how we live, produce, govern, and invest.

Pikuss Edem Mortey

Volunteer: Frontline for Climate Action