Young African restoration leaders Ndumbe Knollis Mokake and Syliah Kagiiga have been named 2026 GLF Restoration Stewards, selected from over 1,250 applicants worldwide for their community-driven approaches to ecological recovery.
Young African restoration leaders are making a measurable difference where it matters most. The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), a knowledge-led platform focused on sustainable land use, recently named its 2026 Restoration Stewards cohort. Two of the five selected come from Africa, bringing community-driven solutions to mountain and wetland ecosystems facing serious, long-term damage.
The GLF and its Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL) run the Restoration Stewards program annually. It selects innovators aged 18 to 35 from a highly competitive global pool. This year, more than 1,250 people applied from around the world, and only five were chosen. That is a selection rate of less than 0.5%, making each steward’s recognition a significant achievement.
Each steward receives a 5,000 euro grant, mentorship from experienced professionals, access to policy forums, and global visibility. The program is designed to help young people scale work they are already doing, not start from scratch. For young African restoration leaders in particular, that distinction matters. Many are already embedded in their communities, years deep in relationships and local knowledge that no outside program could replicate.
Ndumbe Knollis Mokake, from Buea, Cameroon, is the 2026 Mountain Restoration Steward. He leads the Center for Agricultural Stewardship and Development (CASAD), a team working to reverse deforestation on Mount Cameroon.
Growing up near the mountain, Ndumbe watched smallholder farmers and displaced families struggle as land degradation worsened. Forest resources were overused. Timber extraction was unsustainable. Communities had few alternatives to survive, and exploitative middlemen made it harder to earn a fair income from the land.
CASAD addresses this directly. The team trains local residents, young volunteers, and internally displaced people in organic farming, food processing, and tree nursery management. These are practical, income-generating skills that reduce pressure on the forest without stripping communities of their livelihoods.
The situation on Mount Cameroon is layered. Beyond environmental damage, communities also face limited conservation awareness and ongoing civil unrest. Ndumbe’s approach works within that reality, building capacity from the ground up rather than imposing outside solutions. As one of the most visible young African restoration leaders working in conflict-affected landscapes, his model offers a replicable framework for others facing similar conditions.
What drives him is a belief that restoration is about more than trees. It is about the people who depend on the land and the generations who will inherit it. Can young leaders in other conflict-affected regions learn from this approach?
Syliah Kagiiga, from Uganda, is the 2026 Wetland Restoration Steward. She is a geoscientist and co-founder of SBE Aquafarm, a social venture focused on transforming abandoned clay mining sites into productive, life-sustaining ecosystems.
Clay mining is widespread in Western Uganda and leaves behind degraded wetland environments. Pits are dug, resources are extracted, and the land is left barren. Syliah saw this cycle and decided to reverse it, combining her technical background with deep community engagement.
Her approach merges aquaculture, the farming of fish and other aquatic species, with agroforestry, the practice of growing trees alongside crops or livestock. Together, these methods convert abandoned pits into working ecosystems that generate food, income, and ecological recovery simultaneously.
SBE Aquafarm establishes fishponds, restores native tree corridors, and builds market connections for local products. Hundreds of families benefit directly. Women and youth from affected households work alongside district fisheries officers and village leaders, creating a genuinely integrated community effort.
This is not just land rehabilitation. It is a policy-ready model that blends geoscience with social innovation. Syliah now aims to scale the approach across Uganda and influence national land rehabilitation policy. Among young African restoration leaders, her ability to connect grassroots practice with institutional change is particularly noteworthy.
Both Ndumbe and Syliah reflect a broader truth about young African restoration leaders: the most effective solutions emerge from within the communities that know the land best. They are not parachuting in with prefabricated answers. They are listening, adapting, and building alongside the people most affected.
The GLF’s Youth Program Coordinator, Eirini Sakellari, has noted that young people globally are already pushing the limits of what is possible in landscape restoration. The program’s role is to match that energy with real resources, mentorship, and meaningful platforms for influence.
What makes these two stories stand out is their insistence on human dignity alongside ecological recovery. Ndumbe frames his work as a means of restoring hope for future generations. Syliah frames every rehabilitated pit as proof that devastation is never permanent. Both perspectives are grounded, transferable, and urgently needed.
Great to be featured here! Thank you