ResourceAfrica UK (RAUK) has been involved for 18 years in supporting rural livelihoods and improved local governance based on sustainable use of natural resources in Africa. This support has primarily been to CBNRM (community based natural resource management) initiatives in southern Africa and has focused on establishing networks to advocate for strengthened local governance through decentralised land and natural resource tenure, the development of community capacity and institution building for natural resources management, and facilitating local level inputs into the policy making processes at national, regional and international fora.

In more recent years we realized that the challenges facing CBNRM and local communities have intensified, with climate change now being the principal threat to such models of sustainable natural resource use and livelihoods for rural communities. But it has also emphasised that the core issues with which CBNRM has been concerned for the last 25 years, such as appropriate land and resource tenure arrangements, diversification of rural livelihoods and enhanced local governance, will be the same issues that must be addressed if efforts to introduce effective adaptation mechanisms for climate change are to be successful.

Currently we are focusing all our resources and capacities to develop and implement activites under our ClimateConscious programme. We are in the midst of carrying out our work in southern and eastern Africa with our local partner organisations.