African Highlands Initiative (AHI)

AHI is one of the ICRAF programmes in Eastern Africa region with the aim of “Developing methodologies for integrated natural resources management (INRM) and their institutionalization in partner NARS in the humid highlands of East and central Africa (ECA). AHI works with teams from NARS, extension and NGOs and hence maintains a network of partner organizations on Research for Development in natural resource management (NRM). Using both action and empirical research, AHI has developed several methods, tools and approaches on integrated natural resource management and at pilot level has demonstrated an ‘INRM that works’. The strategy is to demonstrate the same at a higher scale and beyond the pilot sites through cross-scale interventions and adaptive management.  The programme will experiment with social learning to yield models that will make  ‘INRM that works’, work better and at a larger scale for sustainable and more productive land management, and for addressing rural poverty in the highlands of eastern Africa and other agro-ecosystems.

AHI contributes to the Eastern Africa strategy on ‘Making agroforestry innovation happen (action for trees)’ whose guiding research question is how smallholder farmers can make money from agroforestry knowledge and/or use agroforestry to maintain environmental services.

Go to the AHI website African Highland Initiative