Our Priority Landscapes
Our work is rooted in landscapes where biodiversity value, ecological integrity, and community stewardship converge. Across these landscapes, SSI applies a community-led conservation approach, strengthening local governance, restoring habitats, supporting regenerous livelihoods, and advancing systemic advocacy—adapted to each ecological and cultural context. These priority landscapes are globally and regionally significant, supporting endemic and critically threatened species, keystone plants, migratory birds, and regionally endangered wildlife. They span the full range of Somalia’s ecological diversity, from dryland forests and pastoral rangelands to highland montane forests and coastal, marine, and wetland systems. Recognizing the interconnected nature of these ecosystems, SSI focuses on Transboundary Ecological Corridors, linking habitats across borders, facilitating species movement, and reinforcing the resilience of ecosystems and human communities. Together, these landscapes form the foundation of SSI’s conservation strategy. While our current focus is rooted in Somalia, this framework is designed to adapt to similar ecosystems across the Horn of Africa, wherever strong community stewardship aligns with urgent ecological need.
Explore the landscapes below to see how SSI partners with communities to protect ecosystems, restore habitats, and sustain livelihoods.
Montane Xeric Forest & Highland Refugia Landscapes
Montane xeric forests and highland refugia are among the most ecologically distinctive and irreplaceable landscapes in arid regions. Found at higher elevations, these ecosystems function as biodiversity refuges within otherwise harsh lowlands. Their isolation and climatic stability have given rise to high levels of endemism, including slow-growing, long-lived plant species.
Globally, montane dry forests are rare and under-protected, facing pressure from over-extraction, habitat fragmentation, and climate change. In Somalia, they also play a critical role in water regulation, soil stabilization, and microclimate buffering, while supporting species that cannot survive in lowland systems.
Montane forests are deeply intertwined with indigenous land tenure and stewardship systems, including the management of frankincense-producing Boswellia species. These governance systems regulate access, harvesting, and regeneration, making them essential for both ecological integrity and cultural continuity
Cal Madow Mountain Forests (Golis Range), Northern Somalia
A globally significant montane forest system and highland refuge, home to endemic flora adapted to limestone escarpments and seasonal moisture.
Hosts frankincense-producing Boswellia, Somali wild ass (Equus africanus somaliensis), Beira antelope (Dorcatragus megalotis), Somali pigeon (Columba oliviae), Warsangli linnet (Linaria johannis), and other endangered species.
SSI works with communities to reinforce customary governance, restore degraded areas, and conserve one of Somalia’s most irreplaceable natural and cultural assets.
Dryland Forest & Pastoral Rangeland Landscapes
Dryland forest and pastoral rangeland landscapes form one of the largest and most important socio-ecological systems on the planet, yet they remain among the least recognized in global conservation efforts. Spanning arid and semi-arid regions, these landscapes support a complex mosaic of woodlands, open forests, grasslands, and shrublands shaped by extreme climatic variability, seasonal rainfall, and long dry periods. Globally, tropical dry forests have lost more than 95% of their original extent, while dryland rangelands are increasingly degraded due to land fragmentation, weakened governance systems, and climate stress. In Somalia, these two systems are ecologically and culturally intertwined. Dryland forests provide shade, forage, seed sources, and soil stability, while rangelands sustain mobility, grazing cycles, and connectivity essential for both wildlife and pastoral livelihoods.
Dryland forest–rangeland landscapes are the backbone of Somali pastoral and agro-pastoral life, regulating water, stabilizing soils, storing carbon, and buffering communities against drought. They are also governed through customary institutions that regulate access, seasonal use, and resource sharing. Where governance systems remain intact, landscapes show remarkable resilience.
- Frankincense-bearing dryland forests of northern Somalia
Ecologically distinctive woodland systems dominated by Boswellia species, where traditional governance regulates access and harvesting. SSI supports sustainable management, regeneration, and the strengthening of indigenous stewardship systems. - Pastoral rangelands of the Nugaal Plateau and Valley
Extensive grazing landscapes shaped by mobility and seasonal use, where SSI works with communities to support rangeland restoration, customary governance, and climate resilience.
Coastal, Marine & Wetland Landscapes
Coastal, marine, and wetland landscapes are among the most productive and interconnected ecosystems, linking terrestrial systems with the ocean through rivers, estuaries, floodplains, and nearshore waters. Somalia, with the longest coastline in Africa, sits at a critical ecological crossroads between the Indian Ocean and the Horn of Africa.
These landscapes include coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests, beaches, estuaries, and riverine floodplains. They provide essential ecosystem services: fisheries productivity, coastal protection, carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. Wetlands and rivers buffer communities, filter sediments, and sustain biodiversity.
Somalia’s rivers, including the Jubba and Shabelle, and seasonal wetlands support freshwater biodiversity, migratory birds, and flood-recession agriculture. Coastal and wetland areas are biocultural systems, shaped by generations of small-scale fishers and riverine communities. Traditional knowledge governs fishing, seasonal access, and resource sharing, forming the basis for sustainable stewardship.
- Northern Somali Coastal and Nearshore Ecosystems
Coral reefs, seagrass beds, and emerging mangrove systems supporting artisanal fisheries and marine biodiversity, providing shoreline protection and nursery grounds for fish. - Jubba–Shabelle Riverine and Seasonal Wetlands
Dynamic river and floodplain landscapes sustaining freshwater biodiversity, migratory birds, and agro-pastoral livelihoods. Seasonal wetlands regulate hydrology and store sediment and nutrients, critical for climate resilience.
Connected Landscapes & Transboundary Corridors
SSI recognizes that landscapes do not exist in isolation. Transboundary ecological corridors link forests, rangelands, rivers, and coasts, supporting species movement, climate resilience, and interconnected livelihoods across borders.
Many of the landscapes SSI works to protect extend beyond national borders, forming continuous ecological corridors across the Horn of Africa. These transboundary systems are critical for wide-ranging and migratory species—such as the Somali Giraffe, Hirola, Cheetah, and pastoral ungulates—whose survival depends on intact, connected habitats that span Somalia, northern Kenya, and southern Ethiopia.
By recognizing ecological realities over political boundaries, SSI promotes community-led stewardship that crosses borders, strengthening local governance, habitat protection, and monitoring networks in multiple countries. These efforts help ensure that species, people and ecosystems can move, recover, and thrive, while enabling knowledge exchange and collaborative action among communities and partners facing similar environmental and social challenges
