Governments across Eastern and Southern Africa are under pressure to expand conservation while meeting the global goal of protecting at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas by 2030.The target is part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted by 196 countries at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, in 2022. Its 23 targets include a requirement for countries to establish well-connected and effectively managed protected areas.But meeting the target requires more than designating land and water for conservation. Governments need accurate data showing where ecosystems and threatened species are located, how they are changing and whether protected areas are connected and effectively managed.That data is often scattered across government agencies, research institutions and conservation organisations, making it difficult to build a consistent picture of biodiversity across borders.The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) is addressing the challenge through its Regional Centre of Excellence (RCoE) for Biodiversity, Forests and Seascape Ecosystems Management.The initiative covers 24 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa and provides biodiversity maps, geospatial data, policy support and technical training to help governments plan and manage protected and conserved areas.A central component is the RCoE Geospatial Platform, a cloud-based system that brings together satellite imagery, biodiversity information, forest data, protected-area maps and other environmental datasets.The platform is designed to give governments a shared view of their ecosystems and help them identify conservation priorities, monitor environmental changes and generate evidence for biodiversity reporting.AWS provides the cloud infrastructure supporting the initiative, allowing large volumes of geospatial and Earth observation data to be stored, processed and accessed digitally.The system also supports the global 30-by-30 agenda, particularly Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal framework, which focuses on effectively conserving and managing at least 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas by 2030.The RCoE programme runs from 2024 to 2028 and covers countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola and South Africa.The initiative received international recognition in 2026 when RCMRD won Esri’s Special Achievement in GIS Award. Esri cited the centre’s use of GIS and Earth observation technology to strengthen biodiversity conservation and support evidence-based environmental decisions across the region.We spoke to Ngugi Kimani, Geospatial Data and Technologies Manager at RCMRD, about the RCoE Geospatial Platform, what the Esri award means for Africa’s geospatial community, and how cloud-based technologies and Earth observation are changing the way governments across the region collect, analyse and use environmental data.1: What challenge is the RCoE Geospatial Platform solving and why does it matter?Across Eastern and Southern Africa, countries are making critical decisions about where to protect forests, restore degraded landscapes, manage wildlife and respond to climate change, yet much of the information they need is scattered across institutions, stored in incompatible formats, or simply unavailable to decision makers.Without integrated systems, countries cannot credibly track whether they’re protecting the ecosystems, their populations, economies and climate resilience depend on, let alone report that progress to the world. A region racing against a 2030 deadline cannot afford to make that case on guesswork.That’s the gap Regional Centre of Excellence (RCoE) for Biodiversity, Forests and Seascape Ecosystems Management was built to close. It is a component of the Africa Regional Centres of Excellence (ArcX) programme funded by the European Union and co-implemented by the RCMRD and Landscape Alliance. The platform brings together trusted biodiversity, protected area, satellite and environmental data into a single cloud-based system so governments, conservation organizations and researchers can access the same up-to-date information and make faster, evidence-based decisions.Since launching in October 2024, the RCoE Geospatial Platform has grown into a regional conservation resource. RCMRD has trained more than 5,000 people in geospatial technologies by combining satellite imagery, mapping and geographic data to support conservation planning while building an online community of over 1,100 members and engaging more than 3,200 participants through arts and mapping competitions designed to raise biodiversity awareness.The platform has also strengthened regional cooperation. RCMRD has signed 17 data-sharing agreements and expanded collaboration through four strategic partnerships to improve access to environmental information. New analytical tools, including Geo Hex, are being developed to help governments identify priority areas for conservation, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity protection more accurately across national borders.
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