The Collaborative Research Centre Future Rural Africa (CRC-TRR 228) has received the funding approval for an additional four years (2026 – 2029), by the German Research Foundation (DFG). These funds will ensure continuity of Future Rural Africa’s overarching research objectives of studying the impact of land-use changes, social-ecological transformations and future-making endeavours in rural Africa. The working group of Biodiversity Research and Systematic Botany with principal investigator Prof. Anja Linstädter is involved in this undertaking via subproject Future Carbon Storage which continues to work on savanna carbon storage and its relations to ecosystem processes. Specifically, the new research phase will focus on rangeland management practices , impacts of livestock herding on ecosystem functions, and ecosystem service delivery in a multi-functional, integrated conservation landscape.