Farmer-led restoration that improves livelihoods in Malawi.
SFS helps smallholder farmers, especially women, restore degraded land through the right trees, the right support, and systems that make restoration work for the people who depend on the land most.
sfs exists to change
Land degradation in Malawi is a livelihoods crisis
When soils are exhausted and trees disappear, families lose more than tree cover. They lose food, fuel, income, and resilience. Women often carry the heaviest burden, farming tired land, finding firewood, feeding households, and absorbing the daily shocks when the land no longer provides.
4 phase approach
A practical model for farmer-led restoration
From site assessment to monitoring, our structured process ensures transparency, accountability, and measurable results.
Organise
We work through women’s groups, cooperatives and local community structures because trust is the starting point for adoption.
Support
We help farmers put the right trees in the right way onto their land, with advice on agroforestry, farmer- managed natural regeneration, fire prevention, and tree-crop management
Monitor
We track survival, care, and participation through Smart-Tree and field systems, because restoration should be measured by what lasts, not just what is planted.
Connect Value
We build towards fairer payment systems and market pathways so restoration can generate real value for farmers over time
Digital Restoration with Measurable Results
Smart-Tree™ is SFS’s monitoring and traceability platform. It helps us track restoration activity, farmer participation, and survival over time so the work is more visible, accountable, and easier to connect to future payment systems. Technology is not the starting point. Farmers are. Smart-Tree exists to strengthen trust, lower monitoring costs, and help ensure that restoration can be verified and rewarded fairly.
Key Benefits
- Geo-tagging of every restoration site
- Real-time dashboards for partners and farmers
- Carbon sequestration estimates
- Farmer and project dashboards
- Compliance-ready data reports
What works for farmers and the land?
SFS is building a model where restoration improves livelihoods, strengthens resilience, and becomes worth sustaining. We work with farmers, communities, funders, and partners who want to make restoration practical, trusted, and scalable.