Institute for Community Partnerships and Sustainable Development

The primary goal of ICPSD is to support community-led ecosystem restoration using native plants. We work with local communities through a unique, holistic approach that blends science-based and local knowledge to bolster their efforts to improve environmental and economic resilience, with a focus on youth and women.

The Challenge

The most vulnerable communities on the planet are those most impacted by warming and changing global weather patterns. In Togo, where the majority of families still rely on smallholder farming to feed themselves and sustain their livelihoods, this is not an abstract concern — it is a daily reality. Rising temperatures, increasing drought, and unpredictable rainfall are threatening crops, degrading soils, and making it harder for families to grow enough food.

Deforestation accelerates all of these pressures, and in Togo, it already faces one of the highest deforestation rates relative to its remaining forest area. What little forest cover remains is disappearing quickly, and with it, the shade, moisture retention, and soil stability that make farming possible. For communities that depend on the land to eat and to earn, this loss is not a distant environmental statistic — it is felt in every dry season that grows longer, every harvest that falls short, every family weighing a concerning climate future.

These pressures worsen existing inequities, increasing vulnerability, exacerbating health impacts, and narrowing people's ability to adapt. And the consequences reach far beyond Togo's borders. No matter where you are in the world, you are connected to people and places far beyond your own backyard — especially those most vulnerable. The loss of global carbon sinks impacts us all.

The Opportunity

Forests are crucial carbon sinks, and recent research has found that plant growth rates in West Africa actually exceed those of equivalent sites in the Amazon. Togo has an extraordinary role to play in global climate health — but it needs our support.

Lasting reforestation requires lasting knowledge, and lasting knowledge grows when people learn together. That's the heart of ICPSD's Experiential Learning program. Since our founding, more than 60 students from the Moscow, ID area have traveled to Togo to work and learn firsthand alongside local community members — practicing agroforestry, raising native seedlings, and building the kind of cross-cultural relationships that deepen with cultural immersion and increase understanding on both sides of the world.

These aren't field trips. They are transformative exchanges. Idaho students arrive with curiosity and leave with a global perspective on conservation, food systems, and community resilience. Togolese community members, farmers, and youth gain new connections, new scientific perspectives, and renewed energy for the restoration work they are already leading. Together, they grow something that neither could alone.

The Goal

Raise $10,000 to reignite our Experiential Learning program — bringing students from the U.S. back to Togo to learn, work, and grow alongside the communities and landscapes at the center of our mission.

Your support will directly cover the costs and programming for student travel to Togo, hands-on conservation and agroforestry work in partnership with local families and cooperatives, and the cross-cultural knowledge exchange that makes our approach truly unique. It will help the next generation of environmental stewards — from Idaho to West Africa — understand that restoration is not just a local act, but a shared, global responsibility.

We believe lasting change happens not from the top down, but when knowledge is shared freely, and communities are empowered to lead. Our Experiential Learning program is one of the most powerful ways we bring that belief to life — connecting two very different places through a common commitment to the land, and to each other.

Who We Are

ICPSD was born from Dr. Romuald Afatchao's desire to give back to his country of origin while connecting it with his home in Idaho. Born and raised in Togo and a member of the Moscow, Idaho, community for 25+ years, Ro brings a background in environmental science, forestry, and international development to his vision of community-led restoration built on knowledge-sharing and cross-cultural connection.

Ro co-founded ICPSD with Whit Schroeder, a fellow Idahoan who first traveled to West Africa as a University of Idaho student — and it was there, in Ghana, that Whit and Ro formed the friendship that would bring ICPSD into the world.

Together, with support from University of Idaho's College of Natural Resources, the ICPSD native plant nursery was established in Togo and a living bridge between these two unique places — one that continues to grow through every student who makes the journey.