Natural resources are essential for maintaining or improving people's livelihood, especially in Africa. Integrated management of natural resources (INRM) is a way to maintain ecosystems capacity to produce a broad range of goods and services considering African socio-economic conditions and institutional frames. Despite the availability of many tools, expertise, local practices and indigenous knowledge, the concept of INRM has hardly been brought into practice and the building blocks in many cases still need to be integrated. Effective INRM in many cases is not achieved due to a lack of exchange of information and a lack of coordination between many actors involved at different scales. Furthermore, external pressures are affecting the availability of natural resources. Many of the poorest people in the world typically are highly vulnerable to external shocks (e.g. drought, floods, famine, disease outbreaks). AfroMaison is making use of what is available to contribute to a better integration of the main components of natural resource management into a coherent integrated and adaptive management process at meso-scale. We define the meso-scale as that level (sub-national) to which power has shifted after decentralization in many countries in Africa. Due to the relative youth of mesoscale authorities and institutions, their capacity for integrated natural resources management (INRM) needs to be strengthened. From a natural resources point of view, the meso-scale corresponds to a landscape, ecosystems or a river (sub)basin. The challenge of AFROMAISON is to provide a holistic toolbox and operational framework for INRM that can be applied in a variety of environmental and socioeconomic conditions in Africa. At the same time, following a participatory analysis of opportunities and challenges, it provides participatory management options for operational INRM, which are both embedded in local traditions and culture, and are scientifically sound.