The current energy and food crises have created additional pressure on African natural resources in order to meet capitalist interests, both local and foreign and the host government. Moreover, the guiding principles in managing the environment are now being influenced by new bureaucratic values with little attention on the role of African ecological knowledge in preserving nature. The destruction of traditional values has affected ethical decisions making of most policy makers in poor countries in favor of capitalistic values of individualism and satisfaction. Natural resources are seen as objects for exploitation and profit making, especially being used for individual private gain and satisfaction. African value system that used to help keep a balance between human activities and environment has not only changed but has been neglected in managing our environments. Yet, this knowledge has been generated from generation to generation and could be used to help in managing the current global crisis of climatic change. Similarly, capitalist values have altered people's attitudes towards natural resources, being seen as objects for exploitation. In seeking for solutions to global environmental problems, an African environmental value was explored in the context of environmental decision making. Traditional ecological knowledge is considered as an alternative for Sub Saharan Africa, sharing the view on natural environment as a cultural heritage in achieving a sustainable development. It is a motivating force and valuable way of life for managing our common future in the era of climatic change. This study appreciates African habits, practices, traditions, and values that protect, and foster the natural environment and further explains how people’s attitudes have changed towards sacred forests, exploiting and cutting down trees to meet individual ends. African held values are often expressed in terms of environmental values, the relative importance or worth of an object to an individual or group in a given context, in which the assigned value is based on. However, the relevance of African ecological knowledge in environmental conservatism has continued to receive little attention, both at local, national and international levels. The notion within the conventional wisdom is that environmental concern is related to post-materialist value, and that poor people, who struggle to sustain basic daily and material needs don’t care about the environment. However, this notion of only rich peoples and nations expressing their environmental concerns and/or whether economic well-being precedes environmentalism was highly questioned. Specific local context shows that poor rural Africans have deep held values for the environment. Social context and culture factors shape environmental values and determine the value formation process. For policy makers, much attention on expressing environmental values is focused economic expression of values. However, this has attracted criticisms in articulating the wide range of environmental values, in which the economic expression ignores held values and pays more attention to assigned values. This article explores the role of African values in preserving the environment as an alternative to individualistic capitalist values. Using local perspective on environment conservation, this paper reviews the sources of values influencing the loss of African natural resources in the current era of climatic change. It draws the relevance of African ecological knowledge in motivating environmental sustainability that could be utilized though it has received little attention in the development discourse of sustainable development