Regreening the globe depends on grassroots movements. This is how we can help them grow
Publication year
Resource type
UNCCD Library
Material Type
news article
Regreening relies on grassroots movements to change mindsets and land management practices, and demand supportive policies.
To support such movements, donors need to work across multiple scales and sectors in ways that empower communities to define land management aims.
Monitoring and evaluating grassroots regreening movements involves understanding social networks and information flows.
Science tells us that time is running out. In order to avert a climate catastrophe, it is estimated that we have only one decade left to make any real and lasting change. Restoring hundreds of millions of hectares of land is a critical component of this change and is already underway through the Bonn Challenge.
The restoration of degraded landscapes relies on changes at, literally, the grassroots. The values and actions of women, men and youth who live and manage their land will determine the form and rate of its restoration. These communities are also the ones with the most to gain from land restoration – and the most to lose without it.
Grassroots regreening with Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration
The huge restoration of landscapes occurring in places like Niger, Mali and Ethiopia has been achieved through Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) – a low-cost and simple practice of regrowing trees and shrubs from existing stumps, roots and seeds, or woody thickets through selection, pruning and management.
FMNR is not just a tree management practice, however, it is also a social movement regreening mindsets and empowering communities to value and work with nature to meet their needs in a mutually beneficial way.
Grassroots FMNR has spread through the process of each community adapting the practice to meet its own needs and then inspiring and supporting others to do so. When more and more people are seen taking up FMNR and other regreening practices of their own accord, these grassroots movements become self-sustaining. The power and impact of a self-sustaining grassroots movement can be further enhanced by creating an enabling environment of supportive policies, markets and institutions.
Read further from the source
To support such movements, donors need to work across multiple scales and sectors in ways that empower communities to define land management aims.
Monitoring and evaluating grassroots regreening movements involves understanding social networks and information flows.
Science tells us that time is running out. In order to avert a climate catastrophe, it is estimated that we have only one decade left to make any real and lasting change. Restoring hundreds of millions of hectares of land is a critical component of this change and is already underway through the Bonn Challenge.
The restoration of degraded landscapes relies on changes at, literally, the grassroots. The values and actions of women, men and youth who live and manage their land will determine the form and rate of its restoration. These communities are also the ones with the most to gain from land restoration – and the most to lose without it.
Grassroots regreening with Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration
The huge restoration of landscapes occurring in places like Niger, Mali and Ethiopia has been achieved through Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) – a low-cost and simple practice of regrowing trees and shrubs from existing stumps, roots and seeds, or woody thickets through selection, pruning and management.
FMNR is not just a tree management practice, however, it is also a social movement regreening mindsets and empowering communities to value and work with nature to meet their needs in a mutually beneficial way.
Grassroots FMNR has spread through the process of each community adapting the practice to meet its own needs and then inspiring and supporting others to do so. When more and more people are seen taking up FMNR and other regreening practices of their own accord, these grassroots movements become self-sustaining. The power and impact of a self-sustaining grassroots movement can be further enhanced by creating an enabling environment of supportive policies, markets and institutions.
Read further from the source
Keywords
land management practices
green economy
ecosystems restoration
land restoration
farming practices