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In early 2020, the United Nations declared this decade the "United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration", urging countries to restore almost a billion hectares of land. However, current progress indicates that only 5% of this target will be achieved, underlining the need to accelerate restoration efforts.
With 1.6 billion people dependent on forests for their livelihoods, and 14.3% of land belonging to indigenous and local communities, the involvement of these populations is crucial to successful restoration.
On May 24, 2024, MORFO hosted a webinar focusing on the importance and impact of restoration projects on local communities. This discussion between notable stakeholders and scientists in the field addressed the complex challenge of ensuring that restoration projects benefit local communities, despite various cultural, economic and social barriers.
Speakers at this webinar included:
- Katherine Sinacore, researcher at theSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute
- Bruno Gomes, co-founder of HUMANA
- Emira Cherif, Scientific Director at MORFO
- Cibele Santana, Treasurer of the Rede de Sementes do Cerrado
By sharing experiences and best practices, participants aimed to find more effective strategies to support and integrate local communities in restoration efforts by addressing four main challenges:
- Engaging local communities on an equitable basis
- Making science work for communities
- Matching the skills of local communities with high-integrity projects
- Integrating local communities into projects
Why is it so important to include local people in forest restoration?
Including local populations in forest restoration projects is crucial for several reasons:
Job creation
Active participation creates employment opportunities, contributing to local economic development.
Knowledge building
Collaborative efforts enhance the skills and knowledge of local populations, encouraging them to play an active role in environmental management.
"Inclusive restoration means involving local people in all processes and stages. This approach not only creates jobs but also strengthens knowledge and skills within the community." - Cibele Santana, treasurer of Rede de Sementes do Cerrado
Practical benefits
Training and involvement of local communities leads to effective and sustainable restoration efforts, as demonstrated by successful seed collection and land restoration initiatives.
Participants highlighted the practical results of a fully inclusive approach, noting that this level of commitment significantly increases the chances of long-term success.
Durability
Ethical and pragmatic considerations ensure that restoration projects respond to the social and economic realities of local communities, fostering long-term support and reducing conflict.
By addressing both the social and economic needs of local populations, inclusive restoration projects can also mitigate potential conflicts and create a more harmonious environment conducive to restoration activities.
"Community support is a crucial factor in the success of restoration projects. We can't talk about sustainability without taking ethical and pragmatic factors into account." - Bruno Gomez, co-founder of HUMANA
However, engaging local communities in forest restoration projects involves complex challenges related to equity, scientific integration, skills alignment and full integration.
First challenge: Engaging local communities on an equitable basis
Involving local communities in restoration projects means understanding and respecting land rights, and ensuring free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).
Before restoring a forest, it's important that organizations map local institutions and understand community representation to navigate the fragile political landscape. Indeed, as Bruno Gomez points out, there are no national regulations to ensure this automatically, so project developers must do their own work to map institutions and balance political dynamics, if they wish to ensure good communication with communities and run successful projects.
A major challenge between organizations wishing to restore land and the local communities involved in the projects is to align actions and objectives among all stakeholders. It is important to note that equity in these projects must be built from the ground up, with prices set by local institutions and companies, ensuring that restoration projects are co-created with communities:
"There is no 'ready-made recipe'; each organization will have its own dialogue." - Cibele Santana, treasurer of Rede de Sementes do Cerrado
This is one of the reasons why understanding language barriers and cultural and knowledge differences is essential for true inclusion and effective communication.
Financial expectations also vary. Although many try to give an exact figure, "there is no standard answer on how much to allocate to local communities," says Emira Cherif. The aim is to bring and give a sustainable income with a high and fair price, this will always depend on the context of the land and the community.
"Projects shouldn't be a prescription, but a recipe that we can adapt to each individual case. At MORFO, we allocate a third of project finances to local communities through activities such as seed collection, land preparation and monitoring." - Emira Cherif, Scientific Director at MORFO
Second challenge: Making science work for communities
Integrating scientific recommendations into restoration projects is vital but difficult.
"Bringing science into local community discussions is becoming increasingly difficult. We need to show communities and politicians how science can improve their own political processes and agendas." - Bruno Gomez, co-founder of HUMANA
There are three critical elements to the success of the project, according to Emira Cherif: nature, science, and economics and politics. Private organizations like MORFO play a crucial role in linking these components and ensuring the participation of local scientists, which is essential to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and community needs.
Start small and evolve with the right partners and groups to ensure that scientific advice is much more practical and applicable if we want to restore on a large scale, suggests Katherine Sinacore.
Third challenge: Matching the skills of local communities with high-integrity projects
The skills of local communities must match the technical requirements of high-integrity restoration projects.
"All seed networks have the same bottleneck: we have more demand than they can accept. Added to this, a lack of technical training and technical inclusion slows and complicates the process." - Cibele Santana, Rede de Sementes do Cerrado
While local communities possess unique skills and perspectives that can enhance decision-making processes, it is essential to ensure that these communities receive the necessary technical training and inclusion to overcome this challenge and move restoration efforts forward. Projects must also balance local perceptions, learning time, tolerance and empathy to foster successful integration.
Fourth challenge: Integrating local communities into projects
To ensure community involvement in the broader project objectives, long-term financial mechanisms are absolutely essential. Moreover, making restoration projects attractive to local communities requires aligning projects with their economic, social and cultural needs, even beyond simple financial incentives. Addressing basic needs and fostering a sense of relevance, alignment and engagement with nature is crucial.
But integrating local communities requires more than mere involvement," notes Bruno Gomez, "it requires sophisticated governance structures to take account of the multiple needs of local communities.
communities and their distinct needs. This involves creating a common territorial agenda and preparing communities at institutional, public and civil levels.
In a community-involved restoration project in the Brazilian state of Bahia, MORFO was fortunate to work with passionate local seed collectors. Their leader, Crispim Barbosa de Jesus, is a dedicated seed collector helping to restore biodiversity. He has found financial stability thanks to MORFO's project in collaboration with Natureza Bela. His in-depth knowledge of local flora has been invaluable in the selection and collection of seeds. Watch Crispim's moving story in his 10-minute interview:
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