Join a global community of everyday, local people and farmers in more than 30 countries, who are picking up the tools needed to repair our broken ecosystems, and creating lasting, systemic change to provide humanity with hope and a more abundant future.
"It only takes a shovel to plant a seedling. But it takes a village to raise a forest." - John D. Liu - founder of Ecosystem Restoration Communities
Being part of the Ecosystem Restoration Communities Movement is a multi-year commitment. It's easy to join: Joining the ERC community takes 3 days of your time, over a period of one month. We will go through the opportunities and make sure you are featured on our platform. The training will take 5 days. This is an online course that you can follow on your own pace. After that we will help you to understand how to measure your impact while doing a baseline study together. This will take 7 days. The actual restoration of degraded land and planting of trees will require a long-term commitment to make sure the trees survive and thrive.
Appy to start an Ecosystem Restoration project through ChangeX and check if you meet the eligibiltity criteria
If you've met the inital criteria, you'll be prompted to set up a call to meet with the ERC team to tell us more about your initiative
Onboard in the ERC systems: The ERC website, the Knowledge Exchange Platform, and the different chat groups with the other ERCs
Work on your site with a member of the ERC team, using the Soil Framework tool to establish baseline data on the level of land degradation. The ERC team-member will also train you on how to use the Soil Framework of ERC
Record this data on the ERC data-platform, which you'll be given access to once you've been formally onboarded
Develop a Restoration Plan for the site with help from the ERC knowlege platform and team.
Understand the contour lines of the land
Understand the soil conditions and what is needed to make the soil suitable for tree planting
Establish a water supply (either water retention measures in the land, or existing water sources you can use)
Determine which species of trees you can plant, considering the biome and local conditions
Develop the plan for your tree-nursery (if applicable)
Undertake the measures needed to prepare the land for trees (soil health (compost/mulching), water retention measures)
Find people to help you dig holes and plant trees, and provide any training if needed. Also understand potential health- and safety risks involved in doing the work and make sure people understand these. We can provide examples of indemnity documents to you
Plant the trees in line with your plan
Share videos, photography, and stories of your tree-planting journey with the ERC communications team to inspire others to take on this work. The ERC Communications team will help you develop the stories
Just planting the tree is not sufficient. 80% of all trees planted in projects without a maintainance plan die before the end of the first year. We want to prevent that
If the soil and holes are properly prepared and water-retention measures are put in place the chance of survival is much higher
Check your trees regularly in the first year, and make sure they have enough water (water them, if necessary) and that they are disease-free
Use the resources available at ERC (including in the ERC network) to learn about how to make a tree-planting effort succesful
After year one, and again after year three, measure the impact of your work using the Soil Framework of ERC
Report on the data you have gathered to ERC and to ChangeX
A member of the ERC team can travel to your site and help you do this work
Write an article on how you did the work, and which lessons you learned. A member of the ERC team will help you write this article. The article will be published on the ChangeX website and on the ERC Knowledge platform
