What?

• Action on the ground
  This Living Lab is a 10-year community-based project, which aims to foster both ecological and community resilience. It will demonstrate the power of biodiversity regeneration and a nature-inspired economy to catalyse local jobs, livelihoods, and economic alternatives – all co-designed with local stakeholders.
• Restoring the landscape
  The Living Lab will plant and steward 4.5 million trees, as well as assisting and encouraging natural regeneration, with the aim of enhancing biodiversity and establishing landscapes that are adaptive to climate change and natural disturbances. This includes improving soil quality, purifying water sources and protecting watersheds, as well as helping to prevent erosion and floods. The trees will also improve local air quality, provide shade and sequester carbon.
• Empowering the community
  The Living Lab will facilitate a Multi-Stakeholder Platform – to engage local stakeholders including landowners, land managers, communities, civil society, governments, and the private sector to collectively design, govern and benefit from the project.
• Fostering social inclusion
  The Living Lab aims to improve livelihoods for women and youth through employment in tree nurseries, the timber value chain, and as community mobilizers. It also facilitates capacity building through an out-grower scheme and community meetings.
• Creating nature-based business models
  The Living Lab will create circular business models relying on biological resources (biomaterials and bioenergy) and nature-based systems. It aims to improve financial literacy and business development for smallholder farmers connected to agroforestry and woodlots, and provide resources for farmers to participate in and benefit from new commercial bio-based products and services.
• Developing economically sustainable and equitable forest systems
  The Living Lab integrates tradition and technology while introducing new technologies to create innovative bio-based value chains, respecting local traditions and rights. It aims to increase food security through innovative farming methods, and embed practices that cause less harm to the landscape.