Author name: Adriana Vidal

TRI DRC

Rural Women Lead the Change and Address Answers to Economic and Social Questions of their Communities through the Restoration Activities of TRI in DRC

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The Restoration Initiative (TRI) in DRC is working to bring positive change, by helping stakeholders to design and put into place restoration interventions that meet the needs of local communities and landscapes.  

One way the TRI project in DRC is working is by supporting the development of a Provincial Forest and Landscape Restoration Strategy. This strategy lays out priority sites and approaches for restoration, including assisted natural regeneration, agroforestry, and protection of the watershed through anti soil-erosion plantings and other measures. 

Our project team interviewed a beneficiary of the TRI Project in Kashanja Village, located in Walungu Territory, a territory located within the South Kivu Province in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 

Mwamiriza Angeline, a female member of a local development initiative in Kashanja village and a member of club Dimitra in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) tells her story. 

Mwaimiriza Angeline spotted in one of the tree nursery plantations in a TRI project location in DRC. Photo – TRI / DRC  

We work for the development of our communities through the planting and installation of nurseries for the production of seedlings of forest and agro-forestry species. One of our objectives through this program is the empowerment of rural women. In the context of environmental protection and with the technical support of our partners (FAO) and APES), our capacities were built on the production of tree seedlings”, said Angeline. 

She continued, “Our goal is to reforest the bare hills over there (pointing to the hills in the TRI project site), fertilise our soils, combat erosion, and produce wood / timbre products for our own needs.… Read the rest

TRI Tanzania

Empowering Women through Animal Husbandry: Yields in Ilalasimba Village in Tanzania Improve by over 400% through Forest Landscape Restoration

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In Ilalasimba village, located in Tanzania’s Iringa Region, women primarily engage in agricultural activities. A recent visit by the project team to the village working with The Restoration Initiative highlighted the story of Amina Mtuya, a 54-year-old housewife and livestock farmer. Read her story below. 

A fodder plantation in Ilalasimba village in Tanzania. Photo: IUCN Tanzania

“For many years, I have been living on subsistence farming. Because of low yields, I highly depended on forest resources for collecting firewood for household use and selling. We have used a small number of cattle to graze freely in the forest reserve. We noticed the trend of a declining landscape but cared more about our own wellbeing and our livestock. As a farmer, I have been faced with many challenges – inadequate rains, poor farming practices, deteriorating soils and pests and diseases. All these resulted in very low yields. Our cattle did not increase in numbers as anticipated due to limited access to nutritious fodder and inadequate extension services. I could hardly get a litre of milk per cow per day. The combined income from crop and milk sales couldn’t help meet family needs.” Said Amina.

A community meeting about environmental protection and sustainable livelihood practices introduced Amina to TRI.  

Amina added, “I heard about the TRI at a community meeting organised to sensitise villagers on environmental protection and sustainable livelihood practices. The Community Development Officer called for community participation in this project to help address land degradation and improve our livelihood. I was glad to learn that the project will support environmentally friendly income-generating activities to reduce dependence on natural resources.… Read the rest

TRI Sao Tome and Principe

Building Capacity and Partnerships: Empowering Communities in Sao Tome and Principe

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One of the key barriers to expanded and scaled-up implementation of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) is a lack of financing and credit for businesses, including smallholder farmers, to invest in FLR.  

Many businesses that have seen their farms, wood lots, landholdings and supply chains impacted by land degradation would like to invest in restoration measures that offer a potentially good return. However, access to capital for restoration can be hard for several reasons. These include unfamiliarity with FLR within the banking sector, uncertainty on how to price risk and compensate investors for the multiple benefits, including public benefits, that come from FLR, and lack of even basic lines of credit for many smallholders.

The TRI project in São Tomé e Príncipe (STP) is working to address these barriers. In collaboration with the Association of Banks (ASB), an umbrella institution representing the five largest private banks that operate in the country, and the public Central Bank of STP, the project is helping advance an ambitious program of work encompassing changes to national policy, along with capacity building and development of tailored financial instruments for the financial sector. The goal is to help spur new flows of public and private finance into restoration and sustainable land management in STP. 

In April 2023, two training courses on Green Finance were held under FAO’s TRI project in STP. The activities were foreseen under Cooperation Agreements signed between the FAO STP and the Central Bank of the country, which is also its banking and insurance regulator, as well as the Association of STP Banks, which brings together the four banks operating in the country: BISTP, Afriland, Ecobank and BGFI. … Read the rest

TRI Kenya (Tana Delta)

Restoration and Green Value Chain Development Increase Communities’ Resilience to Drought in Kenya’s Tana River Delta Region.

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The economy and livelihoods of communities in the Tana Delta largely depend on natural resources derived from wetlands, rangelands, forests and farmland. Restoration and sustainable management of these resources are therefore critical, given their crucial role in sustaining life-support systems and powering the economy.

Since 2022, the TRI Tana Delta project has supported communities in making notable progress in integrated natural resource management and restoring degraded landscapes. A significant achievement is local communities’ enhanced resilience to climate change’s adverse effects, partly due to their access to restoration and green value chain development benefits.  

Overgrazing caused by overstocking is one of the drivers of degradation in the Tana Delta. The establishment of pasture seedbanks supports the local community in growing and managing their pasture to ensure sufficient supply during drought. Pasture seedbanks have multiple benefits: the restored grass sequesters carbon, besides supporting livestock production. It also helps bind soil, enhancing water infiltration and soil organic matter. Biodiversity, such as grassland birds, has increased on lands where pasture has been re-established. The pasture seedbanks contributed to reducing drought severity in 2022 in the Tana Delta Region of Kenya. 

Between July 2023 and May 2024, an additional 106.5 ha of pasture seed bank was established by 275 beneficiaries, bringing the cumulative figure of land under pasture seedbanks to 561.48 ha.

Tree Seed collection and pre-sowing treatment-Back to Eden Group. Photo – TRI Kenya Tana Delta

Management of the planted pastures is done by beneficiaries who treat them as a crop and make efforts to secure them from free-ranging livestock.… Read the rest

TRI Pakistan

From Seeds to Forest: The Collaborative Journey of Chitral’s Chilghoza Forests Landscape Restoration in Pakistan

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The TRI Project in Pakistan, a testament to the power of community collaboration, employed seed balls, crafted by local communities, to revive 200 hectares of degraded Chitral Chilgoza Forests. This initiative showcased an inspiring model for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and underscored the significant ecological and socio-economic impact that can be achieved when local communities are empowered and involved in such projects.

FAO Pakistan is implementing the project “Reversing Deforestation and Degradation in High Conservation-Value, Chilgoza Pine Forests in Pakistan” under The Restoration Initiative (TRI). TRI aims to improve local livelihoods through increased productivity and enhanced services and functions of Chilgoza forests in Pakistan, responding to the vision that FLR is more than just planting trees; it is restoring a whole landscape to meet present and future needs and offering multiple benefits and land uses over time. The project is operative in the District Chitral of Khyber Pukhtunkhaw, Sherani District of Balochistan, the South-Waziristan District of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Diamer District of Gilgit-Baltistan, and applies the FLR approach holistically.

The Chitral Chilghoza Forests landscape, a vital resource for the indigenous Kalash and Khow communities, has faced challenges. However, hope was restored through the use of a simple yet innovative solution – seed balls, which actively involved local communities. This led to the revival of over 200 hectares of previously degraded forest, significantly improving the livelihoods of these communities and fostering a sense of optimism for the future. These seed balls were then thrown into identified degraded sites with potential for FLR, which were jointly identified by project staff and local Chilgoza Forest Protection Committees during the annual ANR survey and monitoring in the target valleys in Chitral.… Read the rest

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