Empower 80+ communities restore their ecosystems

We're happy to be sharing some December updates from our mighty movement, before we take a short year-end break to rest and recharge. We hope that you, too, will find time to slow down and reflect over the coming weeks.

We’re thrilled to share the Ecosystem Restoration Communities 2020–2025 Impact Report! Over the past five years, ERC has mobilised volunteers, communities, and partners to restore degraded landscapes and revive biodiversity worldwide. This report highlights key milestones - from restored hectares and millions of trees planted to communities gaining sustainable skills and renewed hope. We invite you to explore the full report and see how your support drives real change. Read the report here

We also want to share our latest video with you because it captures the heart and spirit of the global movement you’re helping to make possible. Featuring voices from some of our extraordinary restoration community leaders around the world, its message is simple and true: Together we're making a positive, powerful impact on Earth - and it’s all thanks to supporters like you who believe in our mission and care deeply about this planet we call home. Watch the video on our YouTube channel right here.

Here are just a few updates from the field...

Hope is Taking Root in Morocco’s Malin l’Ghaba

In the hills of Benslimane, Morocco, a new story of renewal is unfolding. Malin l’Ghaba — “the stewards of the forest” in Darija — is the newest restoration initiative to join the ERC movement.

Once degraded by deforestation, overgrazing, and industrial farming, the land is now being revived through terracing, soil-building, and the planting of more than a thousand fruit trees. But Malin l’Ghaba is more than its techniques: it’s a cultural and creative space where farmers, youth, and volunteers work together, blending permaculture, earth-building, and even land-inspired art. This year, local schoolchildren planted their first Miyawaki forest — a small but powerful act of hope.

This is regeneration in action, and we’re thrilled to welcome Malin l’Ghaba into the ERC movement.

Bringing the Bow Bioregion Back to Life

The Bow Bioregion Regeneration Initiative in Alberta, Canada, joined the ERC movement earlier this year. Unlike most ERCs, it serves as an umbrella organisation uniting partners and environmental groups across Southern Alberta to restore ecological integrity through reforestation, riparian rehabilitation, and regenerative land management.

After decades of unsustainable practices that led to erosion, sedimentation, and biodiversity loss - affecting species like grizzly bears and native trout - the network is now accelerating restoration. With support from funding partner ChangeX, Bow Bioregion distributed funding to groups such as Friends of Fish Creek, the Elbow River Watershed Partnership, Calgary Climate Hub, and Freshwater Conservation Canada. So far, more than 225 people have taken part in 25+ events, planting or rescuing 3,865 native trees and plants across 500,000 m² of habitat, with volunteers continuing essential follow-up care.

To strengthen these efforts, Melissa from ERC Foundation’s M&E team recently spent a week in the Bow Bioregion helping set up long-term, community-led data collection using our Citizen Science approach. Over seven days and 12 sites, local land stewards learned how to gather baseline data on biodiversity and soil health - skills they can now apply each year to monitor change and guide adaptive management. These techniques will be shared with residents across the region, expanding a network of people equipped to care for their ecosystems.

We’re inspired by this ERC’s powerful blend of community energy, science, and Indigenous knowledge - and by how it’s already shaping the future of the Bow Bioregion.

From Slash & Burn to Thriving Communities: Celebrating Contour Lines' Regeneration Journey in Guatemala

This year ERC Contour Lines Corp is celebrating 7 years of impact in Guatemala. Since 2018 Contour Lines has planted 3.3 million trees, organised and empowered 435 communities through their proven Community Engagement Model, and restored 4.490 hectares of land from slash and burn to regenerative agroforestry. All this has been achieved under their mission to spread the method of planting contour line food systems as efficiently and as large-scale as possible - to restore land and improve the livelihoods of those who live there. And recently they introduced of Contour Lines Products made from ingredients grown in thriving agroforestry systems in villages across Guatemala. Now THIS is what a thriving community with a sustainable, regenerative economy looks like.

Two new blog posts for your holiday reading

Justice for Nature: REGEN’s agroforestry mission in Southern Italy

In the heart of Apulia, southern Italy, a once-tired almond orchard is coming back to life. Thanks to the passionate work of Guiseppe Sannicandro and the team at ERC REGEN, over 2.5 hectares are being transformed into a thriving agroforest, now home to more than 150 species of trees and plants. Despite the challenges posed by the region's dry climate and historical monoculture practices, REGEN is a shining example of how care, dedication, and community can bring nature back from the brink. Read more

How a family farm and ancient wisdom is reviving part of Brazil's Northeast Region

Instituto Anjos do Sertão is a family-run restoration community in Brazil’s Caatinga biome that is transforming “forgotten” land with traditional wisdom and hands-on restoration. From beekeeping to planting native trees, they’re reviving ecosystems and strengthening community resilience. It’s a story of hope, small changes, and the power of working with nature, not against it. Read more

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your support this year. We’re looking forward to the holidays, and even more excited to jump into 2026 and continue this work - with your help.

Until next year, 

Cath and the whole Ecosystem Restoration Communities team

www.erc.earth