What if we Transform Refugee Camps into Regenerative Communities?

Generation Restoration: A Dialogue for Social and Environmental Justice

Land degradation is a major challenge the world has to deal with. It already undermines the livelihoods of 1.5 billion people worldwide. As a consequence of climate change, more and more people will be affected and will have to leave their homeland. Finding shelter in refugee camps will be their only option. However, their stay is often longer than anticipated and, thus, most of them will find themselves stuck in a permanent form of temporariness in often harsh environments.

But… What happens if we combine the efforts of ecosystem restoration with humanitarian aid and development, empowering refugees with the tools and the knowledge to build a better life? What if we transform refugee camps into regenerative communities?

The world is amidst the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.

Generation Restoration wants to use this momentum to make people, countries and soils more resilient.

The Challenge

Globally, there are about 105 million forcibly displaced people including refugees. At the same time, more than 75% of Earth’s Land Areas are substantially degraded. This undermines the well-being of almost half of the world’s population. The annual costs of land degradation are more than US$ 231 billion.

The Dialogues

What if we transform refugee camps into regenerative camps? Several dialogues and two international roundtable discussions shed a light on this question and the possibility of combining restoration efforts with refugee assistance.

The Strategy

What does it need to make regenerative solutions the “new normal” in situations of displacement? Generation Restoration aims to support the needs of the dialogue partners in scaling, funding, guidance and networking.

There is hope. There are good examples showing that they can turn global problems into local solutions. Many regenerative projects worldwide work on the regeneration of land and the healing of people and ecosystems. What if we could tap into the enormous potential to enhance the living conditions of people and the ecosystem services of the region they live in?

The Examples

How can refugees achieve food sovereignty? How can regenerative practices like permaculture change the livelihoods of millions of people? Successful grassroot organizations and refugee initiatives show, how a “new normal” can look like.

The Network

Achieving all 17 SDGs is about collaboration. This is why our Generation Restoration relies on allies! With the help of many people, groups and organisations, we build growing, strong regenerative networks.

Now: Participate!

In whatever place or position you are, you are part of the Generation Restoration. Everyone can take responsibility for better livelihoods and the healing of soils, souls and societies. Just understand where you have influence, access and voice.

Inspiration

Permaculture and Mushroom Production with Refugees

Regenerative Approaches: Rwamwanja Rural Foundation promotes permaculture train-the-trainer programmes in refugee settlements.

Youth Initiative for Community Empowerment

Regenerative Learning Center: YICE Uganda empowers people, conserves biodiversity, scales up sustainable solutions, and promotes collaboration.

Unidos Social Innovation Centre

Turning refugees into change makers – that is the goal of Unidos. In the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in South West Uganda the refugee-led organisation aims at empowering young refugees with entrepreneurial skills.

The Challenge

Repairing Planet, People and Peace

People flee from droughts, hunger and war. They generate enormous forces to find better living conditions. A refugee camp is always seen as a stopover – but the onward journey is risky, costly and hard. A high percentage of people will never leave the camp again.

Globally, there are about 79.5 million forcibly displaced people including refugees. At the same time, more than 75% of Earth’s Land Areas are substantially degraded. This undermines the well-being of almost half of the world’s population. The annual costs of land degradation are more than US$ 231 billion.

Refugees & Restoration for Future

Ecosystem restoration on land means improving the soil fertility, the water cycle, the local climate with regenerative practices like permaculture, agroecology, agroforestry, holistic management, organic farming and other techniques. You literally plant the seeds for a healthy future of people, because you strengthen the ecosystem services like food production, clean water and air, cooling and shade, natural building material and many more.

We are now in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).

We can use this momentum to bring the nature based and people centered solutions into the spotlight and let them multiply and pollinate others as well as scale the positive impact.

With restoration, we can tackle big crises like biodiversity loss, climate change, hunger and water scarcity in an effective way. The restoration of degraded ecosystems by 2030 can generate 9 trillion US-Dollars in ecosystem services and remove 13 to 26 gigatons of CO2e from the atmosphere. The benefits exceed the costs of the initial investment tenfold.

Let us strengthen the root system of a resilient society.

We are the Generation Restoration.

The Strategy

The needs detected in our stakeholder dialogues were scaling, funding, guidance and networking.

VISION:      Refugee camps and settlements become places of regeneration and resilience
WHY:          Need to heal people & planet. Need for peace, food and ecosystem services
HOW:         Speed & scale for regenerative solutions in refugee camps
WHAT:        Matching of finance & networks & projects

General Observations

Restoration with refugees has a great potential.
Good examples with knowledge & experience already exist.
Obstacles hinder them to be widespread yet.
Learning from each other can help overcome the constraints.
It needs grass root support, new standards and viable approaches for impact investment.

Strategy & Theory of Change

1. SCALE Positive Examples: Funding for grass root projects to multiply

Successful grass root projects with proof of concept now need fast AND long-term oriented funding to multiply their impacts, for example to create permaculture train-the-trainer-programs, build educational centers and train millions of refugees.

2. CHANGE Standards: Facilitating dialogues with standard setters (guidelines)

Big institutional stakeholders and NGOs are not yet focusing on long-term regenerative solutions on a large scale. In a facilitated participatory process, they co-develop common visions and strategies, including learnings and wisdom from existing projects.

3. DEVELOP Opportunities: Cultivate business models for impact investment

Impact Investors are just about to discover the potential of combining ecosystem restoration with humanitarian or development aid, resulting in multiple benefits. They need guidance on how to measure positive impact of projects and how to help them become “investable”.

“We want to strengthen the root system of a resilient society.

We are the Generation Restoration.”

Regenerative practices in refugee camps and settlements can contribute to the achievement of all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). See here how.

The Dialogues

Roundtables on Refugees & Restoration

Two roundtable discussions on the 5th of June 2021, have shed a light on the question and the possibility of combining restoration efforts with refugee assistance. Restoring and re-greening the earth has many benefits, socially and also economically. Tina Teucher, the initiator and facilitator of the event, pointed out in her introductory presentation, that the restoration of degraded ecosystems can generate an additional value of 9 trillion US Dollars and remove 13 to 26 gigatons of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Additionally, bold action and more durable refugee assistance is needed as the number of forcibly displaced people has already reached record-levels. Nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration activities above all have an enormous potential to enhance the living conditions of refugees, ecologically as well as mentally. The encouraging news is that good examples of knowledge and experience already exist!

Watch Roundtable Recordings on Refugees & Restoration on YouTube

Diverse stakeholders from experienced projects, refugee initiatives, development aid organizations, funders, and investors examined in the roundtable discussion, how we can effectively collaborate and inspire each other, nurture already existing solutions, share knowledge, and eventually look for possibilities to scale-up good practices from the bottom-up (and top down). This article is a summary of these roundtable discussions, and serves as a starting point to document and share knowledge and progress about the Refugees and Restoration initiative.

Restoring Earth, Restoring Dignity

Tina Teucher

Initiator and facilitator Tina Teucher started by highlighting the potential of Ecosystem Restoration in the context of refugee camps. She emphasized that all over the world there are already effective local solutions and know-how that empower refugees and local communities while restoring ecosystems. However, there are also obstacles, for instance insufficient funding or restraints from the authorities. To overcome these challenges and implement regenerative practices on a large scale, it is essential to enter dialogues and learn from each other. Tina’s vision is to utilize this initiative to foster collaboration between different local projects and other stakeholders in order to promote the transformation of refugee camps into regenerative camps.

Rosemary Morrow

The opening speaker of the first roundtable discussion was Rosemary Morrow, an internationally respected pioneer of the permaculture movement who has trained villagers and farmers from war-torn nations, during and after conflict, and who introduced permaculture in refugee camps. According to Rosemary, refugees are often forced into inferior situations. Hence practicing the art of permaculture can give back some of their ownership. She fiercely believes that restoration efforts have the potential to not only restore the environment, but also human dignity by providing new hope and meaning in the lives of displaced people. Activities which are also carried out by permaculture for refugees, an international working group of permaculture teachers, who aim to support refugees in transforming the places where they live into productive permaculture designed communities. By improving both soil fertility and the water cycle, the seeds for a healthier future can be planted.

Jennie Spears

This was also confirmed by Jennie Spears, who works with Lemon Tree Trust. Just like any other human being, refugees want to engage in meaningful work. In her experience they often do not need encouragement or motivation, but merely tools and education to get started. Therefore, Lemon Tree Trust works together with strong, local organizations on gardening projects and competitions. Their motto: ‘transforming refugee camps, one garden at a time’. The main driver behind these projects has not been ecosystem restoration, but rather the mental health benefits that come with being in touch with the earth. Gardening in this sense may be perceived as a powerful therapeutic tool. It is used to learn to cope with isolation, overcome traumatic experiences, to create beauty and a sense of belonging, and to ensure food security along the way. For a short film about their work in Domiz camp, Iraq, click here.

Nathalie Meier

According to some, such mental health benefits that come with caring for the environment deserve far more attention. This is also a reason why Movement on the Ground is working with a camp on campus philosophy. Nathalie Meier explained this approach as a concept for transforming refugee camps into safer and more dignified surroundings with and for refugees and their host communities. During her speech she pointed out that, of course, we should not forget that the first stop of the humanitarian and development aid train should be to meet the fundamental needs of the refugees. “These needs have to be met before people are able to think or care about other things, such as waste reduction”.

Pieter van der Gaag

But getting engaged with gardening activities might help people with a sense of satisfaction and direction. In fact, Pieter van der Gaag commented that “the positive impact of caring for the earth on mental health has been well-recorded”. As Executive Director of the Ecosystem Restorations Camps Foundation, who co-hosted the events, he shared the insight that participants of Ecosystem Restoration Camps have experienced some sense of relief of burnout or trauma because of their participation in restoration activities. Caring for and reconnecting to the earth therefore has the potential to facilitate a reconnection to oneself.

Global Structure, Local Practices

Photene Kalpakiotis

As project coordinator of The Greek Refugee Forum, connecting actors who wish to aid in the Greek humanitarian crisis, Photene Kalpakiotis has been thinking about how to best connect the two burning topics of refugees and environment with each other. Her answer: education and self-organization. “Most likely”, she said, “the environment and climate change are the last thing on the mind of refugees”. Therefore, it is important to empower refugees to take initiative themselves through self-advocacy. This way, a sense of purpose and ownership can be stimulated. In addition to self-organization, Photene stated that proper education is important to focus on as well. “Through education, knowledge can become transferable by staying with the individual wherever they go.”

Working Together with Locals

Also, the importance of working together with highly motivated, caring individuals and building trust relationships for project efficiency and sustainability was stressed. A lot of ideas and solutions are already out there. Nurturing and working together with local individuals and organizations enhances the creation of real connections and relationships with refugees as well as their host communities. Furthermore, such trust building efforts are necessary to make a sustainable impact by taking down the invisible wall of the confined spaces that most refugees live in.

Hence, it is important to empower and scale-up local organizations and initiatives. After all, they are often the ones who know the language, the area, the people, the specific needs, and how to best meet the local needs. Luckily, inspiring examples of local organizations and entrepreneurial individuals can be found around the world. Some of them were present at the roundtable discussions to enlighten participants and panelists with their experiences.

Noah Ssempijja

Noah Ssempijja, for example, is Founder and Director of the Youth Initiative for Community Empowerment (YICE) in Uganda. Uganda is home to 1.4 million refugees, the majority coming from neighbouring countries such as the Congo and South Sudan. Uganda is therefore often called a ‘refugee paradise’ because the country adopts a unique policy which provides refugees with a small piece of land for farming and housing purposes. YICE promotes food security by working with small-holder farmers on these pieces of land through several interventions. The organization is further providing training in regenerative farming techniques, and teaching how to make organic fertilizers, and water harvesting. They also aim to increase resiliency by enabling savings in small groups. After that, refugees are better prepared and equipped to deal with unexpected shocks.

Elham AlAbbadi

Also, Jordanian environmental pioneer Elham AlAbbadi from Bayoudha Village was present during the event. Just like Uganda, Jordan is a country with a very high percentage of refugees. At the same time, the region is struggling with difficult environmental circumstances such as water shortage. Faced with these issues, Elham enthusiastically shared that at some point in time, she gathered with others under an oak tree and agreed to work together to restore mother earth. Now farmers are her teachers, and she has been working on rooftop gardens and managed to grow more than 10,000 fruit trees and medicinal herbs in refugee camps. “Maybe we should not call refugee camps refugee camps, but oases in the desert instead. Or green hubs all over the country. This is how I imagine it”.

In addition to the inspiring speakers of the roundtable discussions, some other special guests shared their inspiring stories with the audience as well. For example, Ehsanel Hoque from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR Bangladesh shared insights from a project which they undertook with IUCN to prevent human-elephant conflict in the settlement. They are overall making use of the entrepreneurial skills of both refugees and host communities to show that conservation, ecosystem restoration, and refugee protection can go hand in hand. For more information about the UNHCR-IUCN project, click here.

Bemerick Bisimwa Dusabe & Paulinho Muzaliwa

Also, Bemerick Bisimwa Dusabe and Paulinho Muzaliwa – who are refugees themselves – stressed the potential of combining refugee protection with ecosystem restoration. “As refugees, we are the people in the position to restore land”, Bemerick said. As an accredited permaculture educator, he teaches across East Africa to both refugees and host communities. “Permaculture brings hope to so many. For example, mangos trees give us both food and shade”. Bemerick and Paulinho are not only teaching the art of permaculture. In addition, they are teaching waste recycling, financial literacy, and soap making. “We should empower refugees with their entrepreneurial skills, also people who are not close to agriculture”, Paulinho explained.

Morag Gamble

Morag Gamble from the Permaculture Education Institute has run different programs with refugees in East Africa. She also offers free material and videos on her website. She said that there are many requests for apprenticeships and that she sees a need for more support for ground-up, integrated work.

Sharing Knowledge, Showing Impact

John D. Liu

But… how are we going to share and scale-up the good practices? A promising tool which can be better used in scaling-up good practices are media and communications. According to John D. Liu, they are necessary to transmit and accumulate knowledge throughout time. As an internationally known environmental documentary film maker and ecologist, he is best known for his award winning ecological documentaries “Green Gold” and “Hope In A Changing Climate”. In 2017, John founded Ecosystem Restoration Camps foundation. It is a global movement of people creating an abundant earth through ecosystem restoration and sustainable livelihoods.

John D. Liu believes that we do not need to wait for policy makers to take action for the environment. In fact, we can all start making a change by ourselves. A good way to facilitate such a change is by sharing knowledge and inspiring each other. “We need to observe and take the time to reflect and consider what is really important rather than start grasping at this policy, that policy, this action, that action, etc. Actually we need to sit together with all the people involved to create a collective intelligence”, he said.

Communication is Key

Thus, communication is key, and a very important element is to ask the right questions in order to get the message right. “What we are saying now is that the economic capital that is going into addressing the environmental problems is valuable. But we are denying the value of the people and the earth systems. We should not only look at money flows, but also at value creation”, said John. A framework which not only captures the economic value of landscape restoration does already exist. The 4 returns framework is a science-based framework focusing on the return of financial capital, social capital, ecological capital, and inspiration. In business terms, the value proposition of restoration in refugee camps could be to transform refugee camps: From a place of misery and hopelessness to a place worth living with real hope, jobs, community sense and ecosystem restoration.

Maya Hennerkes

One of the roundtable discussions featured Maya Hennerkes from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She explained that impact investing and the push for the environmental and social perspective into funding has indeed become a growing trend over the years. Nevertheless, she warned that “investors will be investors, and they are always looking for bankable projects”. Risks play a central role in finance: There needs to be a thorough understanding of the business model. Generally speaking, bankers do not like to fund projects they cannot measure.

Ruth Andrade

This view was confirmed by Ruth Andrade, who also brought a funders’ perspective to the roundtable. Ruth not only works for the natural cosmetics company Lush (supporting regenerative projects like YICE with its Spring Prize). She is also part of Regenerosity and a co-founder of Re-Alliance; a collective of practitioners bringing regenerative design to the humanitarian sector. According to her, ecosystem restoration projects need to make all the information and experiences out there measurable and presentable. By showing the cycles and putting numbers to them, they need to prove that the return of investment is there. Although she stressed that doing business should also be about equity and justice, Ruth and Maya both emphasized that measuring impact through one or more demonstration project(s) is key to unlocking the finance flow and to make larger scale impact happen.

For the roundtables’ programmes click here.

Text on roundtables by Melissa de Raaij, co-edited by Tina Teucher

Next Steps, Ways Forward

The momentum is here, the motivation is here, and the people with the right knowledge and experience are here. Therefore, it’s time to take action! Possible ways to move forward which came out during the roundtable discussions were to:

Create a network/platform where knowledge and experiences can be shared easily worldwide with all practitioners.
Set-up one or more demonstration project(s) which measures the impact in such a way that the outcomes will be able to unlock financial flows for similar projects.

Organize follow-up events to monitor the progress of this initiative and to keep inspiring each other.
Keep each other informed in the meantime through sharing interesting links and providing space for more in depth interviews with inspiring actors.

Explore Key Messages of the Roundtables visually on one Page!

Key statements of participants, visualized on a white board (Mural):

Implementing & Supporting Regenerative Projects in Refugee Camps

Science Working Group

Outline for a Guideline

Regenerative practices are not yet widely adopted in refugee/IDP camps. In part, this may be due to the lack of evidence-based support for, and economic valuation of, the full range of ecosystem services provided by green infrastructure and regenerative practices within a displacement context. Scientific evaluation could help garner support from international organizations and funders. The development of a locally-adaptive best practices guide can further support potential projects.

After the initial multi-stakeholder roundtable discussions, an international science working group was formed to work on a guideline: Implementing & Supporting Regenerative Projects in Refugee Camps.

Among the contributors are refugees, people from humanitarian aid and humanitarian development organizations, ecosystem restoration practitioners, scientists from ecology, economy, sociology, sustainable business experts and more.

In 2022 and 2023, this group of committed volunteers works together to create a guideline on implementing regenerative projects in refugee/IDP camps.

The interim result is a guideline’s outline, open for feedback and contribution.

How Regenerative Business Strengthens Refugee Resilience in Camps

To strengthen refugee resilience, Generation Restoration organised an event on 26th May 2023 that highlighted the power of regenerative business.

The Network

More Information

Feel free to download and share these documents.

Overview GenR (English)

Überblick GenR (German)

Flyer Deutsch A5 (Leaflet German)

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Title photo: Dirk Jan Visser for Lemon Tree Trust, Azadi Community Garden – Domiz 1 camp, Kurdistan Region of Iraq