As citizens of the Global South, we have a different perspective on the environmental crisis. We can’t really count on governments or expensive technologies to save our most precious ecosystems that are also essential for planetary health, but we can count on people behaving as one human family.

​

We asked ourselves this question:

​

What if we could combat climate change, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss at a world-wide scale by using a unique and simple human-based approach?

 

The environmental crisis monster has so many heads that it seems impossible to beat: greenhouse effect, biodiversity loss, water pollution, mass extinctions, toxic agriculture, land desertification, natural resource depletion…

 

It’s heartbreaking. 

 

But what if there was a unique and simple approach that could tackle many of these problems simultaneously before governments create new regulations or companies invent new technology?  

 

All we need is in place at this very moment. 

 

By changing the story we tell about how bad we are for our planet and creating a new belief that we can actually create abundance, we can mobilize the millions of hands that are available in many key places so that they work on the recovery and protection of our most precious ecosystems. 

​

Here’s how: 

​

Restoration/Conservation As a Service (RaaS): a human-behavior based approach 

​

There are millions of people who live in marginalized communities inside essential ecosystems like the Amazon Rainforest. Many of them have lived there for millennia and they hold the knowledge and skills needed for the restoration and protection of their ecosystems. 

​

If enough of these families were given the opportunity to offer restoration and conservation as a service to other people in the planet (just like gardeners get paid for their services), the change in collective behavior could not only result in the restoration and protection of millions of carbon-sinking, biodiverse hectares of land, but in the socio-economic well being of their (historically neglected) inhabitants.  

​

Imagine a constant flow of economic resources coming from the people who want to recover our planet’s health into the hands of local restorers living in every important ecosystem and investing all their time and energy into this new income-generating activity.

​

When people agree to become restorers, they immediately switch from extractive land management techniques like monocrop agriculture or cattle ranching to regenerative agricultural practices like the ones their ancestors used before they were told that western ways were superior. 

​

Sustainable agroforestry, silvopasture, organic food forests, and the restoration and protection of their lands become their most valuable assets.

—--

We have witnessed these quick changes since we opened Humans for Abundance’s digital platform and started testing this new approach. Many families are eager to become proud, independent providers of this service that is so essential to humanity right now. 

​

They are eager to stop using harmful pesticides and other destructive methods, especially if the alternative brings them a higher income, better nutrition, clean water, and increased access to opportunities. 

​

Many families have already changed their land-management techniques as the money flows directly and quickly into their hard-working hands, making them feel as successful entrepreneurs who contribute to society.

​

And what’s more important, when restorers sign up for this activity, they know that they are not receiving a donation for being poor. They are receiving a fair payment for their knowledge, time, and skills, and this is psychologically very different. It increases their confidence and their desire to overcome obstacles. 

​

What does the one-who-pays receive?

​

Many ‘co-restorers' (the ones-who-pay) are making their money flow in this direction because they can see how changing human behavior and creating a collective effect is our quickest way to beat the environmental monster. They see the big picture and the full potential. They understand that they can use their money as a tool to change the system.

​

All of us extract natural resources directly or indirectly when we buy food, clothes or things. This sustains the cycle of extraction alive, reducing the populations of the living beings that give us food, medicine, oxygen, and so much more. 

​

Buying stuff is a way of endorsing extractivism, so the opposite is also true. Buying restoration services is a way of endorsing the constant replacement of these natural resources. 

​

Us consumers very rarely put these natural resources back ourselves, especially not in the same amount that we extract. We don’t know how and most of us live in cities that are very disconnected from the places that sustain life on Earth. We need others to do it for us, and that is the service that we are paying for.

​

With this approach, we, the co-restorers, reinforce a new system that creates a balance between consumption and replenishment. We create a new cycle designed for perpetuity. 

​

A vision of planetary abundance, beauty, and equality

​

Now imagine millions of locals living in key ecosystems all over the world, offering services that result in the conservation and restoration of their environment.

​

The collective effect could have a huge impact in reversing climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and water contamination. Nature would go back to its natural beauty and balance.

​

It could also become a new movement that lifts marginalized communities out of poverty, bringing unprecedented changes to their socio-economic well being. 

​

This new approach merges social and environmental justice and allows us to behave in a way that creates abundance for all living beings.

​

All we need to do is go from a few hundred restorer/co-restorer monthly partnerships to many millions. 

​

The good news: restorers are ready. 

​

Are you?