About Us
Who we Are
Ecosystem Restoration Communities (ERC) is a global grassroots movement dedicated to helping nature heal itself. Our local communities are transforming degraded landscapes into vibrant, regenerative ecosystems – places where biodiversity flourishes, soils recover, water flows cleanly, food systems strengthen, the climate stabilizes, and people thrive.
We believe that true, lasting change starts from the ground up and that local leadership sits at the heart of success. That is why – across more than 80 restoration communities in nearly 40 countries – we’re equipping everyday people with the skills, tools, and support they need to restore the land around them. Together, we’re regenerating ecosystems that can sustain life – and resilience – for generations to come.
This global movement is about more than just restoring nature. It’s about restoring our relationship with nature. It’s about community, belonging, and the hope that comes from taking action. It’s about building a flourishing, sustainable future, one landscape, one project, and one community at a time.
ERC is supported by a non-profit foundation and is an official partner of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. We are a member of IUCN, part of the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition, and accredited with UNCCD.
vision & mission
The Vision of the Movement
We envision a fully-functional, peaceful, abundant, biologically diverse Earth brought about through cooperative efforts for the ecological restoration of degraded lands.
The Mission of the Foundation
Contribute to a fully functioning, peaceful, abundant and biologically diverse Earth through co-operative efforts for the ecological restoration of degraded lands;
Stimulate and support community-based initiative, leadership, and capacity to implement activities and undertake interventions that result in restored ecological function, climate resilience, biodiversity enrichment, and restored water cycles while at the same time enhancing livelihoods and human well-being;
Disseminate knowledge, innovations and insights emanating from these community-based initiatives to policy makers, academia, practitioners and the general public; and
Train large numbers of people to restore the fundamental ecological integrity of earth, and to connect knowledge and expertise about these activities worldwide.
How it All Started
It started with an idea formulated by John D. Liu, the renowned film maker who brought us the story of the radical restoration of the Loess Plateau in China – a film that helped spark the global restoration movement we know today. John envisioned the creation of ecosystem restoration camps around the world where young people could gather to restore degraded land. The Loess Plateau taught us that restoration brings abundance to once desolate areas, creating the conditions for farming and communities to thrive.
His vision inspired farmer Alfonso de Guzman, who welcomed the first camp at his farm on the Altiplano – a high plain in southeastern Spain – in 2016. Lessons learnt from the early years of Ecosystem Restoration Camp Altiplano, along with experience from the next two camps to join the movement – Via Organica in Mexico and Camp Fire Restoration Project in Paradise, California – shifted our approach. What began as camps primarily for young people evolved into what we are today: truly local initiatives that work mostly with local communities to restore degraded natural areas.
In some places, the original camp concept still continues as part of on-the-ground efforts. This shift led us to change our name to Ecosystem Restoration Communities. The movement grew to 11 in 2019, 37 in 2020, and today includes 86 registered ERCs. Locally led initiatives now find a new community in the ERC movement that offers them inspiration, knowledge, and friendship across the globe. In line with the original vision of John, the movement continues to grow, with thousands of people picking up the tools to bring our natural world back to life and to build thriving, resilient communities.
What Makes us Different
ERC is committed to empowering ordinary people to take extraordinary action. Unlike traditional conservation models, our approach grows from the bottom up – inclusive, democratic, and participatory. This means that every stakeholder helps shape the movement as it evolves.
Our strength lies in the collective power of communities working side by side to restore degraded landscapes. Instead of building massive, top-down projects, we focus on scaling out – multiplying small, effective, community-led efforts that create real, lasting change on the ground.
At the heart of ERC are the pioneers who lead restoration sites around the world. These are visionary individuals who see the urgent need to redefine our social, economic, and ecological relationship with the Earth. Their sites are global, living laboratories of innovation, demonstrating what’s possible when we embrace regenerative culture and design food systems rooted in reciprocity with nature.
Through their leadership, a new paradigm is taking shape — one that proves that healing the planet begins with people coming together, taking responsibility, and restoring the land beneath their feet.
Scaling Out to Achieve Lasting Change
Inspiration: The Spark of Change
The transformation begins when communities believe that abundance is possible. This belief has already brought remarkable change in the most unexpected places. Farmers in desert regions – such as the Sinai Desert in Egypt and the Sahara Desert in Morocco – have turned barren, dry soil into fertile, productive land. Tropical smallholder farmers using agroecology and polyculture practices, in countries like Guatemala and Uganda, are seeing yield increases many times higher than their monoculture neighbours. When people see these successes, they are inspired to act, setting off a ripple effect of change.
Ripple Effect: Collab Over Competition
The power of change lies in collaboration, not competition. Each community that undertakes a restoration project acts as a lighthouse, inspiring neighbours and peers further afield to follow suit. One successful initiative leads to another, and soon we have bioregional networks of interconnected, locally-led restoration projects. This decentralized approach fosters collective action, and through the spread of knowledge and inspiration, large-scale impact is achieved.
Education: Spreading Knowledge, Building Capacity
Inspiration is only the beginning. The next step is equipping people with the knowledge and skills to restore their own land. Communities learn the critical function of ecosystems and practical restoration techniques. Local knowledge sharing is at the heart of our movement – ensuring that communities are empowered with the tools to carry out long-term restoration on their own. Through this collaborative learning, we lay the foundation for a global movement of restoration.
Local Ownership: Lasting, Embedded Change
The transformation lasts when communities take the lead. Our movement catalyses the change and then helps it grow, organically, into something much bigger than ourselves. Local communities take ownership of their own restoration journeys, enabling for local creativity, adaptation, and innovation. This process of decentralized action creates a global wave of ecological regeneration, as thousands of communities restore their land, revitalize their ecosystems, and improve their livelihoods.
Our Impact
Who We Are - Meet Some of Our Restoration Community Leaders
Meet the Advisory Council
John D. Liu
Co-Chair; Founder of the ERC Movement; Ecosystem Ambassador – Commonland Foundation
Chris Gates
Co-Chair; Founder & Former CEO: Mainsprings, Tanzania, and Janada L. Batchelor Foundation for Children
Mark Shepard
Founder & Lead Consultant: Restoration Agriculture Development
With a background in technology and entrepreneurship and no prior experience in restoration, Michel gave up everything in São Paulo and, together with his partner, bought nearly six hectares of degraded land on the outskirts of the city. Their vision was to bring the healing of people and planet to urban communities by restoring the land through syntropic farming and cultural regeneration, drawing on principles long practiced by Indigenous peoples. Restoring degraded land proved far more challenging than expected, but they met each setback as part of the restoration journey. Water scarcity was addressed by digging a well, while compacted soil was regenerated through agroforestry to improve watershed retention. Fires posed a serious threat, with a blaze in their first month destroying 90% of their vegetation and damaging infrastructure. In response, they installed water pumps and pipes at strategic points, which saved the land from further fires. Through these hardships and breakthroughs, Michel realised that restoration extends beyond ecology - it requires a regenerative way of life. Today, he hosts courses and retreats on the land - helping others transform their relationship with themselves, each other, and nature - while sustaining ongoing regeneration of the ecosystem.
Michel Bottan - Regenerative Cultures Centre, Brazil