Ecosystem Restoration Communities
And at the end of 2023, ERC Rocciaviva in Basilicata, Italy, and the Ecosystem Restoration Communities Foundation teamed up to launch RestorACTION, a pioneering project funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. This inspiring collaboration brought together Rocciaviva’s focus on environmental and social regeneration in the Basilicata region with ERC’s mission to equip local people with the skills and tools needed to restore their own ecosystems.
RestorACTION aimed to empower the local community in Basilicata, where farmers and landowners face growing challenges from land degradation, extreme weather, and declining soil fertility and livelihoods. The project engaged residents as citizen scientists, increasing their environmental literacy and training them to identify degraded areas and monitor ecosystem health. Using a simple smartphone app, participants collected reliable ecological data to establish baseline studies, enabling informed and effective restoration actions. By bridging the gap between restoration experts and local people, RestorACTION fostered a community-driven approach to reversing ecosystem degradation and securing a sustainable future for the region.
The new Monitoring App, developed through this project, enables restoration tracking by logging intervention plots and polygons, and a record of techniques used on the land. The app includes step-by-step methodologies and video tutorials, and enables access to data so that it can be analysed and widely shared across the network of earth restorers. Furthermore, low-connectivity support means you can collect data anywhere (even remote areas), and the data will automatically sync with the app when you are back online. Hit the link below to take a tour of the app.

Reedsdale Regeneration encompasses 3850 hectares of grasslands which have been used for sheep grazing since 2001. The property bears indigenous trees, shrubs, and plants, as well as spekboom vegetation, a sprawling, succulent shrub known for being edible and its medicinal properties. Today, the camp is practicing holistic planned grazing using 1,000 sheep, in order to speed up the regeneration of the once degraded and compounded soils. They are also striving to harness maximum rainfall on the property by using sustainable techniques, slowing down wind and water erosion by strategic vegetation, rehabilitate already eroded parts of the land, and create booming ecosystems that foster plant, animal, and human biodiversity. The strategy is to focus on preventing further damage to the overly weathered grasslands from more environmental degradation. This entails transforming the degraded soils into fertile, rich organic matter that better absorbs rainfall, improving infiltration, and replanting vegetation that will keep the soil intact by their healthy root systems in order to alleviate the stress of soil erosion during hard rainfalls, floods and strong winds.
Reedsdale Regeneration’s long-term vision is to create a sustainable and regenerative agricultural business model for the farmers in their community along with aiding in restoring 40,000 hectares of regional degraded land, which will help improve the well-being of future generations. The creation of sustainable livelihoods will be derived from the collaborative research and land restoration provided from the camp, partnering universities and organisations, and is hoped to significantly aid their struggling and impoverished community members. By creating more job opportunities, they can also help prevent urbanisation by creating stronger rural environments. Not only will restoring these vast grasslands have an economic benefit to the local region, but they will be actively reducing global warming by creating greater sinks for carbon retention.
Please note: You will need to arrange your own travel visa, if one is required.
215 hectares of grassland has been rehabilitated to date, using hoof action by grazing animals. These animals participate in the land restoration by breaking up soil surfaces, trampling decomposing vegetation, helping to incorporate seeds and also regenerating the land by adding nitrogen rich fertilizer to the soil. Gum trees have been removed which has increased the underground water table. Measures have been put in place to improve water infiltration and slow down run off on the slopes. The restoration community is currently working on a test phase of spekboom cuttings in the camp nursery. Reedsdale Regeneration works in partnership with The Gwanishi Project and Rhodes University in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.
Compost making
Water retention
Tree planting
Food growing
Erosion control
Soil building
Habitat creation
Community building
Restoration of livelihoods
Regenerative entrepreneurialism
Natural building
Educational courses and experiences
Many Ecosystem Restoration Communities are using platforms to show how the work they’re doing on the ground is having a positive impact on the land and local biodiversity. If a Restor or iNaturalist logo is visible below, click through to view their impact on that platform.