Commonland – Restoring Landscapes

We’re excited to share our new brand video! 🌍🥳 This visual story captures the heart of what we do at Commonland – supporting people and organisations all over the world to restore landscapes, revitalise communities, and create lasting, systemic change together. Together with our partners, we’re part of a global community turning degraded land into thriving ecosystems, one landscape at a time. For more info about our work, check out our website monland.com (or find the link in our bio) – and follow us for regular updates about our partners and the wider restoration world! #LandscapeRestoration #RegenerativeDevelopment #Sustainability #Impact #Holistic

MIGAS: TASTE TRADITION WHILE SUPPORTING RESTORATION 💚🥖 We’re proud to launch our second episode of Commonland Cooks! This time, our Landscape Finance Manager, Alejandro Diaz, brings a beautiful tradition to the table: Migas con verduras, a shepherds’ dish from the Altiplano Estepario in Spain, one of the landscapes where Commonland has been supporting @asociacionalvelal and other partners in restoring land at risk of desertification since 2014. In this new video, Ale shows us how delicious food and landscape restoration go hand in hand. 🌿💚🏞️ What makes this dish special isn’t just its history. It’s the simple, flavoursome, and nutrient-rich ingredients: 🍞 Bread from @bakkerijwolf in Amsterdam, made with regenerative flour from @wildfarmed 🥦 Organic vegetables sourced from @odinfoodcoop 🌿 Regenerative olive oil produced by @habitataove (AlVelAl) in southern Spain Can food be both a memory and a movement? We believe so. A big shout out to Andy Cato, @georgemlamb , @eddlees at WildFarmed for providing the regenerative flour for the all-important migas bread, and NATURE HERSELF for providing the delicious ingredients for yet another inspiring Commonland Cooks episode. Have you got any recommendations of recipes we should cook in future? Tell us in the comments below! 🎥 Watch the full video and recipe now on YouTube via the link in our bio! ⬆️🔗 #CommonlandCooks #TasteTheLandscape #HealthyLandscapes #RegenerativeFarming

🎬 A New Film by Commonland: Why Invest in Nature? with radical nature funder Corien Botman “60 years ago, the landscape was full of life, full of sound, full of different species and smells. But it's really sort of died, without any sound, without smell, with a lot of tractors and brown waterways..." 🎶 What does it really mean when you go for a walk and can no longer hear the birds singing? This is why, together with her best friend and son, Jan Groot, Corien co-founded a nature-focused foundation named Fund De Roper, built on one essential question: 🧭 What kind of world do we want to live in, and how can our money contribute to that world? ✅ And the answer was clear: they want to live in a world where humans and nature are in balance. This is where nature restoration came into play for them, because when we invest in nature, we’re not giving something up – we’re giving ourselves a future. Investing in nature means: 💡 Rethinking our food systems. 💡 Reshaping finance to serve living systems. 💡 Regenerating the landscapes we depend on – for water, food, climate stability, and community well-being. The time has come to move from an economic model that maximises profit at the expense of the environment to one that protects, restores, and strengthens it for future generations. 💭 Food for thought: how do or will you invest in nature today, tomorrow, and the rest of your life? #ImpactInvesting #ClimateImpact #4ReturnsFramework #Conservation #SoilHealth

“If anything positive emerges from the war in Iran, it could be the expanded awareness that we do have choices about the future of agriculture.” — Sarah Van Gelder, CommonDreams   The war in Iran has exposed the fragility at the heart of our global food system. Price shocks, supply constraints, a chokepoint in the Strait of Hormuz and suddenly the chemicals that underpin world agriculture are out of reach.   But the crisis also offers a spotlight to the farmers who never built their model on that fragility to begin with. Farmers who have always used agro-ecological and regenerative practices - or who have recently transitioned from conventional to regenerative.   These farmers don’t compete on chemicals or expensive technology. Their edge is knowledge, long-term ecosystem health, and climate resilience. They implement practices that optimise for human health, ecological health, and economics all at once.   The fertiliser crisis has made it impossible to ignore: the regenerative system, built on knowledge and health rather than chemical inputs, is structurally more resilient than the industrial model.   As this article highlights, as consumers, citizens, and eaters, we have more choice than we think when it comes to choosing what kind of system we want to back. We can vote with our supermarket baskets - and, where feasible, our wallets.   Do you want to support soil or oil?   Read more about how to support a more resilient farming system at the link in our bio.   Thank you Sarah and @commondreams for featuring our voice in this piece.

From the Green Carpet to the Umbrian soil… Many of you know Livia Giuggioli (@liviafirth ) as a voice for sustainable fashion and ethical supply chains. But these days, she applies those same principles to the earth itself - at @quintosapore , the farm she co-runs with her twin brothers, Ale and Nic. Moving to a more hands-on role, Livia now spends her days among rows of heritage crops, and hosts the yearly ‘Humus, Soil, Humanity’ gathering at the farm, a space where regenerative agriculture and the international community intersect. It’s about more than just food. This is a family mission to prove that the biomimic (mimicking nature) approach to farming can work. As she says herself, nature shows us how to adapt to climate chaos - so we need to be listening. #QuintoSapore #RegenerativeAgriculture #Biomimicry #Humus #Italy

In the hills of Umbria, a living laboratory is succeeding where industrial agriculture is failing - and I got to take a look around. While Europe’s farmers protest that a pesticide-free future is impossible, Quinto Sapore stands out as a family-run farm achieving record yields with zero chemicals and zero tilling. How do they do it? It’s simple. They let nature do its thing. This is a truly sustainable, regenerative operation - growing the most delicious veg in the most nutrient-dense soil I’ve ever come across, and I can’t stop telling people about it. 🌳🍄🪴🍄‍🟫 But don’t take it from me - twins Alessandro and Nicola will tell you themselves, in part 1 of my short interview series 👯🏻‍♂️ along with @commonland4returns #RegenerativeFarm #RegenAg #Farming #Umbria

Do you want to work at Commonland and be a part of the landscape restoration movement? We are looking for a temporary, part time (24-32hrs per week) Policy Officer! If you you enjoy collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, managing and analysing data on best practices, and writing policy briefs- read on, we'd love to hear from you. If you have: 🟢 A post‑graduate degree, preferably in environmental policy, ecology, sustainable development, or a related field 🟢 2–3 years of experience in environmental policy 🟢 Strong analytical and research skills, including data analysis, case study research, and policy brief writing 🟢 The ability to synthesise complex information into clear, practical insights 🟢 Strong interest in landscape restoration, governance, and policy integration 🟢 Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; comfortable working with diverse international stakeholders And you are: 🟢 Available for six months (starting ASAP) 🟢 Eligible to work in the Netherlands We look forward to hearing from you about why you have what it takes to fill this temporary position! See all the details and apply here 👉 /o/policy-officer-24-32-hours-per-week

Meet Luc Gnacadja, Tara Shyam, and Marta Ceroni: three brilliant minds and hearts joining Commonland’s new Supervisory Board, bringing expertise in global restoration policy, regenerative food systems, and systems change. They join Chair Nanno Kleiterp and continuing members John Loudon and Gerard Van Hengstum. We couldn’t be more excited about what lies ahead! A heartfelt thank you to four people who have helped shape Commonland’s journey from day one: our departing board members Bela Jankovich, Celine van Asselt, Louise Vet, and Stephanie Lohmann. As they step down from our board, we want to take a moment to recognise their dedication, insight, and commitment to landscape restoration. Their contributions have helped build the foundation on which we continue to grow the holistic landscape restoration movement. While their formal roles change, they remain part of the Commonland family. Thank you for everything. 🌿 Link in bio for the full blog post

THIS IS HOW WE FEED THE WORLD Right now, farmers across the world have seeds in the ground and fertiliser bills they may not be able to afford. The Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries nearly a third of the global fertiliser supply, is disrupted. Traffic is still down by 90%. We have all noticed the impact this has had on fuel prices. But even more alarming: economists warn that reduced crop production from this crisis could push more than 45 million people into hunger. Why? Because our food system depends on synthetic fertilisers shipped across the world, on fossil fuels, and on fragile global supply chains. The glaring problem with industrial agriculture is that it is built on three assumptions: free global trade, stable climate conditions, and productive soils. These are all increasingly at threat. But there is a solution that farmers and land stewards all over the world have started to adopt. Those who invested in soil biology, agroecological practices, and holistic approaches to landscape restoration years ago have built a different kind of resilience. Their resilience is local. It is rooted in the land itself, not in fluctuating global markets. By restoring the health of the land, they reduce the need for synthetic fertilisers and create food systems that can sustain themselves in the long-term. Restoring our landscapes is not a nice-to-have. Agricultural practices that benefit nature are not a nice to have. They underpin food sovereignty and food security. They ensure people don’t go hungry. They provide the foundations for democratic stability. Advocating for policies and supply chains that will help farmers to farm in nature-positive ways is one of the most important actions we can take to safeguard our future right now. Want to see these approaches in action? Discover the farmers and communities already restoring their land through regenerative practices via the link in our bio (or the comments!) With Ivo Degn 🌱 📸: @climatefarmers

“Young people: They care. They know that this is the world that they’re going to grow up in, that they’re going to spend the rest of their lives in. But, I think it’s more idealistic than that. They actually believe that humanity, human species, has no right to destroy and despoil regardless.” - David Attenborough   100 years young 🌍🥂 here’s to the man who gave a whole generation words for their love of nature.

What if the 2024 Valencia floods didn’t have to happen?   A new report by @we_are_eara has run the numbers - and they’re hard to ignore.   Just 5% of Spain’s emergency flood relief budget could have funded a full agricultural transition and restoration of the Valencia watershed. Instead, that money is now being spent on the damage.   Here’s what the data shows:   💧On conventional farmland, 86 out of every 100 litres of rain runs straight off into rivers and streets. Regenerative farming cuts that to 58 out of 100, meaning 28 litres in every 100 now soaks into the soil instead of flooding towns. That’s a third more water absorbed. And it keeps improving the longer those farming practices are in place.   🌳 Across Valencia’s farms, millions of fruit trees and vines (perennials) could have soaked up over 100 billion litres of rainwater through their roots, keeping it out of towns and homes. But without regenerative agriculture practices to build healthy soils, that water had nowhere to go except the streets.   💸 And the cost? Transitioning the most flood-prone farming zones to regenerative agriculture, and restoring natural areas, would cost €316 million over five years, less than half the budget being proposed for concrete flood defences.   Landscape-scale regeneration isn’t a nice-to-have: it’s one of the most cost-effective flood defence tools we have.   Yet Europe continues to default to building with grey infrastructure - instead of green and blue infrastructure - against a backdrop of €100 trillion in climate risk exposure… Let’s stop funding the damage and start funding the solution.   Want to learn more? Join the launch event by EARA on Friday to walk through the full analysis, policy recommendations, and what this framework means for flood-prone regions beyond Valencia: link in the comments ⬇️

“Balance must be restored,” said Janelle Monáe on the Met Gala red carpet when asked about the meaning behind her dress made of moss and electrical wires 🌱💿   Embossed into gowns, stitched into embroidery, woven into wearable art — nature took centre stage at this year’s Met Gala. A good reminder that nature is the original designer.