Today, there is a global consensus that we must go beyond building an ecologically sustainable society and regenerate our damaged natural systems. In fact, the United Nations has declared 2021 – 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems to help combat the climate crisis and to enhance food security, water supply, and biodiversity.

 

In Chile, the Regenerativa Foundation is out front. Initially founded in 2015 as a consultancy for regeneration projects, in 2021 Regenerativa became a non-profit “organization that articulates and implements regenerative actions from Chile.”

 

Regenerativa was formed to create a collective space that can promote diverse initiatives from a variety of sources of inspiration, such as the need to heal our ties with the land, transform the way we produce food toward ways that effectively enhance the cycles of the ecosystem, strengthen our communities, and generate mutually beneficial ties with the rest of the inhabitants of the biosphere. The foundation and its team of 15 agronomists, environmental engineers, sociologists, lawyers, and more, plus a wider network of collaborators, are involved in regenerative action projects all over the country.

 

"Our approach to doing things is from the regenerative paradigm, where we strive to regenerate the link between nature and humanity and go beyond the merely sustainable to move toward the regenerative. This means increasing planetary health, which is the planet's capacity to sustain more life and generate abundance for ecosocial well-being. Therefore, our actions are guided by a holistic analysis, seeking to understand the context in which we are working, including its history and bio-cultural background," says Javiera Perez, executive director of Regenerativa.

The organization develops education and capacity building programs for regeneration to provide support for the broader regeneration movement in Chile. They also provide consultancy and advice to regeneration projects, such as measuring the ecological footprint of activities. Above all, they are seeking to promote strategies for the transition toward regeneration through research, courses, lectures, and the design and implementation of ecosystem restoration projects.

 

Their projects include, for example, "Regenerating Chile," through which they have developed a survey tool to identify private properties whose managers are interested in carrying out soil regeneration or conservation actions. There is also "Isla Mocha Regenerativa,” where the past three years they have been working with the local community on this extraordinary island off the coast of the Biobio Region to regenerate and restore the health of their ecosystem through training and advising local farmers, implementing regenerative livestock grazing practices, and developing native forest biological corridors.

 

In June and July, Regenerativa organized a native forest restoration project in Isla Mocha, as well as around Nahuelbuta National Park on the mainland. They conducted a series of 4 participatory meetings to boost regenerative projects in the zone and and 6 tree planting days with 10,000 trees to restore 10 hectares degraded by forest fires that are occurring there on an almost annually basis nowadays.

 

Javiera Perez says it is one of their most important activities this year. “We want to strengthen and connect different ecological restoration projects in the Bío-Bío Region, contributing to the conservation and regeneration of the relicts of the Valdivian Forest still present there and also contributing to strengthen the social fabric of the actors that promote regenerative actions in the area, to rescue the biocultural identity of the communities that live there.”