Can a landscape regenerate if its stewards lose the governance, knowledge, and identity to sustain it? What does rebuilding all three require?
Healthy landscapes depend on healthy communities. Lasting regeneration is only possible when the people who live in and care for a landscape have the rights, institutions and ability to shape its future. Across much of Southeast Asia, however, many rural communities are facing growing pressures. Traditional governance systems, communal land rights, cultural knowledge and social networks are being weakened, making it harder for communities to manage landscapes over the long term.
Evidence from around the world shows that landscapes often achieve stronger and more lasting environmental outcomes when local communities play a genuine leadership role. Community governance is not simply a safeguard to protect local interests. It is the foundation that enables restoration, conservation and sustainable livelihoods to succeed over time.
This lab explores how governance can be designed to support both people and nature. Drawing on case studies, including an emerging model from Indonesia's forests and peatlands, participants will examine practical approaches to shared decision-making, community rights, fair benefit-sharing, participatory monitoring and conflict resolution. Together, they will consider how governments, businesses, investors and communities can build governance systems that create trust, strengthen local leadership and support landscape regeneration that is socially inclusive, economically resilient and environmentally sustainable.
