🌾 Regenerative Agriculture
Activities
Terra Umida Agroforestry Corridor
Another 30 kilometers along the trail, hikers pass wide degraded farmlands called Terra Umida. This is a government-supported area where the landless farmer movement of Brazil is working under very tough conditions to regenerate degraded land through agroforestry. Sinal do Vale has started building new supply chains for the farmer and food sector, seeing the potential to build a true bioeconomy with these farmers to benefit their livelihoods. This is about rebuilding food systems, forming regenerative supply chains with local producers, and creating economic pathways that align with ecological restoration.
Food Sovereignty and Seed Saving Networks
After Manos Cambiadas, a gap stood out: many farmers could not sell what they grew. They started “Caja Verde,” a community-supported agriculture box; a year later that evolved into Mercado Verde. For over four years they have run a farmers market—200-plus markets—strengthening food sovereignty and security. ReGenerOsa works with farmers, elders, and schools on seed-saving networks, agroecological gardens, and cooperative distribution grounded in local knowledge and biodiversity. Pilot gardens are underway; the collective supports women reclaiming ancestral seed practices and native varieties. Scaling will take resources—more communities, training, and a regional network to link growers, seeds, and markets in a closed loop.
Forest Regeneration and Cattle Ranching
Ranching and clearing have left pastures prone to drying. The program works with stockmen on regenerative grazing and reforestation, uses ForTerra results on carbon, biomass, and grazing management, and trials rapid tree establishment to recover grasslands, canopy, and biodiversity services tied to rain and storage.
La Arenosa Pilot Site
Work begins on one hectare of pineapple—a stand-in for common practice: bare rows on depleted soil, high erosion, little water holding. The team is shifting the plot toward regenerative management: soil amendments, water retention, agroforestry, and biodiversity buffers, with monitoring of above- and below-ground health, microclimate, and hydrologic response. With ForTerra, they test accelerated soil regeneration mixes and aim for a repeatable measurement stack—ecology, water, and economics—to scale across the basin and inform finance models.
100 Regenerative Village Program
100 Regenerative Village (100RV) promotes agroforestry and regenerative practices so forests stay intact as water catchments. With Eco-Tourism Bali, hotels and food businesses are nudged toward local, sustainable sourcing—paying farmers who steward forest a credible alternative to selling land for tourism.
Native Crop Regeneration and Supply Chain Development
Wild cacao and wild pepper anchor the model—food and medicine—restoring degraded forest while standing up processing and trade. Early revenue is meant to keep operations on the ground. Economic integration targets agroforestry on an initial ~2,200 ha, processing infrastructure, and a demonstrator that forest-based communities can earn livelihoods while protecting and restoring land. Pepper and cacao are the live cases; a later phase may extend toward ethnobotanical products.
Diamante Luz
The collective describes Diamante Luz as its first on-the-ground node: shared land for permaculture and common resources, where residents, neighbors, and visitors co-create ways of living and working with non-human relations. The site hosts learning for ecological wellness and restoration across ages—spaces for artisans, processing kitchens, syntropic food forests, and support for people stepping into local food leadership.
Regenerative Agriculture Program
The program works through technical schools, pairing demonstration sites, student training, and carbon finance for fences and water. Farms document ~0.5 inch annual soil gain and up to $110,000 first-year income. Trainings include homemade repellents from chile, onion, and garlic so practices stay affordable and ecological. Soil-centered climate work ties to ~150% emissions offset via food—buying time, as Muñoz notes, for better batteries and other hard tech.
Community Food Security Project
When COVID-19 stopped tourism in Guanacaste, Costa Rica Regenerativa mobilized 500 farming families in a belt skeptics had called unsuitable for vegetables. Drawing on Cuban methods and Indigenous growing practices, they rebuilt severely degraded plots—harvesting water, stretching dry-season use, and rebuilding dark soil with carbon and mulch along lines developed over decades by Manders. Harvests came quickly; a mother told him the children’s eyes were shining again and their skin smooth again—something no economic return could match. A simple monitoring scheme used color rings on trees so non-readers could scan farm health at a glance. Cooking workshops helped families accept bitter traditional crops. Food forests followed for easier management and climate resilience. Teenagers—including young women on survey drones—gained skills that could keep rural life viable.
Results-Based Farming Program
The programme puts a price on good management through results-based payments. A rapid field assessment scores each parcel out of 10 for overall condition—biodiversity, water, soil, invasive pressure, and related indicators. Higher scores mean higher payments. Staff do not prescribe practices; they set targets, and farmers who meet them are rewarded. Poor scores unlock targeted investment—water systems, fencing, feeding layouts—so outcomes can improve over successive seasons. Bureaucracy was deliberately stripped back: the annual farm plan is two pages—a map, the scores, and suggested improvements—plus one signature per year. That lightness helps keep farmers in the scheme and treats them as the main conservation workforce on the ground.
Regenerative Agriculture Demonstration Network
Demonstration farms knit neighboring holdings into a learning network—sharing practices and materials in place. One early experiment uses waste wool as mulch around aronia berries. The longer-term bet is that these sites become reference points: for farmers trying new crops, for visitors relearning relationships to food and land, and for shifts in what people grow, buy, and expect from the landscape.
Sustainable Dairy Index
Building on the FBI system, the team developed the Sustainable Dairy Index, a systematic effort to redefine success metrics in dairy farming by integrating environmental and social returns alongside financial ones. The program introduces frameworks for measuring social contributions, recognizing that when farmers depend on other farmers, they create circular economies and sustainable economies.
Family Land Biodiversity Index
A project involving 43 farmers with the goal of ensuring at least 10% of farmland is dedicated to biodiversity while maintaining farm viability. To this end, they developed the Family Land Biodiversity Index (FBI), a tool designed to reward farmers for ecological stewardship. Unlike traditional conservation schemes that rely on static subsidies for setting aside land, the FBI is a results-based incentive system with four components: biodiversity survey, farm-specific biodiversity plans, annual biodiversity scoring, and results-based payments. The project developed a digital tools to accurately measure space for nature on farms and verify the ecological quality of these areas. The outcomes of the project were exciting. Farmers reported 5–10% revenue increases through diversified income sources, such as agroforestry and eco-tourism. The 43-farm discussion group created a strong social fabric, and even neighboring farms started creating their own habitat corridors. This created biodiversity gains including pollinator population recovery, recovery of ground-nesting bird species, and improved soil health. The FBI model is now being considered for wider agricultural policy reforms at the national and EU level.
Reforesting Edible Forests
A regenerative food forest project that increases biodiversity while providing economic benefits to 47 communities. The project supports communities while restoring forest ecosystems, creating productive landscapes that integrate food security with ecological restoration.
Regenerative Agriculture Transition
One of the initial goals has been to help align stakeholders and shift from the development of almond monocultures and intensive agricultural and livestock farming practices to mainstreaming regenerative practices and developing the regional market for them. More than 100,000 hectares of rain-fed almonds grow in the AlVelAl Territory, creating huge potential for business-driven restoration. Regenerative techniques are known and work, but cultural adoption is a long-term process requiring patient support and demonstration of both ecological and economic benefits. The alliance backs the transition with education and training, farm-level assessments for farms that want to change practices, research and monitoring to document what works, demonstration farms that show regenerative management in real conditions, and early-transition support so farmers can absorb risk in the first years of change.
Productive Ecological Landscapes
With mentorship from established members and the broader community, each new family designs a productive landscape that meets their food and income needs while regenerating local ecosystems. These spaces integrate agroecology, fishing, and cultural identity into cohesive socio-ecological systems. Participating households receive multiple forms of support: technical assistance, access to established commercialization networks, guidance in developing auto-sustainable livelihoods, and patient capital when financial support is needed.