Seeds of hope: the charity helping to replant Peru's rainforest

The Viet Nam Farmers Union rolled out a train-the-trainer program focused on encouraging rice farmers in Vietnam to take up more sustainable practices. This style of training helps farmers overcome any hesitation towards trying new methods by allowing them to learn from their peers and see the success of demonstration plots.

Humus farming is a technique that doesn’t harm the soil or organisms living in it but instead nourishes it, thus making it more sustainable for long-term use. Humus farming and other climate change mitigation tactics to revive soil and make it healthy and usable are spreading across Europe.

Minnesota-based Tree-Range Farms is teaching farmers to practice regenerative poultry farming. The chickens are raised in two fenced-in plots of land alongside trees and perennial plants, switching locations when the plants in one plot are grazed down. The practice improves soil health and, therefore, water and carbon sequestration.

Kendrick Ransome uses ancestral farming techniques like low-till farming and conservation tilling to improve soil health and sequester more carbon on his farm. He founded Freedom Org to teach youth these practices and help other Black farmers do the same after decades of racist lending policies have dwindled their numbers.

Saving Hawai‘i’s Forests plants koa trees and other native plants to reforest plots of land degraded by grazing livestock. As a result, the group has noticed the return of native wildlife to the plot, many of which are endangered or threatened species.

Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) allows local farmers who faced devastation to their crops due to drought to bring their land back to life and aid in reforestation. Over 20 years, the project has regenerated 200 million trees, improved crop yields by 30% and the concept of FMNR is practiced in 29 countries around the world.

In Brazil's Amazon deforestation hotspot BR-163, small farmers and entrepreneurs are working to implement sustainable farming alternatives like agroecology, beekeeping and converting cattle pastures to grow local fruits to create a “bioeconomy,” despite a lack of institutional support.

Government agencies, trade groups, and businesses are working together to provide agroforestry training and environmental education to rubber farmers in Thailand. Cultivating rubber alongside other useful trees and crops is better for the environment than monoculture farms and increases farmers’ profits.

A multi-partner effort in the United States, led by The Nature Conservancy, is helping farmers adopt agroforestry practices by providing funding and training. This style of farming encourages the growing of a variety of plants to enhance biodiversity and capture more carbon dioxide.

Farmers around the world are implementing agroecology practices to make their farms more resilient to climate change while promoting climate justice to strengthen farming communities. Agroecology follows 13 principles that include ecological practices, like using organic fertilizers, and political and social values, like embracing land rights.