1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People

Commonland is one of the founding members 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L). This radical collaboration aims to accelerate integrated landscape management using the 4R framework. 1000L is convened by EcoAgriculture Partners and co-led with Rainforest Alliance, Commonland, Conservation International, the United Nations Development Programme, and information technology leader Tech Matters.  

More than 20 partners share technical and financial expertise, and at least 12 landscape partnerships co-design the initiative. Together these organisations engage with more than 250 landscape partnerships worldwide. Commonland team members work with 1000L design teams looking to provide the tools, finance and connections that landscape partnerships need to achieve their visions: 

• Digital landscape platform – Terraso  
• Landscape capacity development – user-centered tools and curriculum 
• Community catalyst – initiating and supporting communities passionate about landscape approaches 
• Landscape finance solutions – innovative, scalable finance models for landscape investments 

Presencing Institute

Commonland has a longstanding partnership with Presencing Institute, which supports people all over the world to use Theory U for awareness-based systems change. It trains about 200,000 people each year. Theory U’s transformational approach complements Commonland’s focus on the 4 Returns framework, and our partnership is grounded in shared values and goals, such as empowering each other, embracing diversity, and treating each other with respect, openness and curiosity. In seven years spent working together, we have identified, mobilised and empowered changemakers worldwide. 

Our regional learning networks combine Theory U and the 4 Returns into one integrated learning programme. It offers the perfect blend of Commonland’s landscape restoration expertise, with Presencing Institute’s skill at engaging stakeholders with their own motivations to deliver systemic change. 

Partnership with Wetlands International and Landscape Finance Lab

This partnership with Wetlands International and Landscape Finance Lab seeks to refine, test and promote the 4 Returns framework, which brought together the combined best practices and methodologies of the three organisations.   

As well as strengthening the 4 Returns framework, this collaboration aims to shape guidance on attracting carbon financing and develop tools to enable large-scale landscape finance. We work together in these landscapes: 

• The Flow Country, Scotland 
• Rufiji Delta, Tanzania 
• Zambezi region, Namibia 
• Guinee-Bissau 
• Mahanadi Delta, India 

Soil Health BENCHMARKS

We are a partner of the Soil Health BENCHMARKS project, which aims to build a European network that creates a shared understanding of soil health assessment across a range of land uses and climatic conditions. BENCHMARKS will define how to measure soil health and provide context and measurement techniques to take it from field to European scale. Working with multi-stakeholder partnerships, BENCHMARKS aims to advance land-use systems that promote soil health, side-by-side with land managers.  

A monitoring framework will be developed within 24 European case studies that is transparent, harmonised and cost-effective. This will ensure that a wide range of biological and physical parameters essential to soil health, but disregarded by conventional soil monitoring systems, are included. It will take into account climatic and land use differences across Europe. The case study partners will co-host a series of workshops. They include the Dutch Western Peat Meadow where Commonland partners with Wij.land, La Junquera where we work with the Regeneration Academy, and our work in Spain with CEBAS-CSIC.