Tree Planting Isn’t Enough: Why Land Healing Must Begin With Communities

The best approach to understanding the local characteristics of a land is to listen to communities.

Khasi tribal man smoking a handmade pipe in front of his home at Cherrapunji, Meghalaya.

(Photo: iStock/altered by The Quint)

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Land is at the forefront of all climate-related actions, mitigation policies, local adaptation, and economic interests of multiple parties.

But there’s a quiet emergency unfolding beneath the rhetoric: land degradation.

Every year, nearly 100 million hectares, that's twice the size of France, are degraded. And more than 70 percent of that degradation stems directly from human activity.

As extreme weather events become the new normal, global restoration efforts are scrambling to catch up. The question then arises: Are we doing it right?

Restoration for Whom?

Globally, 115 countries have committed to restoring between 765.4 million and 1 billion hectares of degraded land as part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, with an estimated investment need of up to $2.1 trillion.

Despite the call for restoration and growing attention to climate mitigation, only 7.2 percent of climate finance is allocated to local adaptation efforts, a gap that is less talked about and hinders the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A key reason for this imbalance lies in how restoration responses are approached.

Mitigation, which focuses on land restoration initiatives nowadays, often prioritises provisioning services and economic returns (like benefit-cost ratios) to attract private-sector investment and tends to dominate the conversation, mainly because it is highly politicised and tied to national and international agendas.

This framing can overlook the plural values that local and indigenous communities assign to landscapes, particularly cultural, spiritual, and relational values that support and regulate ecosystem services.

In contrast, adaptation, which is about helping people and ecosystems adjust to current and future climate impacts, relies heavily on practical, interdisciplinary science that is often overlooked or underfunded.

Restorers often overlook what land signifies for the communities and what actual restoration means for their cultural and social aspirations for it, especially for the Indigenous communities.

Not All Green is Good

Land restoration goals aim to achieve full recovery, not just from an economic perspective, but also from a socio-ecological and cultural perspective that best suits the local community. But, is it the case, though, for all the restoration efforts?

Let’s take plantation drives, for instance. Planting trees is by far the most effective way to address land degradation, soil erosion, and water conservation.

Yet, is it the most fruitful way, considering the type and species of tree needed to be planted for a desired outcome?

If a non-native species is introduced to degraded land, it may initially appear to address the degradation issue, but in the long term, it will begin to have an adverse effect on the ecosystem.

Studies have shown that Eucalyptus plantations established in the regions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, aimed at improving forest cover and protecting against soil erosion, were disrupting the native vegetation, increasing water demand, and blocking groundwater recharge, thereby disrupting the hydrological cycle.

It is, thus, essential to understand the history of the locale to understand what type of ecosystem it was in the past, how it has changed over time, and which restoration approach is most effective.

Just because a solution is available does not imply it is the optimal solution.

When Communities Lead, Restoration Thrives

The best approach to understanding the local characteristics of a land is to listen to the community.

The true beginning of land restoration is when the community is included in restoration efforts, rather than relying solely on the technical and economic measures proposed by the private or corporate sector.

Local restoration initiatives, as seen in the restoration of grasslands in Lamkani village near Dhule in the early 2000s, demonstrate the impact of community engagement through watershed management and the adoption of practices such as no grazing.

In Lamkani, 472 hectares of grasslands were conserved through the community's continuous efforts.

These conservation efforts, conducted through scientific techniques, led to improvements in the village ecosystem, with better water availability and a rise in agriculture-related sectors, such as livestock rearing. This led to the community selling milk in larger quantities, a livelihood activity that was not viable before the intervention.

Moreover, increased visibility of various animal and bird species was reported, indicating that locale-specific interventions have contributed to an improved ecosystem, ultimately benefiting the communities in the long run.

Land management intervention does not necessarily have to be large-scale. Even small and locale-specific restoration activities, such as Multi-Layer Farming (MLF), can yield significant benefits.

MLF is a technique in which a small portion of agricultural land is used to cultivate multiple crops at different vertical levels using organic manures. It is also effective in water-scarce regions due to its low water requirements.

When we visited Chincholi Ramjan village in the Karjat Block of Ahilyanagar back in 2020, the introduction of MLF, run by women farmers, had shown notable improvements in farming and land management outcomes.

Farmers have reported up to a 30 percent increase in income compared to traditional farming on the same land, which was earlier used for cultivating pearl millet and wheat as major crops.

During the summer season, only farmers with access to water could cultivate fodder (maize) or vegetable crops.

This rise includes not just additional earnings from diversified crops (reducing crop failure) but also leads to cost savings from reduced dependence on market-bought fruits and vegetables.

An improved variety in dietary patterns has also been observed. With MLF, they are now able to grow fruit crops like bananas and chikoos, leafy greens such as spinach, coriander, and fenugreek, along with pod vegetables like brinjal and moringa.

In addition, many have noticed a drop in temperatures on their farms during the summer months, and increased visibility of birds and beehives has also been observed in Multi-Layer Farms, which were previously unseen.

Making Community-Centred Restoration Real

Mitigation and adaptation strategies have become silos that desperately need to be linked to maximise climate resilience; otherwise, mitigation policies will remain confined to reports, science will be confined to laboratories, and the beneficiaries will continue to face the imminent impacts of climate change.

The need for local and Indigenous communities to be at the centre of all implementation approaches and to acknowledge local values can help shape more socially just, resilient, and context-appropriate restoration strategies that benefit large-scale restoration projects.

Restoration is not just about ecological repair; it must also repair the psychological and cultural bonds between people and land.

It is not enough to recover land values economically; we must recover community-wide land relationships and value systems.

In some cases, post-restoration efforts may get neglected, resulting in a lack of accountability among the communities, which could lead to social disconnection from the land rather than fostering a sense of stewardship.

While communities are central to any successful restoration effort, it’s essential to recognise that governments and organisations can only do so much.

True progress happens when communities actively participate, not just as beneficiaries, but as partners. This requires a shift in mindset—from asking “What’s in it for us right now?” to understanding that land restoration is a long-term investment, with benefits that unfold over time.

Without the shared commitment, “community inclusiveness” will remain nothing but a catchphrase, because the commitment to the land is the absolute need of our time! There is no other way forward!

(Faraz Rupani and Saurabh Kelkar are researchers at the WOTR Centre for Resilience Studies (W-ReS), focusing on sustainable development, climate finance, rural resilience, and climate change. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed above are the authors' own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)