Supporting specialist change-makers to build a regenerative future for displaced people To support expert regenerative change-makers in the global south to expand the impact and influence of regenerative approaches to displacement. Amount available: £6,000 stipend to be spent over one year. Number of grants awarded: 1 (from December 2026). Deadline for applications: 22nd November 2026 Amplifying Your Impact Rather than funding a specific new project, this grant is designed to support an individual expert change-maker who lives and works in the Global South with people who have been displaced. Our goal is to boost your influence, expand the awareness of regenerative approaches to displacement, and help you scale the high-quality work you are already doing. We will be awarding one grant of £6,000, which will serve as a stipend to be spent over the course of one year, starting in December 2026. These funds are flexible and can be used for: Sharing your time and expertise people who need it Hosting local community activities, participatory workshops, and grassroots knowledge-sharing events. Covering travel and logistics to engage with local, regional, or international networks and decision-makers. Monitoring, evaluating, and publishing project reports or learning resources. Expected Outcomes We are looking for leaders who are ready to share their regenerative work across multiple levels: Local Impact: Increasing grassroots participation in regenerative practices and improving the quality of existing work by connecting local groups with specialist advice. Regional Influence: Establishing sustained dialogue and hosting events with local and regional decision-makers to encourage the broader adoption of regenerative solutions. International Visibility: Representing Re-Alliance and sharing insights at international conferences, or through published articles and online knowledge-sharing events. Future Funding: Identifying and applying for future funding opportunities in partnership with grassroots groups, local leaders, and regional bodies. Who Should Apply? To qualify for this grant, you must: Live and work in the Global South. Have proven knowledge, expertise, and a track record of successful past practice in your chosen regenerative field. Demonstrate that your work is high-quality, relevant to your region, and directly impacts refugee or internally displaced communities. Show an established, collaborative, and empowering approach to teaching and working. Justify the potential for sharing your practices regionally and articulate a viable plan to achieve the grant's outcomes How to Apply Please submit a one or two page expression of interest that includes: Confirmation and evidence showing how you meet the qualification criteria. It should include hyperlinks that prove your experience like project reports or media, qualifications, testimonials, or references. A clear, viable one-year action plan with expected activities and estimated costs to achieve the grant's expected outcomes. Submission Details: Email your application to: soilcircle@re-alliance.org. Subject line: ‘Specialist Application from (your name)’. Deadline: 22nd November 2026 See the further details here:

Upscaling and Integrating Regeneration Grant Funding for Grassroots Organisations Closing Date 20th October 2026 £13,625 GBP Re-Alliance is offering a £13,625 GBP grant to support a grassroots organisation in a displacement setting to integrate new regenerative approaches into their existing work. This single grant, awarded from late November 2026 and spanning one year, provides funding for project implementation and sharing your impact with influential leaders in your region. Applications are open until October 20th, 2026. To qualify, your organisation must be based in a global South country, have a registered bank account or fiscal sponsor and demonstrate proven experience doing regenerative work alongside displaced communities such as IDPs or refugees. Applications will be strongly prioritised if they are: Led by IDPs, refugees, women, or members who live and work within the affected community. Operating within Asia or the MENA region. Focused on approaches that empower agency and foster community participation. Submitted by existing members of Re-Alliance or other regenerative networks who have not previously received funding from Re-Alliance. Your proposal must focus on designing a new regenerative project that clearly benefits and involves your community. Importantly, your project cannot duplicate topics already covered by Re-Alliance publications. While you can integrate with these existing concepts, avoid proposing projects focused on any of the topics covered by our publications (follow the link to see a full list). How to Apply Submit a one-page concept note outlining how you will use the funds to: Design a new regenerative project that fosters community ownership. Host a funded event or meeting to share your project and learnings with influential regional organisations or government bodies. Collaborate with Re-Alliance to produce educational materials in a media format that suits your organisation. Your application must include a timeline and an estimated budget table breaking down costs like staff time, materials, and labour. Feel free to include links within the document to support your track record. Email your complete application to soilcircle@re-alliance.org with the subject line "Upscaling Application from [name of your organisation]" before the 20th October 2026 deadline. See the further details here:

Aerial photograph of the site in Rubondo where a participatory masterplan process has been undertaken with 20 refugee families Over the past 18 months Re-Alliance has been working with partners YICE Uganda and Bassattu Innovations in Nakivale, Uganda, and an advisory team drawn from those with significant expertise in masterplanning and refugee settlements, to support a participant-led design process with a group of 20 families in need of homes. The families were selected from a list of ‘Persons of Concern’ drawn up by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) who manages the Nakivale refugee camp, and consisted of families with a person with a disability or a single parent vulnerable household in particular need of support. Our community engagement worker, employed by YICE visited all families on the list to select those who had interest and motivation, to be part of a self designed settlement. The task was not easy. While there was strong interest among families the demands of the project were significant, and involved close involvement with a series of workshops to survey the site and engage with the principles of settlement planning. It was, and remains an ambitious pilot, looking into: How far local people can and wish to plan their own settlement and their own houses What a regenerative, closed loop settlement might look like that recycles waste, reuses materials, and conserves water to grow food Whether we could support from a distance, offering technical advice online and with minimal involvement on the ground The extent to which local planning authorities would allow innovations and their interest in learning from them to inform other settlement designs. By the spring of 2025 a final list was drawn up, the site identified, and the members of the advisory team assembled. These included Arup, the international consultancy firm, who provided pro bono support from their London and Nairobi office in masterplanning, landscape and participatory design Two representatives from the Ennead lab, an architect's firm in the US who, in 2016 wrote ‘Re-thinking Refugee Communities’ a guide to Masterplanning, used by the UN and updated with support from Re-Alliance in 2025 to include a regenerative lens A core member of the team who wrote ‘Sphere Unpacked’ Nature Based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Humanitarian Action A member of ‘The Office for Repair’ a Community of Interest design think tank who work with spatial design on the frontlines of climate concerns. Throughout the past year, Arup have led from a distance training local facilitators to run co-design workshops with future settlement residents designed around Building a shared understanding of each other and the contributions of different groups and individuals; Exploring participants daily lives, needs and their future aspirations; Translating insights into shared visions for the future settlement and emerging objectives to inform the masterplan Exploration of regeneration and the importance of inclusion, participation and co-design; Participatory mapping of existing local ecological, economic and social systems including resources and surrounding land uses; The environmental conditions of the site, including the soil conditions, wind directions, sun path, water flows and environmental risks and hazards; Community co-designing activities also included site constraints and opportunities mapping, settlement zoning and layout, housing design, water system management and community building. Naswirah and Ahmed from Bassattu help facilitate feedback from participants in a workshop Workshops included a visioning exercise to build a shared vision with participants using reference images and case study examples to help imagine a better life, their basic and most pressing needs and their aspirations.The participants undertook a co-mapping exercise to understand their daily patterns and a site assessment to survey the land, map environmental characteristics (movement of sun, prevailing winds, slopes and water systems, planting), human movement and infrastructure like water and energy utilities and identify the risks and hazards to be aware of. Participants also mapped waste and natural resources available onsite or in the surrounding area and those that could be easily purchased, the availability of water and use of surrounding land, all of which led to a zoning layout and the beginning of a masterplan design. The experience of working largely remotely to support local community groups to manage the design and construction of a settlement themselves has taught us all a lot about different needs and approaches and how to adapt complex language into simple actionable steps. It also showed how participants, who have received minimum schooling, have a strong spatial awareness of their environment and are able to interpret and construct maps of their surroundings. We found that OPM, while needing to uphold standards and protocols, were largely supportive and keen to learn, attending some of the workshops and engaging with the principles we were promoting. Two members of the Arup team, one from London and one from Kenya, made a single final visit to the site, co-leading the final design workshop and checking designs against the reality of the land. Finally we engaged a water engineer locally to work with a Water Engineer from Fluxus Ecological Designs to look closely at water availability and strategies for water retention. Water is a constant problem in many settlements, both securing a consistent supply during drought, managing drainage from WASH services and dealing with increasing incidents of flooding during rainy seasons. Combining some of the most recent thinking on regenerative water management with strong local knowledge enabled us to design tanks for storage, planting and grading strategies to minimise erosion and stabilise soils, make recommendations for toilets and adequate sanitation and include grey water recycling into the site design. participants add their local knowledge to the site analysis Arup put together a ‘Design Principles Playbook’ to support the grading process for grading the land and to guide the local team in the early stages of preparing the site for construction. The YICE and Bassatu teams have plans to build with rammed earth interlocking bricks while the Ennead team have been advising on designs that include maximum ventilation and heat cooling mechanisms. OfR are advising on foundations that stabilise buildings, which we intend to last beyond the short termism of refugee camps and offer residents long term homes. Future residents are already growing food, having harvested their first vegetables in May this year, well before they have even built their houses. An initial draft of the masterplan from Arup Our combined vision for a closed-loop regenerative settlement still only exists on paper, and the team are struggling with broken grading machines, delayed planning reports and the approaching rains. But construction is scheduled to begin any day now. Here is a short video by our community correspondent Rolande Asima in Nakivale showing the early project planning phases.

Ndolo Irene Mobby harvests plantain on her biodiverse farm in Muyuka, Cameroon. The harsh effects of the climate crisis are increasingly being felt in all aspects of our lives. One of these consequences is rising food prices. In local markets in Buea, Cameroon, consumers are paying more for staple foods as changing weather patterns reduce harvest and disrupt food supply chains. Traders at the Great Soppo Market say crops such as plantain have become more expensive because prolonged rains, strong winds, and unpredictable weather are damaging farms before harvest. The drop in supply is causing a rise in prices, leaving both vendors and consumers struggling to cope. "Whenever it is the rainy season, the quantity of plantain drops because the rain falls with strong winds. The winds push down the plantains before they mature, leaving very little to sell," Casandra, a plantain trader explains. The impact ripples beyond the markets. Restaurant owners say they are forced to reduce portion sizes, because the same amount of money now buys significantly less produce. "Plantain that we used to buy for FCFA 1,000 or 1,500 now gives us only a small quantity. We have no choice but to reduce the portions we serve because our purchasing cost has increased," says Taku Genevive, a restaurant owner. In Muyuka, farmer Ndolo Irene Mobby has embraced intercropping, cultivating plantain alongside crops such as cassava, cocoyams, potatoes, cocoa, oranges, plums and yams. She says the crop yields have become increasingly difficult to predict, with hotter temperatures and hasher sunshine affecting growth. “We had early rain in February which made us plant on the basis that the rains have come, but after which we had prolonged dryness that affected the crops we planted.” While consumers grapple with rising food costs, some farmers are changing the way they farm to reduce climate-related losses. Instead of focusing only on a single crop, the diversified farms spread production throughout the year, ensuring that if one crop fails, or its season ends, another can provide food or income. "When plums finish, oranges begin. When oranges are gone, another crop is ready. Every crop has its own season, so I can always harvest something," Irene explains. Intercropping helps farmers make better use of land while improving resilience to climate shocks, and creating more space for biodiversity. Growing different crops together reduces the risk of complete crop failure, improves soil cover, conserves moisture, suppresses weeds, and allows farmers to harvest at different times of the year. “When you plant yams, it takes about three months for the yams to have foliage that is covering the land. So during that time you can plant waterleaf, which you can harvest and sell [within that three months].” Dr. Mananga Ngongi, an agricultural expert explained. Beyond the economic benefits of practicing mixed cropping, Dr Ngongi said it helps to conserve the soil. “Another advantage is for soil conservation, that is, to have soil cover during the time when the main crop has not yet covered the ground. So instead of just going to remove weeds, you can instead harvest crops that will be of help." Dr. Ngongi added. As climate change continues to affect agricultural production across Cameroon and the world, the effects are becoming increasingly visible on household food budgets. Rising market prices are one consequence, but farmers adopting diversified production systems demonstrate that some level of adaptation may be possible. Ndolo Irene Mobby’s experience suggests that building resilience does not always require expensive technology. Sometimes, integrating a Regenerative and ecosystemic approach, such as growing a wider variety of perennial crops on the same farm, can protect both livelihoods and local food supplies in the face of an increasingly unpredictable climate. Find out more about this story in the video above, and explore other integrated regenerative methodologies on the publications page here.

The climate and nature crises and rising displacement are no longer "future risks". With reducing aid budgets and increasing conflicts and displacement, we have to shift our practices now to become resilient to oncoming shocks. In these tables, you can see the increasing global temperature over time (in °C since 1850), stacked with figures showing increasing numbers of displaced people. These figures are from Our World In Data and UNHCR. But as the humanitarian sector, how do we move from crisis management to resilience building, Regenerative response? Re-Alliance has launched a new, free online learning course on the Humanitarian Leadership Academy’s Kaya Connect platform. The course takes two hours, and you’ll begin your learning journey on how to work with nature to build genuine climate adaptation and stronger communities. Why sign up? Get certified: Earn a certificate to showcase your expertise to your network! Grow your understanding: Explore core regenerative concepts in one sitting. Know where to find more information: This is the first step in your learning journey, and find some options for your deeper learning. Ready to start your learning journey? Take the course now! ➡️ bit.ly/regencoursekaya

Photo above: Evambe Thompson at his tree nursery in Vasingi Village, Cameroon. Photo by Boris-Karloff Batata Vasingi Village in Buea, Cameroon, sits near the biodiverse but ecologically threatened Mount Cameroon National Park. Farmer and apiculturist Evambe Thompson leads an ambitious project called “Green Village” aimed at reforesting Mount Cameroon by planting over 1,000 trees. Thompson has a nursery where he is nursing both fruit trees and ‘non-timber forest product’ species for distribution and planting. Within the space of one year, Thompson has already planted 200 trees and distributed 600 to neighbouring communities around Mount Cameroon. In order to generate nature-based livelihoods, Thompson integrates bee keeping into the programme. He trains local people on safe and bee-friendly apiculture, as opposed to wild honey harvesting which sometimes can threaten the biodiversity on Mount Cameron. According to Thompson, some people who harvest wild honey use fire to flush out the bees, which has led to wildfires spreading. Mount Cameroon National Park Forest Guard Ikome Nelson adds, “Every year, you see fire on the mountain. From investigation, it shows people have been collecting wild honey … and in the course of collecting this honey they abandon their fire in the forest and the fire goes wild.” Mount Cameroon is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in Cameroon, including  endangered forest elephants, chimpanzees, and the elusive primates called Drills. Thompson believes that nature-based livelihoods are essential for supporting forest-edge and forest dwelling communities. While not all beekeeping can be considered nature-friendly, Thompson believes that with good practice, apiculture can go hand-in-hand with reforestation efforts. Bees can thrive in a forested area, so alongside his 48 hives and 28 colonies, Thompson plants fruit trees and other trees, helping to buffer the edge of the forest and keep tree cover.  Thompson has seen how climate change is negatively affecting bee keeping activities. “During this era of climate change, there are seasons when before the bees [are able to] harvest enough nectar, the rains already come and knock the blossoms off the trees.” He goes further to explain that sometimes, due to the changing climate, the trees do not bloom at all. According to Ikome Nelson, since 2021, the Mount Cameroon National Park has supported 114 bee keepers with 1,000 bee hives. Within this time, the farmers have harvested more than 1,000 litters of honey, amounting to a profit of more than FCFA 5,000,000 (~ USD $9,000). As the climate keeps changing, communities must find ways to build resilience through mitigation and adaptation practices like Thompson’s Green Village project. With the necessary support, these projects can support communities to thrive while standing against the negative effects of climate change.

In refugee and IDP settlements across the world, a mobile phone can be a lifeline for the people who live there. But keeping phones charged in these contexts can be costly, unreliable, or even unsafe. That’s where the Wind Mobile project steps in, blending local ingenuity and resources, renewable wind power, and global collaboration to create real-world solutions that work where they’re needed most. An exploded diagram of a design using timber blades that can be built using recycled components Launched by School of the Earth  and supported by Re-Alliance , Wind Mobile set out to tackle a deceptively simple challenge: how can communities in refugee camps charge phones and power small devices using locally made, low-tech wind turbines ? Rather than developing a one-size-fits-all product, the project adopted a phased, community-driven design approach , working with four different networks across Africa and Europe: Wind Empowerment  (West Africa) – For early technical R&D using salvaged hoverboard magnets. Africa Maker-space Network  (East Africa) – To adapt and prototype turbines using recycled loudspeaker magnets. Habibi.Works  (Greece) – For hands-on, refugee-led manufacturing workshops. Re-Alliance Network  – To extend and test designs for diverse humanitarian contexts. One of Wind Mobile’s most inspiring aspects is its commitment to appropriate technology by building what’s needed, using what’s available. Whether it was hoverboard magnets in Côte d'Ivoire or speaker magnets in Uganda and Kenya, each turbine design was shaped by what local communities could find and fabricate themselves . E-waste proved a reliable source of magnets while the skills of simple carpentry and car mechanics could be transferred to manufacturing the turbines. Upcycled speaker magnets were used in the East African designs in Kenya and Uganda Designs were carefully tested, including in university labs and international competitions, proving that hand-crafted turbines made with salvaged parts  can deliver meaningful energy outputs, up to 500 watts in some cases! In October 2024, the Wind Mobile vision came to life in a makerspace near the Katsikas refugee camp  in Greece. Participants from Kenya , Uganda , and Ghana  joined local and refugee makers for a week-long workshop at Habibi.Works . They built turbines, exchanged skills, overcame language barriers, and left with the tools and confidence to replicate the work in their home communities. The event became a melting pot of ideas, cultures, and practical know-how - exactly what the project hoped to achieve. Read the full end-of-project report below.

There are moments in our work when the “nexus” stops being a jargon term and becomes something you can feel and see in the way people interact with each other and with the land: a flooded field where a family once harvested together. A hillside that slips after a mining road is cut into its foundations. A community meeting where people speak, sometimes for the first time, about what was taken from them: safety, livelihood, place, dignity. When we talk about the peacebuilding and environment nexus , we’re naming a simple reality: ecological change and ecological harm shape the conditions for conflict and for peace . Natural resources can become drivers of fragility and violence, especially where governance is weak, inequities entrenched, or the relationship to nature is extractive. And just as importantly, environmental cooperation can also be an entry point for rebuilding trust, restoring services, and supporting durable peace . This is the place where “climate security” conversations often begin, but they don’t end there. When responding to environmental conflict it is as important to recognise the impacts of conflict on people and communities and their need to come together to heal. Collective   trauma is one of the most under-acknowledged bridges between environmental harm and cycles of violence. Re-Alliance’s approach to regenerative peacebuilding thinks in 'nested wholes': rebuilding relationships with the self, with community, with the wider world, and always grounded in relationship with nature and Place. We recently launched a guide exploring how communities can be first responders to trauma , and we also explored this in a podcast with Re-Alliance members Timothy Salomon and Perpetua Tuncha . From “environment as a threat” to environment as a relationship One of the most moving threads in Tim Salomon’s reflections in this recent podcast  is how trauma and ecology can sit on top of each other , especially in places shaped by land dispossession, extractive projects, and repeated disasters: “So much of our ... work deals with this in relation to trauma and is related to land grabbing or ecological degradation and the natural disasters… being part of a very climate change vulnerable geography.” But he moves on, from seeing nature as the enemy, and toward understanding the relationship that has been damaged. Referencing a flood that displaced entire communities, he said: “Water is not evil. It’s how we have a relationship with the mountain and the river that brought us so much hurt.” This matters because many climate-and-conflict discussions can become overly linear: drought = scarcity = violence . The reality is more complex. Current research urges more careful attention to local dynamics and to the ways violence, cooperation, institutions, and inequality interact. ( For example, Sändig et al ) When Tim talks about trauma healing, he’s not describing a retreat from politics, but sense-making that can hold both accountability and complexity : “Although there is some level of healthy anger because we do need to seek accountability… But we also need to come to peace, as we, as a society… historically we have exploited nature… it is also structural.” That word, structural , is one of the quiet keys to the nexus. Regenerative peacebuilding means healing systems, not only symptoms In peacebuilding, we often ask: What reduces violence right now ? In environmental work, we often ask: What restores ecosystems and livelihoods over time ? A regenerative approach insists we ask both, and then goes further: What are we regenerating in the relationships between people, place, and power? Tim puts it plainly: “We need to look at it… not only from an individual perspective, but from a systems perspective, because the very reasons that the conflicts or the disasters are there are systemic.” And even more sharply: “The greed of the few instead of the need of the many is the very reason why people are unsatisfied with their… quality of life.” If systems drive harm, then part of healing is restoring agency and repairing the conditions that made people vulnerable in the first place, through land governance, inclusive adaptation, livelihood sovereignty, and conflict-sensitive programming. Trauma in the centre of the nexus Trauma is often treated as an individual experience, but many communities live trauma as something communal and environmental: it’s in displacement, in loss of territory, in disrupted seasons, in broken rivers, in fear of what the next storm will take. Tim names the risk when the “source” of trauma is everywhere: “That is difficult to heal because it’s the rain and the mountains, it's all around us.” And he names a careful practice challenge too: “Sometimes trauma healing also needs to have that consciousness raising… [but] if you do this consciousness raising when people are not ready, sometimes it turns into… anger towards certain parties.” This is where the peacebuilding-and-environment nexus becomes deeply practical. It asks us to design interventions that: support psychosocial safety and pacing , strengthen community agency , and avoid turning climate narratives into blame spirals that deepen division. Five principles for practice at the peace–environment nexus 1) Start with the lived and local experience Begin with what people notice: water tastes different, forests are thinner, grazing routes have shifted, land access is contested. Then connect that experience to risks and options, together. 2) Make cooperation visible (and resourced) Environmental peacebuilding emphasises sustainable (and regenerative) resource management before, during, and after  conflict as a way to reduce fragility and build “positive peace.” ( Krampe et al ) This can look like shared water governance, land dispute resolution linked to livelihoods, or community-led restoration that rebuilds trust. 3) Do “conflict-sensitive adaptation,” not adaptation that fuels tension Adaptation projects can unintentionally intensify grievances if they shift benefits, land access, or power. Practical guidance on conflict-sensitive adaptation exists for exactly this reason. ( Eg.Tänzler and Scherer ) 4) Treat agency as part of healing Tim’s phrasing is worth holding onto: “…restoring their capability to act and to control their lives instead of being traumatised and feeling helpless.” Agency can mean governance, rights, access, safety, and voice. 5) Measure what is actually valuable If the goal is both peace and ecological resilience, monitoring has to reflect both, without forcing communities into technocratic reporting. Make reporting meaningful, easeful and multi-use for all stakeholders. What this means for the stories we tell The public narrative about climate and conflict often gravitates toward fear. But environmental peacebuilding offers a stance of practical hope rooted in relationship , and in the hard work of changing the systems that make harm more likely. As Tim said: “On one hand, we need to heal the individuals, we need to heal the communities, but also we need to heal the systems that brought about the destruction.” If we can hold that “on one hand… and on the other…”, if we can design for trauma healing and  for land justice, for dialogue and  for restoration, then the peacebuilding and environment nexus stops being a buzz-phrase and begins to influence practice, and hope. FAQs What is environmental peacebuilding? Environmental peacebuilding is an approach that uses environmental management, cooperation, and governance (land, water, ecosystems, resources) as entry points to reduce conflict risks and support peace. Re-Alliance invites us to add a lens of regeneration, which could mean also healing our broken relationship with nature. Does climate change cause war? Climate change can increase risks of conflict by worsening livelihood pressures and institutional strain, especially in contexts already experiencing inequality, but outcomes vary widely. Local politics, inequality, community cohesion, and governance shape whether stress turns into conflict or cooperation. How does nature relate to conflict? Competition, exclusion, land dispossession, and weak governance around resources can contribute to grievances and violence, yet shared resource governance can also create pathways for cooperation. Restoring a right relationship with land can also challenge underlying tensions and offer more pathways toward lasting peace. What is conflict-sensitive climate adaptation? It means designing climate adaptation so it does not exacerbate tensions, and ideally contributes to stability and lasting peace.

Illustration of an Arborloo by Tanya Haldipur Project Overview 8 arborloo toilets were built for shared household use for new arrivals in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda by refugee-led UNIDOS Social Innovation Center, in partnership with Re-Alliance. When full, these portable toilets will be moved for continued use and trees will be planted on the full pits.  The project showed the potential for lower cost arboloos to be rapidly built to respond to influxes of new arrivals. Beyond providing a safe, dignified toilet, arboloos compost wastes in-situ, building soils and feeding sapling trees such as mango, guava or banana, planted above. Because they use shallow pits and are simple to construct, they can be built and maintained by the local community with very low maintenance costs. Because wastes are composted in-situ, there is no secondary handling, reducing risks to health.  UNIDOS trained eight households of new refugee arrivals, all identified as Persons with Special Needs, to construct and maintain the lower-cost arborloo toilets using locally available materials. They continue to support the use and maintenance and will help households move the toilets and plant trees when they are full. What is an Arborloo? Sectional drawing of a relocated arborloo, by Tanya Haldipur The arborloo is a simple, lower-cost toilet that integrates sanitation with tree planting. It is a shallow pit toilet, typically dug to a depth of between 1 and 2 meters which promotes the conditions for composting. When the pit is full, a new pit is dug nearby and the toilet is moved. A tree is planted on the full pit. As a pit toilet, they are not suitable for all locations including areas close to natural water sources and places with rocky ground. Because pits are shallow, they only have the capacity for household, or shared household use, rather than communal latrines as the number of users must be controlled.   The Arborloo Process Construction:  The user first digs a shallow pit. A portable toilet consisting of a ring beam, slab, and superstructure is placed over this pit. Use:  The pit is used as a standard pit latrine. Users are encouraged to cover the excreta with soil, ash, and/or leaves. It is important to train people not to add excess water or put rubbish down the pit. Relocation & Regeneration:  Once the pit is full, typically between 6 and 12 months, the toilet superstructure is moved to a newly dug pit nearby. Planting:  A beneficial tree, such as mango, guava, paw paw, banana, or mulberry, is then planted directly on top of the filled, nutrient-rich pit. The Multiple benefits of Arborloos The Arborloo system turns human waste into compost, allowing the tree roots to tap into the nutrients to boost growth. This process delivers multiple long-term benefits to the community: Paulinho from Unidos and representatives from OPM visit a participant who is using and maintaining the arborloo. The structure is timber and clad with light-weight metal sheeting Sanitation and protection:  Provides immediate, dignified, and safe sanitation. Because the toilets are for households rather than communal latrines, they are closer to where the users live and safer for women and girls. Ecology: Trees stabilise soils, provides shade and cooling, sequester carbon, increases biodiversity. The compost boosts soil health and water-holding capacity.  Resources:  Over time trees can provide food, mulch and coppice materials for households The project successfully built eight arboloo toilets, provided sanitation and maintenance education to the selected households, and will engage households going forward in continued M&E, moving the toilets and tree-planting. Challenges The final report highlighted two primary challenges: High Demand:  The demand for the toilets significantly exceeded the supply. It is important that toilets are not over-used by too many people so padlocks on the outside of the toilets were needed to ensure the toilets were kept for household, rather than communal use.  Higher materials costs:  Seasonal changes led to an increase in the price of construction materials, impacting the initial budget. Despite these challenges, the project demonstrated a successful, replicable model for providing resilient and regenerative solutions to communities by integrating sanitation, hygiene promotion, and tree planting. How much does an Arborloo cost? The Nakivale project used lower-cost, locally sourced materials to maximize the sustainability and replicability of the design. Materials for the superstructure can be varied according to context. The cost of materials and transportation for a single Arboloo toilet  in Nakivale: Item/Material Unit Cost (UGX) Total Cost (UGX) Total USD cost Iron Sheets 24,000 192,000 55 Rebar x 10 35,000 140,000 40 Wood 12,000 84,000 24 Cement 40,000 80,000 23 Wheelbarrow 15,000 60,000 17 Kazao Sand 20,000 60,000 17 Rebar 8 15,000 45,000 13 Nail (roof, wood & sheet) 6,000 30,000 9 Padlock 5,000 5,000 1 Sub-Total (Materials) 696,000 199 Transportation of Materials (per toilet) 80,000 80,000 23 Total Unit Construction Cost  (Materials + Transport) 776,000 UGX 222 USD The total project budget also included crucial non-material expenses, including 580,500 UGX for project training costs, and 1,005,332 UGX for Unidos staff wages.  Resources See more about Unidos' work: https://unidosprojects.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/unidosprojects/ See a short Youtube video featuring the aborloos here: https://youtube.com/shorts/QK4SEjxEpls?feature=shared    Download the one page guide to arborloos here: Read the Re-alliance guide to ecological sanitation here

Re-alliance Co-ordinator Juliet Millican shares her thoughts after a work trip to Ethiopia I have just returned from 2 weeks in Ethiopia, training researchers in participatory research methods and interviewing representatives from government, INGOs and NGOs working in climate and conflict displacement.  The trainee researchers, many from a local university, were informed, enthusiastic and passionate, keen to work closely with local displaced communities to explore their experiences and their challenges. Everyone was aware of the acute situation that much of the world, but fragile states particularly, are facing. Extreme weather events and an increasingly harsh climate are creating more emergencies year on year, adding to the disintegration or breakdown of the temporary structures and facilities put in place to respond. The instability created as a result, fear over access to scarce resources and dissatisfaction with how governments are coping, only leads to further instability, further conflict and still more displacement.  In a country like Ethiopia, where language, cultural and ethnic differences are stark between regions, groups vie with each other for power, and, like in much of Europe, families who have been in a region for several generations are now being told by former neighbours to ‘go home’! Climate emergencies exacerbate conflict; conflict is protracted, migration is increased, temporary camps overflow, services breakdown and people resort to sanitation and hygiene practices that further damage their health and that of their environment. Despite the challenging conditions in which they live and the hostility of hosts, they are left in a state of dependency with few options but to adapt. At the same time those attempting to respond to the crisis are having to do more with less. The dismantling of USAID and the sudden disappearance of many internationally funded NGOs and INGOs from the sector have left those who are still working within it struggling to cope. Government officials are stuck in emergency response mode, asking for more of everything in order to keep going. In Ethiopia’s case, this is more money, more land, more tents, more latrines, more trucks to de-sludge latrines and more imported food. But it’s never enough and communities become disdainful of what the government is doing, and conflict further increases. Those officials tasked with humanitarian response cry ‘but we were only mandated to save lives, not to sustain them over longer periods, these structures weren’t built to last!’.  The old system cannot work within the new world order, and the sector, and the way in which migration is managed, has to change.  INGOs are exploring new and innovative ideas that involve bringing different sectors together in response. Partnerships with local universities and funding for research rather than emergency response can unlock new technologies that reuse the waste created by large groups of people in one space. Whether solid waste, food waste, or human waste, they are looking to recycle or compost these and to put their value back into the market or the soil. NGOs are experimenting with water retention and water capture, urine diversion toilets and grey water use, and have had some success in improving environmental conditions and supporting groups to grow food. But these approaches need investment to test and to spread, and people need to be encouraged to accept and to use them rather than waiting for more support from outside.  It is not difficult to see how a range of factors are colliding into a complex system in a state of crisis, with only a few pockets of hope. While there is no single easy solution, shifting one element in a system can eventually shift the whole. What won’t help is vainly working to keep the system functioning in the way it always has done, when it is already at breaking point.  Elements that desperately need shifting include: Dependency, and the expectation that the solution comes from outside Globally the political will is no longer there, and the damage created to human and environmental health by bringing in rather than developing within has become obvious. People need more control over their own solutions, and external support can plan for this, by designing emergency response in a way that rapidly begins to shift power and responsibility and involve those displaced in the response.  Working with environments rather than against them. ‘ Don’t push the river’ is a phrase I have grown up with, look for the flow and go with it. This often applies literally as well as metaphorically. Supporting what people can do, looking at what people want to do, and moving with rather than against environmental conditions. Water retention landscapes are essential to raise the water table so that land can recover, food can grow and water can be pumped from wells. Assessing and understanding the land and putting strategies in place before emergencies occur can offer alternatives to, for example, temporary concreted latrines in areas that flood and break or overflow in rains.   Building partnership with local structures and systems and working across sectors rather than only seeking expertise within them . Partnerships with local universities, working with young and enthusiastic researchers like I have done here, or experienced and knowledgeable academics, who know their people and their context and are keen to experiment, can bring new technologies adapted to context, if they have the funds for research. Partnerships with local private sector organisations,  who see the business potential of some of these technologies, can generate small livelihoods for the people who implement them, in selling food, collecting waste, making compost or saving seeds.  Planning for the unexpected and for the long term and investing in longer term solutions.   The unexpected is no longer unexpected, while we don’t know what will happen when, we do know things will be unstable for the foreseeable future, and emergencies develop rapidly into long-term and protracted crises. Building shelters from locally-sourced durable materials rather than using plastic tents that will break down and infiltrate the soil reduces the damage and waste from short-term fixes.  Introducing reusable elements into rapid construction processes enables temporary shelters to be converted into longer-term structures over time and means an emergency response can evolve into a resilient settlement that benefits people and the environment.  Re-alliance does some of this work and is a tiny part of a growing movement that recognises the need for systems change. Like the Sphere guide to Nature Based Solutions in Humanitarian response, and growing numbers of visionary practitioners in communities, in some INGOs and in academia, they are together creating pockets of hope. Although we won’t find all the answers on our own, we feel at least we are assembling the right partners, having the right conversations and shifting some of these moving pieces in the right direction.  Join us, as members, funders, or advocates and become part of the conversation.

A statement on this week's UN Environment Programmes Emissions Gap Report ahead of COP30 We want to start this statement by saying that there is hope. It’s easy to feel disheartened, and it’s also easy for writers to fall into the doomscrolling traps that make our readers feel shocked and scared for the sake of a clickable headline. Yes, we are in a dire place, but that doesn’t mean we should sit back and let corporate greed in the minority world ruin us all. We can take action. Hold on to your optimism as you read the latest UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report . This week’s report   marks ten years since the Paris Agreement and delivers a very frank warning. While the last ten years has seen a solid uptake of seemingly positive policies from nations around the world, global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise, reaching a record 57.7 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2024 . Current policies and practices put the planet on course for around 2.8 °C of warming . The report highlights that 1.5 °C of warming will almost certainly be exceeded within the next decade , if indeed we have not already passed this threshold. Oxfam’s new report titled Climate Plunder  highlights how the majority of these emissions are caused by a small group of people in the Global North. A single billionaire emits as much emissions as the entire population of many countries. At the same time, many billionaires and their companies lobby policymakers to protect their polluting interests at the expense of progressive climate policies. This greed, very literally, costs lives. Politics tends to be innately slow. Sometimes, this is rightfully so because, of course, policies need to go through a consultation period and be reviewed and iterated on by a wide number of people with a high level of expertise in the subject. However, we often see how policies are undermined because of corporate interests. Climate policies move at a disproportionately slow rate, and at previous climate conferences like COP we see that climate goals gradually weaken throughout the drafting process after interventions by fossil fuel lobbyists. We acknowledge and applaud the meaningful steps forward toward climate action, but these steps are far too slow and too shallow. Every moment of inaction or weak action locks in further harm for people, non-human animals and ecosystems, especially in the Global South. Many communities are already facing climate-induced disasters and displacement. But we don’t need to wait for the political needle to shift. Communities around the world are already transforming their eco-social landscapes through regenerative design. The wild, natural world is filled with learnings on how we can meet our human needs while also living in partnership with thriving, healthy ecosystems. We need politicians and policymakers who are Permaculture Designers, Agroecologists, Regenerative thinkers, and implementers of Nature-based Solutions. As practitioners in Regenerative movements, let’s educate them at every possible opportunity. But while they are learning, let us stand in solidarity with each other, and learn from one another’s wisdom. Let us tend to our own communities, locally and internationally, to grow resilience from the group up. We can’t wait, and we don’t need to wait. Signed, Re-Alliance members

The Regenerative Refugee Settlement project in Nakivale is led by YICE, our partner in Uganda, under the guidance of their director Noah Ssempijja, alongside a team from Arup as advisors . The project is based on 3 acres of land within the Rubondo zone of Nakivale Refugee Settlement where 20 refugee households will take part in a participatory design for a regenerative settlement on the site together with YICE. After designing the site, householders will help to build their homes and gardens and live together in their ‘village’. When I first spoke to Noah about the possibilities for developing this, more than a year ago now, he went away to consider what a regenerative settlement might look like. He came back with details of Blueprint200, a project with a similar aim to be built in Portugal in 2018. For us at Re-Alliance it was an amazing synchronicity to see this. We didn’t know this material was even accessible on the internet but the project, and the work behind it, was intricately connected with the founding of Re-Alliance in 2019. Blueprint, a loose collaboration of friends who were all involved in different ways in regenerative technologies, was established after the death of one of their group, Paulo Mellett, in 2014. Paulo, a strong advocate for permaculture, ecology and equality died after an illness contracted in Ghana, and his friends came together to continue his work. Blueprint was an opportunity to trial some of these technologies in action, and after acquiring land on the site of Tamera, a community in Portugal, they planned to build a model site educating on alternative solutions for displaced people. They wrote at the time: ‘We are at the confluence of resource depletion, climate instability and economic inequality where we all need solutions for regenerative living. The global refugee situation offers a chance to direct the potential of these solutions towards this pressure point of our time; serving some of the people most in need today. Our project will build an inspiring demonstration and training center in Tamera in the form of a temporary settlement for 200 people. This will serve as an evolving model for regenerative design which fosters trust and restores the surrounding landscape. The design integrates the elements of water, energy, shelter, food and social cohesion which can be used in emergency responses. Those who stay in, visit and study the model will gain a new perspective, in a way that continuously influences camp designs, standards, and policies for displaced people and refugees’. Between 2016 and 2018 they developed a series of Pattern Cards, based on a Regenerative Continuum and a set of ‘Contradictions’. This provided a toolkit for decision making on how to integrate water, shelter, energy, food and social cohesion into a humanitarian aid context to ensure protection & safeguarding as well as a harmonious sense of wellbeing.  The cards were developed, the site acquired, research was undertaken in Algeria and initial earthworks were started on site. Sadly, planning regulations in Portugal prevented the project from finally coming to fruition.  Re-Alliance was formed in 2019 to further continue that work. As a registered charity with dedicated resources it was led partly by members of Paulo’s family and included some of the original Blueprint network. It shares similar aims, of developing, piloting in situ and sharing knowledge to support communities in building their own solutions. Over the past six years we have partnered with members to implement 16 individual pilots, shared learnings from these via multiple booklets, videos, podcasts and webinars, and looked more closely at the different guidelines that exist around settlement design and regenerative or nature-based solutions. Deciding to bring these together in an integrated, closed-loop system for 20 families, around 150 people, is the culmination of this work. We’re also happy to be working with Arup who bring an expertise in design, consulting, and planning of projects of significant scale. Collaborative mapping with the participants in Rubondo My first conversation about this with Noah and his own discovery of the Blueprint materials brings us full circle, as we move forward with these guidelines and all those acquired since to design this with the people who will live there. While the setbacks of the Blueprint 200 project seemed frustrating at the time, the project in Nakivale goes further to empower the people most effected by displacement in their own recovery and is a more appropriate context for this community-driven design project. The first workshops have shown already the incredible possibilities when people are empowered to design for themselves.