Protection
Reducing loss, fire risk, and illegal clearing.
Focus — Natural Resources & Regenerative Systems — Forests
FORESTS
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve forest condition and forest livelihoods for the communities who live with and from the forest.
Why this area
FORESTS
IN CONTEXT.
Forests are livelihoods as well as ecosystems. Ideas qualify when they hold both together — what the forest provides to the people beside it, and what would let it stand.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Restoration
Replanting and natural regeneration that survives past year one.
Forest livelihoods
Income from standing forest — non-timber products, agroforestry.
Community forestry
Rights, governance, and local management of forest land.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A FORESTS
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where forest condition and forest livelihoods fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — survival rate, canopy retained, or income from standing forest.
- Explains what the communities who live with and from the forest do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of forest condition and forest livelihoods in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier planting and conservation programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the communities who live with and from the forest, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — hectares protected or restored, or households involved.
- A stated measure of success — survival rate, canopy retained, or income from standing forest.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves income, biodiversity, and long-term forest cover for the communities who live with and from the forest.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named community forest association or land authority able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of forest condition and forest livelihoods in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the communities who live with and from the forest or the community forest association or land authority.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about forests with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
FORESTS IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about forest condition and forest livelihoods that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.