Land degradation is a widespread problem across the globe with serious consequences for the environment and all of society. Worsening land degradation caused by human activities is undermining the well-being of two-fifths of humanity, driving species extinctions and intensifying climate change. But there’s a huge potential for restoring landscapes: around two billion hectares of land, about two times the size of China, can be restored.
In this MOOC we focus on the potential of business model innovation for the challenge of large-scale landscape restoration. We take a partnership approach and make a bridge between ecology and economy. Learners get to design their own innovative business model for landscape restoration with 4 returns: return of natural capital, return of social capital, return of inspiration and return of financial capital. You move from ideation towards successful implementation. Each step is illustrated with three real-life cases of landscape restoration in Spain, Iceland and Portugal.