Many tropical forest regions that are high in biodiversity now also sustain a mix of land-use practices like agriculture, cattle ranching and mining to name some.
These human-dominated landscapes tend to contain remnant patches of native forest. In many cases, these landscapes support less biodiversity and provide fewer ecosystem services, such as clean water, erosion control and forest products. Often, these components can be restored and conserved with more sustainable land use practices.
ELTI's role is to help to restore and conserve human-dominated landscapes in the tropics that are rich in biodiversity and support a range of land-use practices.
We strengthen the capacity of people who influence or directly manage these landscapes by linking them to the science and application of sustainable land-use strategies, and the people and organizations around the world who share our mission.
These impassioned people come for all backgrounds: from the public, private, and non-profit sectors; from agriculture, tourism, and energy; from remote indigenous groups, rural communities, and world-renowned academic institutions.
We offer them dynamic and interactive field-based and online training experiences on a range of themes and in a diversity of landscapes. Many participants leave our training events inspired to make concrete commitments, plans and project designs.
But moving from training to action isn’t easy. That’s why we encourage our alumni with tailored guidance and support through our Leadership Program. By harnessing our support to make their ambitions a reality, they go on to make lasting, meaningful impacts.
Our training and leadership programs aim to:
- Raise awareness about the value of tropical forests and native tree cover for supporting biodiversity, ecosystem services and human livelihoods.
- Introduce a range of novel conservation and restoration strategies applied within human-dominated landscapes.
- Demonstrate and impart the skillsets needed to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate different strategies.
- Promote exchange and application of knowledge and experience among alumni and experts.