Regenerative Landscapes for Community Resilience in Venezuela

Venezuela

Resilience, Agriculture, Education

$3,237

USD

by 101 donors

Fundación Senderos

Venezuela

Nonprofit

Fundación Senderos is a local NGO based in La Mucuy, Mérida, Venezuela, working to develop resilient rural communities through nature-based solutions, including regenerative agriculture, bioconstruction, and biochar production. The organization promotes regenerative culture through agrifood-focused solutions rooted in the local community. Its work has benefited rural schools and farmers through biomass management strategies and a local bioeconomy approach. Its community headquarters, Casa La Lumbre, was inaugurated in 2022 as a center for applied learning and experimentation in sustainable rural habitat, low-carbon construction, permaculture, and environmental sanitation. In 2025, the NGO inaugurated the ‘Biofábrica,’ a community-scale facility designed to transform agricultural and forestry residues into Biochar-Based Fertilizers (BBF) for coffee farms, while also serving as an operational, educational, and demonstrative hub for regeneration and dMRV implementation

International Biochar Initiative

Virginia, United States

Nonprofit

The International Biochar Initiative provides the global collective voice to catalyze the momentum behind biochar. Through biochar, the organization is fostering a future where communities thrive, industries innovate, and ecosystems regenerate. The organization focuses on catalyzing biochar's global impact for climate, environment, and communities.

Project story

Although it is still too early to fully assess the impact of the June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela, IOM estimates that 6.76 million people could be affected. This scale makes clear that recovery will require a long-term view, grounded in resilience, community care, and sustained regenerative action. Our project is a community-based recovery initiative shaped by this urgent national context. Rooted in long-term work with rural schools, local organizations, and community allies, it strengthens land and community resilience through ecological restoration, intergenerational learning, and practical regenerative action.

The project is grounded in Mérida, where it has already begun and will secure further implementation through Round funds. It will carry out tree-planting and ecological restoration activities across prioritized areas, using participatory design and permaculture principles to restore landscapes, strengthen local food resilience, and support biodiversity recovery. The current national context also requires us to begin with a participatory diagnosis to better understand conditions in the metropolitan area most affected by the earthquake, in coordination with allied organizations on the ground. Based on this assessment, additional crowdfunding may allow us to prototype an expanded response in the metropolitan area. This phased approach keeps the project grounded in what our team can deliver now, while leaving room to extend support where it is most needed.

The project also includes a livelihoods component for adults connected to participating schools in Mérida. Inspired by Fundación Senderos’ AgroBioEntrepreneurship model, it will share practical approaches based on biochar production and local bioeconomy development, creating opportunities for learning, exchange, and long-term community resilience.

Ecological, social, and educational outcomes will be publicly presented during Regenera Fest, a cultural and ecological gathering that fosters community exchange, accountability, and sustained support for the regenerative process in Mérida.