Puso Sanctuary: A Bioregional Learning Center for Regenerative Resilience
Living Story Landscapes is committed to restoring and re-storying narratives of place and belonging through cultural memory and imagination. It weaves the arts, culture, well-being, and ecology to support an ecosystem’s resilience and regeneration in the backdrop of climate change and biodiversity loss. It functions through multiple capacities - as a living laboratory, learning journey steward, design incubator, and facilitator for participatory action research. It continues the legacy of Green Releaf Initiative which worked on regenerative resilience solutions with frontline communities impacted by climate change, biodiversity loss, and conflict.
GainForest is a decentralized science non-profit developing advanced and equitable nature tech to support global conservation. The organization bridges cutting-edge AI with Indigenous wisdom, creating a global system where conservation is transparent, equitable, and scalable. GainForest's mission is to reverse global deforestation by catalyzing impactful community-based nature conservation and incentivizing frictionless sustainable financing through trust-enhancing technology. The organization uses machine learning-based impact evaluators that leverage satellite and drone imagery to detect ecological changes, allowing communities to unlock payments from a decentralized fund when verified milestones are achieved.
Project story
A Permanent Bioregional Learning Center to Prepare for and Mitigate Future Disasters
For the last 7 years, Green Releaf Initiative, a non-profit organization developed micro learning sites for regenerative resilience after conflict and climate related disasters all over the Philippines. This time, Living Story Landscapes is continuing its legacy by developing a permanent bioregional learning center called Puso Sanctuary where frontline communities and their advocates can learn vital knowledge and practice for reducing disaster risk and prepare for them ahead of time.
The sanctuary is within the watershed of the Central Cebu Protected Landcapes where a mere 1% of original forest cover is left due to centuries of colonization, modernization, and agricultural expansion. When Typhoon Kalmaeigi devastated communities with catastrophic landslides and floods in 2025, the urgent need for watershed restoration became undeniable. Puso Sanctuary is stepping up to protect vulnerable communities through ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.
Our vision extends beyond a single facility. We've also launched a multistakeholder ecosystem fostering collaborations between government, civil society, and business sectors to scale watershed solutions across the region called Handuraw Panaw.
This fundraising campaign launches Puso Sanctuary’s foundations. We're seeking support to complete our site assessment, analysis, and curriculum design work which we will invite impacted communities to learn together. While doing so, we aim to establish basic infrastructures for water, energy, waste, and a sustainable communal structure that will enable transformative learning activities. In the process, we aim to develop this as a living museum for Cebu’s biocultural heritage. Together, with your support, we can restore not only Cebu's ecological health and build regenerative resilience for generations to come for the rest of the Philippines.
Photo gallery images are from Green Releaf Initiative’s work from 2017-2025.
Project updates
Team
Puso Sanctuary: A Bioregional Learning Center for Regenerative Resilience
Living Story Landscapes is committed to restoring and re-storying narratives of place and belonging through cultural memory and imagination. It weaves the arts, culture, well-being, and ecology to support an ecosystem’s resilience and regeneration in the backdrop of climate change and biodiversity loss. It functions through multiple capacities - as a living laboratory, learning journey steward, design incubator, and facilitator for participatory action research. It continues the legacy of Green Releaf Initiative which worked on regenerative resilience solutions with frontline communities impacted by climate change, biodiversity loss, and conflict.
GainForest is a decentralized science non-profit developing advanced and equitable nature tech to support global conservation. The organization bridges cutting-edge AI with Indigenous wisdom, creating a global system where conservation is transparent, equitable, and scalable. GainForest's mission is to reverse global deforestation by catalyzing impactful community-based nature conservation and incentivizing frictionless sustainable financing through trust-enhancing technology. The organization uses machine learning-based impact evaluators that leverage satellite and drone imagery to detect ecological changes, allowing communities to unlock payments from a decentralized fund when verified milestones are achieved.
Project story
A Permanent Bioregional Learning Center to Prepare for and Mitigate Future Disasters
For the last 7 years, Green Releaf Initiative, a non-profit organization developed micro learning sites for regenerative resilience after conflict and climate related disasters all over the Philippines. This time, Living Story Landscapes is continuing its legacy by developing a permanent bioregional learning center called Puso Sanctuary where frontline communities and their advocates can learn vital knowledge and practice for reducing disaster risk and prepare for them ahead of time.
The sanctuary is within the watershed of the Central Cebu Protected Landcapes where a mere 1% of original forest cover is left due to centuries of colonization, modernization, and agricultural expansion. When Typhoon Kalmaeigi devastated communities with catastrophic landslides and floods in 2025, the urgent need for watershed restoration became undeniable. Puso Sanctuary is stepping up to protect vulnerable communities through ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.
Our vision extends beyond a single facility. We've also launched a multistakeholder ecosystem fostering collaborations between government, civil society, and business sectors to scale watershed solutions across the region called Handuraw Panaw.
This fundraising campaign launches Puso Sanctuary’s foundations. We're seeking support to complete our site assessment, analysis, and curriculum design work which we will invite impacted communities to learn together. While doing so, we aim to establish basic infrastructures for water, energy, waste, and a sustainable communal structure that will enable transformative learning activities. In the process, we aim to develop this as a living museum for Cebu’s biocultural heritage. Together, with your support, we can restore not only Cebu's ecological health and build regenerative resilience for generations to come for the rest of the Philippines.
Photo gallery images are from Green Releaf Initiative’s work from 2017-2025.
Project updates
Team
Location
Philippines
Round 3
Jul 1-21, 2026
Supporting community-led nature projects around the world.
Matching funds provided by
