Indigenous Women Leading Community Restoration and Climate Resilience
Paran Women Group is an Indigenous women group collective passionate about long-term solutions and ripple-effect project results. . The group implements project intervention programs to reduce poverty, strengthen women leadership and environmental governance through socio-economic empowerment initiatives, advocacy, capacity building and training. Comprising 3,000 women from 64 groups of indigenous Ogiek and Maasai communities, they have been recognized for planting indigenous trees in the Mau Forest and practicing climate-smart agriculture, targeting to plant more than 150,000 tree seedlings before 2030. The group addresses gender inequality issues and climate change, while their activities include planting native trees, establishing kitchen gardens, producing clean and affordable energy through organic briquettes, collecting medicinal herbs, and beekeeping.
Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) is a non-governmental organization created in 1994 that aims to achieve an equitable and sustainable healthy environment for all. WECF is a network of more than 150 women's and environmental organizations in 50 countries worldwide. The organization works on national, European, UN and international political levels to increase women's influence in environmental decision-making processes, and supports grassroots with capacity building, mentoring and small grants through its Ecofeminist Movement Building fund.
Project story
Paran Women Group is implementing a community-led ecosystem restoration project across Narok County, with a strong focus on restoration of the Mau Forest ecosystem, Kenya’s largest water tower. The Mau Forest is critical to biodiversity, water security, and the Maasai Mara ecosystem. Yet, years of deforestation, charcoal burning, and unsustainable land use have caused severe environmental degradation, including river drying, biodiversity loss, and increased climate vulnerability for local communities.
Our project mobilizes indigenous women, youth, and local communities to restore degraded ecosystems through indigenous tree planting, restoration of riverbanks, establishment of community tree nurseries, and climate-smart land management practices. Since 2005, we have restored 630 hectares of degraded land and planted 689,234 indigenous trees across degraded forests, schools, farms, and riparian areas. We have also established 53 indigenous tree nurseries with over 1 million seedlings, directly supporting restoration efforts and local livelihoods. Our restoration approach prioritizes indigenous tree species selected by communities to restore biodiversity, medicinal plants, and natural ecosystems. As a result, rivers that previously dried up now maintain more consistent water flow, medicinal plant species have returned, and bird biodiversity has significantly increased in restored areas. The project has directly impacted 5,879 households through environmental conservation training, sustainable grazing, agroforestry, and climate adaptation initiatives.
What makes our project unique is that restoration is fully community-owned and led by indigenous women. By linking conservation with livelihoods through seedling production and sustainable environmental enterprises, we create long-term environmental and economic resilience for vulnerable communities.
Project updates
Team
Indigenous Women Leading Community Restoration and Climate Resilience
Paran Women Group is an Indigenous women group collective passionate about long-term solutions and ripple-effect project results. . The group implements project intervention programs to reduce poverty, strengthen women leadership and environmental governance through socio-economic empowerment initiatives, advocacy, capacity building and training. Comprising 3,000 women from 64 groups of indigenous Ogiek and Maasai communities, they have been recognized for planting indigenous trees in the Mau Forest and practicing climate-smart agriculture, targeting to plant more than 150,000 tree seedlings before 2030. The group addresses gender inequality issues and climate change, while their activities include planting native trees, establishing kitchen gardens, producing clean and affordable energy through organic briquettes, collecting medicinal herbs, and beekeeping.
Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) is a non-governmental organization created in 1994 that aims to achieve an equitable and sustainable healthy environment for all. WECF is a network of more than 150 women's and environmental organizations in 50 countries worldwide. The organization works on national, European, UN and international political levels to increase women's influence in environmental decision-making processes, and supports grassroots with capacity building, mentoring and small grants through its Ecofeminist Movement Building fund.
Project story
Paran Women Group is implementing a community-led ecosystem restoration project across Narok County, with a strong focus on restoration of the Mau Forest ecosystem, Kenya’s largest water tower. The Mau Forest is critical to biodiversity, water security, and the Maasai Mara ecosystem. Yet, years of deforestation, charcoal burning, and unsustainable land use have caused severe environmental degradation, including river drying, biodiversity loss, and increased climate vulnerability for local communities.
Our project mobilizes indigenous women, youth, and local communities to restore degraded ecosystems through indigenous tree planting, restoration of riverbanks, establishment of community tree nurseries, and climate-smart land management practices. Since 2005, we have restored 630 hectares of degraded land and planted 689,234 indigenous trees across degraded forests, schools, farms, and riparian areas. We have also established 53 indigenous tree nurseries with over 1 million seedlings, directly supporting restoration efforts and local livelihoods. Our restoration approach prioritizes indigenous tree species selected by communities to restore biodiversity, medicinal plants, and natural ecosystems. As a result, rivers that previously dried up now maintain more consistent water flow, medicinal plant species have returned, and bird biodiversity has significantly increased in restored areas. The project has directly impacted 5,879 households through environmental conservation training, sustainable grazing, agroforestry, and climate adaptation initiatives.
What makes our project unique is that restoration is fully community-owned and led by indigenous women. By linking conservation with livelihoods through seedling production and sustainable environmental enterprises, we create long-term environmental and economic resilience for vulnerable communities.
Project updates
Team
Location
Kenya
Round 3
Jul 1-21, 2026
Supporting community-led nature projects around the world.
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