Wilde Ganzen Foundation, WACSI, A Rocha Ghana, WARSI, Natura Bolivia, and IUCN NL support Strengthen the Roots (StR). StR focuses on bolstering local communities living in threatened natural areas. Their natural resources and rights are increasingly at risk.
These communities often strive for self-sufficiency by relying on the environment for food, water and cultural well-being. However, compounded with climate change they face pressure from outside and within. These challenges lead to loss of and lack of land access, biome degradation, and a crumbling of traditional governance systems.
Guardians of the landscape need access to support
For many generations, local and indigenous communities have been guardians of the landscape. They are steeped in conservation knowledge and a well-built connection to nature while living off their environment. Yet they are often powerless because their rights, expertise, and traditional management methods are neither recognized nor valued. This gap increases with difficult access to funds, weak networks, and poor visibility.
A program to strengthen communities
Strengthen the Roots, delivered via Wilde Ganzen Foundation’s Change the Game Academy, offers a proven capacity-building method that enables community-based organizations (CBOs) to diversify their income and mobilize support for their work.
We support them with funds, expertise, a network, and training. By the end of 2025, Strengthen the Roots will have bolstered almost 30 CBOs in six unique natural areas spread across three countries to protect their habitats and become the drivers of change themselves!
This program will explicitly and indirectly benefit approximately one million people who live in these areas by regenerating the environment and supporting rights claims.