Foundation for Ecological Security

Why we invest

Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) has reimagined the tragedy of the commons as the promise of the commons. Commons are pastures or forests technically owned by government, though villagers use them for activities like grazing, collecting firewood, and sourcing water. FES helps communities organize themselves and secure legal rights to this shared land, access government funding, and then manage the land. They’ve demonstrated that secure tenure and a shared resource management plan for common areas can restore degraded lands, with dramatic increases in biomass and hydrologic function. This ecosystem restoration offers huge potential benefits to poor farmers and has the potential to scale throughout India.