The landscape restoration project Commonland aimed to restore landscapes through private investments in local businesses. So far, landscape restoration is not frequently seen as a private investment. Landscapes are often considered as a common and public good that should be restored through public funding. As a project Commonland aimed to change this by focusing on the private sector and private sector actors as important users of natural resources and promising active protagonist of landscapes.

Commonland project was divided up in three charters:

1. Inspiration and activation: inspiring the wider public on the challenge of landscape restoration, and mobilising an entrepreneurial community to get engaged;
2. Collaborative learning: building up the capacities to effectively restore;
3. Creating a program pipeline of investable restoration initiatives for private and institutional investors to invest.

Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation (CDI), in collaboration with the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group (FNP), Wageningen University was responsible for the second charter on collaborative learning. Within Commonland, importance is given to the contribution of scientific research and education. This allows for an interesting collaboration between science and practical work that is embedded in landscape research but that also spans over different research disciplines and expertise. We believe that this and important extra value to Commonland.

Project ran from 2014-2015