Restoration Return Grants

Formerly known as the Small Grants Award for Field-Level Restoration Projects, the award supports community-led ecosystem restoration initiatives that have a high return for people, their lands and livelihoods. Projects from all countries in the world are eligible. The call is open to organizations of all sizes for activities at the community level. For the inaugural round in 2024, the Initiative received 673 applications from over 100 countries, and received grants ranging from US$5,000 to US$15,000. Ultimately, 39 projects working on diverse landscapes and restoration strategies received a total of US$395,000. The Initiative is increasing the amount allocated to each awardee to US$17,000 in response both to the innovation of the projects and the overwhelming demand for support for land restoration at the grassroots level. The Restoration Returns Award is part of G20 GLI’s strategy to restore 1 billion hectares degraded land by 2030 and reduce land degradation by 50 per cent by 2040