Centre for Eco-Transformation

The COMMONLAND FOUNDATION has emerged from the thinking and organization skills of Willem Ferwerda. This paper and the 4 returns are his idea. The Foundation was initially called the Ecosystem Return Foundation. The purpose of the COMMONLAND FOUNDATION is to systematically create and stimulate a transition to an economy based on Ecological Restoration on a Planetary Scale.

We rely on healthy ecosystems to provide us with our food, water, clean air, climate stability, social and economic wealth; even our happiness and well-being. We only have to look at history to see the devastating consequences of not valuing or understanding ecosystems: whole civilizations have vanished after overexploiting their natural resources.
Fortunately however, there are also civilizations who have learned to develop a symbiotic relationship with nature – and thrived – by restoring instead of destroying. Rapid global population growth in the last two centuries has caused the depletion of one quarter of the land surface on Earth as its natural resources have been used to support the unprecedent- ed demand for sustaining human life and advances in technology. However, the scale and speed at which change has been inflicted on the environment since the 1950s is the most profound in the history of humankind; a phenomenon leading scientists call the Great Acceleration.
Many of the services nature provides humankind – so-called ecosystem services – are free of charge and therefore form no part of our current economy that is based on manufactured capital. This comes at the price of: the massive loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and degraded landscapes. As shown historically, human life depends on ecosystems services. As business and ecosystems are inextricably linked, landscape conservation and restoration should be key to our economy. Yet interventions to date focus only on impact reduction. It’s time for a new approach.
Slowly but surely the world’s leaders are beginning to realize that restoring ecosystem functions restores the economy. In fact, restoration is vital to reversing the depletion of natural capital: an approach that has thus far been underutilized and underfunded. How- ever, we urgently need the power of the private sector in order to scale-up and accelerate landscape restoration. We need new business models and operations, and a shift to long- term thinking if this industry is to become a viable investment proposition.
The science is in place, the technology available, and financial resources accessible: the time is ripe to create a landscape restoration industry. But for it to succeed, there must be greater involvement by business and investors, an orchestrator for all the different stakeholders – and a realistic long-term approach. The 4 returns approach is a framework to build trust and connections, create engagement, and keep key partners in the landscape inspired to harvest the results of their investments over the longterm. Commonland is using this approach to restore landscapes with business.

More than 2 billion hectares of ecosystems are severely degraded.  e need
to restore these degraded ecosystems, the tragedy of the commons, is of global importance in this century. Governments and NGOs do not have su cient resources nor the skills to scale this up. To involve business and investors a com- mon understanding needs to be created, that includes four returns instead of only one: the return on investment (ROI). A four returns business model is developed on an ecosystem level, that combines ROI, with natural and social capital with an innovative people approach: the return of inspirational capital: the way of the heart. Active involvement in ecosystem restoration results in a process of under- standing the inner purpose of all stakeholders. When well managed and guided the restoration and rehabilitation of three landscaping zones (natural, mixed and economic) give four returns during a period of at least 20 years.