What if the real barrier to restoring land is not only ecological; but systemic?

GreenBarriers explores how degraded land can be restored through a coordinated ecosystem model that connects landowners, restoration experts, cooperatives and companies committed to climate neutrality. Rather than treating soil degradation, erosion and land abandonment as isolated problems, the project brings these actors into a shared structure designed to enable real collaboration. A key dimension of this approach is the integration of ecological knowledge with emerging technologies, such as seed-drop systems and automated reforestation tools, which open the possibility of scaling restoration efforts while keeping operational costs manageable.

The first pilot will take place in Spain, in collaboration with Extiercol Cooperative, providing a concrete testing ground to validate both restoration methods and financing mechanisms. This step is essential: before scaling across territories, the model needs to prove that it can operate under real conditions, with all the complexity that implies.

The challenge mobilizes a diverse ecosystem of actors, from landowners willing to restore degraded land to local cooperatives carrying out the work on the ground, alongside environmental experts, companies seeking credible climate strategies, and communities that stand to benefit from new forms of employment and healthier ecosystems.

What the Bootcamp process revealed is that the main obstacle is not the lack of solutions, but the difficulty of aligning these actors, resources and timelines into a functioning system. By shifting the focus from an abstract network to a pilot grounded in reality, the project has moved one step closer to addressing that challenge.

These field note marks the beginning of that transition. As the process continues toward Grenoble, the question is no longer how to imagine restoration at scale, but how to make it work—step by step, on the ground, and together.