Health In Harmony is an international non-profit organization with a mission to regenerate rainforests by listening to communities. Our method is Radical Listening. Since 2007, we have spent hundreds of hours listening to rainforest communities across Indonesia, Madagascar, and Brazil. Specifically, we have listened to their answer to the question, “What would you need as a thank-you from the global community to be able to protect your forest?” The answers have been different everywhere, but three key themes emerged across geographies: access to high-quality healthcare, training in alternative livelihoods, and support for youth education. The reason we call it Radical Listening, instead of just "listening," is that we invest in precisely the solutions that communities design – and the communities have been right. A study conducted by Stanford University and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed the first ten years of data from the community-designed health, livelihood, and education programs in Indonesian Borneo. The results: a 70 percent decrease in deforestation compared to a composite control of all comparable Indonesian national parks, equating to $65 million in averted carbon emissions, a twelve times return on investment. It turns out, trees are the most effective tool on earth for storing carbon. Providing healthcare also supported people, resulting in a 67% drop in infant mortality and significant decreases in chronic cough, fever, and unintended weight loss. Human and ecosystem health are inextricably linked – neither can thrive without the other – and investing in communities is a win-win situation for both. Health In Harmony is now partnering with Pawanka Fund, Woodwell Climate Research Center, and hundreds of communities across the equator with the audacious goal to protect half the world’s rainforests before we reach irreversible tipping points for climate and health.

Register and More details: https://www.environment.utoronto.ca/events/environment-and-health-seminar-series-regenerating-rainforests-listening-communities-model