> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.maearth.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.maearth.com/ma-earth/about-ma-earth/about-regeneration.md).

# About Regeneration

What does "regenerative" mean?

**Regeneration is the active healing of ecosystems and the communities within them.**  

Regeneration returns ecosystems to health, restores ecological integrity, and supports conditions for life to thrive. The most enduring regeneration happens where land and community heal together.

#### Regenerative vs. sustainable

**Sustainable = maintaining the current state.** *"Don't make it worse. Keep things as they are."*

**Regenerative = actively improving.** *"Heal what's damaged. Support systems to thrive."*

#### Regeneration in practice

**Soil:** Building topsoil, restoring soil biology, increasing organic matter.

**Water:** Healing watersheds, restoring wetlands, recharging aquifers.

**Biodiversity:** Restoring habitat, removing invasive species, reconnecting ecosystems.

**Agriculture:** Reviving degraded farmland, integrating crops and livestock, reducing chemical inputs.

**Forests:** Replanting native species, restoring canopy structure, reconnecting wildlife corridors.

**Communities:** Strengthening relationships to place, reviving traditional practices, building local resilience.

[See all project categories](/resources-for-land-stewards/project-profile/project-categories.md) for Ma Earth funding rounds.

#### Guiding Principles of Regenerative Land Stewardship

1. Working with natural processes, not against them
2. Restoring relationships between species, people, and place
3. Cultivating abundance through care
4. Seeing the whole system and how its parts relate
5. Moving at the pace of seasons and cycles
6. Observing and listening to the land before acting
7. Centering traditional knowledge systems that have tended land for generations<br>


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