Meet the next generation of changemakers driving restoration in Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, Tanzania and Uganda – seven young experts ready to restore drylands, forests, mountains and oceans in 2025
Bonn, Germany (17 December 2024) – The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on sustainable land use, has selected seven young innovators from over 500 applicants worldwide as the 2025 Restoration Stewards.
In the program’s fifth year, the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL) and the GLF will provide these leading experts with mentoring, networking opportunities, a grant of EUR 5,000 and other resources to advance their work in restoring drylands, forests, mountains, oceans.
From the Caribbean coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula to the longest mountain range in the Philippines, the 2025 Restoration Stewards will work to build resilience in their communities and ecosystems alike.
These young leaders will aim to build sustainable landscapes through traditional knowledge, research, science, storytelling, agroforestry, activism and countless other innovative strategies inspired by and adapted to their local needs and expertise.
Discover a new generation of environmental leaders
📍AFRICA
Ngobi Joel, a 2025 Forest Restoration Steward, is a climate, education, and rural development activist in Uganda. As a fellow at Building Tomorrow Uganda, he helped improve the foundational literacy and numeracy for children in the country’s rural east. With his School Forest Initiative, he mobilizes schools and communities to develop food forests for improved biodiversity and environmental consciousness while providing fruit foods to the children and the community.
Other environmental restoration projects he has developed include The Green Wipe Initiative, which aims at educating and supporting girls to develop environmentally friendly wipes, and the Sustain Bin Project, focused on the management of waste and fertilizer.
Sydner Kemunto, a 2025 Dryland Restoration Steward, is a climate justice advocate and eco-feminist focused on the power of African women and nature. She tackles the intersection of gender, climate change, and food security while promoting the restoration of degraded lands.
Sydner works in Kaani, a dry region of Kenya facing land degradation, water scarcity, and food insecurity. Through her initiative, Kijani Mtaani, she supports youth and women from marginalized communities in regenerative agriculture and environmental conservation, building resilient communities, promoting equitable resource access, combating desertification, boosting biodiversity, and supporting livelihoods.
Zuhura Ahmad, a 2025 Ocean Restoration Steward, is a gender-biodiversity advocate and environmental educator in Tanzania, leading the Bagamoyo Seaweed Farming Initiative. Her transformative project focuses on sustainable seaweed farming, empowering young women, restoring degraded coastal ecosystems, mitigating climate change and providing alternative livelihoods for marginalized communities.
She’s also the head of programs at the Women in Recycling Foundation, a Youth4Nature Global Ambassador and a co-founder of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) –Tanzania. Zuhura also blends storytelling, policy and conservation expertise to champion equitable nature-based solutions for sustainable development.
📍ASIA
Kristel Quierrez, the 2025 Mountain Restoration Steward, is an Indigenous leader dedicated to defending the ancestral land of the Dumagat-Remontado people in the Philippines. She co-founded Katutubong Kabataang Umuugat sa Kabundukan ng Sierra Madre (UGBON), the first Indigenous youth organization in her landscape, enabling young Indigenous advocates to protect the Southern Sierra Madre, the Philippines’ longest mountain range.
UGBON brings together Indigenous communities to safeguard ancestral domains using traditional practices, support climate solutions, and preserve the sanctity of their lands. Key actions include native tree nurseries, community mapping, and integrating Indigenous knowledge, systems, practices and spirituality.
Shaik Imran, a 2025 Forest Restoration Steward, is an Indian agriculturist with a deep understanding of grassroots agricultural practices and rural community challenges. The founder of Prakheti Agrologics, he promotes agrobiodiversity, sustainable farming and land restoration to protect rare, endangered, and threatened tree species.
Prakheti Agrologics collaborates with over 5,000 farmers, has created a seed bank with over 450 Indigenous crops, built micro-forests and butterfly parks, and helped communities adopt climate-resilient crops and natural farming. Imran also works with women in nursery development and with youth at local and global scales, linking ecological restoration, economic sustainability and biodiversity preservation.
📍LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
Baruch Aguilar Mena, a 2025 Ocean Restoration Steward, lives in Sisal, a fishing village in Yucatán, Mexico, and focuses on coastal ecosystem conservation. A researcher and co-founder of a collective dedicated to restoring coastal dunes, Baruch uses a socio-ecosystemic approach, seeking to place local communities at the center of his restoration efforts.
With his team at “Reciclando Dunas” (Recycling Dunes), a benchmark for community conservation in the region, he trains youth and adults to protect the natural resources that sustain their identity and economy. Their goal is to restore the fragmented and deforested coastal dunes in Sisal and strengthen the local production chain.
Raquel Pereira Viana, a 2025 Dryland Restoration Steward, is an Indigenous leader from the Wapichana people in the Tabalascada Indigenous Territory in Brazil. She coordinates the Indigenous Youth Department of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR). Raquel has always been involved in food production and ecosystem preservation and restoration practices in her culture.
Since 2019, she has built up the leadership of youth in Roraima. Her initiative, Youth Farm, preserves traditional seeds and increases organic production to help secure Indigenous lands. The farm brings together youth from Amajari, Baixo Cotingo, Murupu, Raposa, Serra da Lua, Serras and Tabaio.
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NOTE TO EDITORS
- For more information, unbranded photos and to arrange interviews, contact Kelly Quintero (k.quintero@cifor-icraf.org).
- Find 2025 Restoration Stewards’ visuals in this Trello board.
- Find the Spanish and Portuguese adaptations of this announcement at GLF News or contact Kelly Quintero (k.quintero@cifor-icraf.org).
About the GLF
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, connecting people with a shared vision to create productive, profitable, equitable & resilient landscapes. It is led by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), in collaboration with its co-founders UNEP and the World Bank, and its charter members. Learn more at www.globallandscapesforum.org.
About YIL
The Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL) is a growing global network and movement of over 1.3 million young people working and studying in landscapes around the world. The Initiative is a partnership between the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA), Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD), Youth 4 Nature (Y4N) and the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), who joined forces to deliver workshops, mentorship, training and networking. Today, YIL has become a global movement of young people committed to living and breathing the landscape’s philosophy: collaboration, diversity, and collective action. Learn more here.
About the Restoration Stewards program
The Restoration Stewards is a youth program rooted in care, landscape leadership, diversity, intersectionality and intergenerational equity. Launched in 2020 by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL), it aims to support the efforts of youth-led teams in holistically restoring their landscapes and seascapes while nurturing biocultural diversity. Learn more at stewards.globallandscapesforum.org.
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