The road traveled and the road ahead

Between 2016 and 2026, Regenera grew from a community and two tourism businesses into a network spanning the Peruvian Amazon and Andes. The journey so far, with its successes and setbacks, is the foundation for the next ten years.

In September 2016, the Matsigenka Community of Shipetiari, in Manu, received Regenera’s first financial payment: compensation for the services its communal forest provides to the economy. This was made possible by two tourism businesses from Cusco, Puka Nina and Amazonas Explorer, which chose to regenerate their climate footprint with us.

Ten years have passed since that first payment.

The beginning

Regenera was born in 2016 through a partnership between three founding members: Nature Services Perú, the NGO SEPERU, and the Shipetiari Community itself. In 2018, Explorandes joined and took things a step further: in addition to managing its own organisational footprint, it began measuring and offsetting the footprint of its travellers. This made it possible to bring a second Matsigenka community, Palotoa Teparo, also in Manu Province, into the network.

It was a small beginning, but it was real. Partner Businesses were beginning to recognise how much they depend on Nature, while Guardian Communities were being recognised for protecting it.

Community assembly in Shipetiari, Manu, where we made the decision to launch Regenera.

We grew, and then COVID hit

By 2019, we had 14 contributing businesses and had opened a second landscape in Abancay Province, working alongside the NGO CEDES-Apurímac and the San Ignacio de Kiuñalla Peasant Community. That year, we also held the network’s first advisory group meeting in Lima to help ensure that community, public-sector, and private-sector perspectives were reflected in the network’s objectives.

Then came 2020. Most of the tourism and gastronomy businesses we worked with scaled back or suspended operations, and many put their contributions on hold. We lost 90% of our income. Some businesses stayed with us, and thanks to them, we could continue supporting Guardian Communities through an extremely difficult period. Fieldwork did not stop because, for the communities, Regenera’s support is an incentive, not the fundamental reason they protect their territory.

At the height of the crisis, communities in Requena and Machu Picchu, which were also facing severe hardship, asked to join the network, and we launched work in both landscapes. To weather the crisis, we also began offering environmental footprint measurement services to businesses in construction, manufacturing, and retail.

The recovery

In 2024, we made a fundamental decision. Nature Services began transferring responsibility for providing technical support to Guardians to the development and conservation organisations partnering with us in each landscape (SEPERU, CEDIA, CEDES, and Valle Sagrado Verde). These organisations now receive a share of regeneration revenues in recognition of their fieldwork. Our company, Nature Services, specialises in information management and the exchange of services through the platform www.regenera.earth. This change gives us a leaner central structure and makes us stronger in each landscape.

Annual gathering in Kiuñalla, Abancay Landscape, January 2024.

The foundation for the next ten years

Today, Regenera brings together 24 land stewards caring for 169,051 hectares. What I value most about these ten years is how we have built Regenera: from the ground up, with the Guardians and Partner Organisations in each landscape taking the lead, and with businesses that stayed with us even when COVID threatened to break us.

On this foundation, we will build what comes next: more Landscape Partners with the capacity to operate independently; more businesses from different sectors that understand that Nature is the infrastructure underpinning their business and our economy as a whole; and a platform that makes the work of those who protect it visible.

Ten years is a good beginning, but we still have much more to learn and a long way to go.

Thank you to every Guardian and every Partner who shares this journey with us.

Frank Hajek

Coordinator, Regenera

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and learn more about our work!