GLF Restoration Stewards 2027: Apply for €5,000 Fellowship

GLF Restoration Stewards 2027: A Year-Long Fellowship and €5,000 for Young Landscape Restorers

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and the Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL) have opened applications for the Restoration Stewards Programme 2027, one of the sector's most respected year-long fellowships for young people doing hands-on ecosystem restoration work. Selected fellows receive €5,000 in trust-based funding, structured mentorship, and a place in a global peer community that operates across forests, wetlands, drylands, mountains, oceans, and peatlands.

If you're aged 18 to 35, leading or actively contributing to a youth-driven restoration project, and working directly with communities on the ground, this is a fellowship worth your full attention.

Applications are open until 31 July 2026, 23:59 CEST. Verify the current application status on the GLF website before applying.

About the Global Landscapes Forum and the Programme

GLF is the world's largest knowledge platform on integrated land use, anchored in the SDGs, the Paris Agreement, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It's co-founded by UNEP and the World Bank, led by CIFOR-ICRAF, and backed by a consortium of over 30 charter members including FAO, GEF, UNCCD, WWF, Conservation International, and the Rights and Resources Initiative. That institutional depth matters; fellows aren't plugging into a boutique grant scheme. They're entering a global policy and practitioner ecosystem that reaches all the way to COP negotiating tables.

The Restoration Stewards Programme launched in 2020. It's built around a deliberate commitment to trust and equity, not just outputs. The programme team uses a care-based approach that recognises restoration work as inherently relational; between people, between communities, and between communities and their landscapes. That philosophy shapes everything from how funding is disbursed to how mentorship works.

What the Fellowship Actually Offers

• Trust-based funding of €5,000. Not a reimbursement scheme, not a conditional grant. The funds go directly to the fellow to deploy against their project goals. That's a meaningful structural choice; it signals genuine confidence in the fellows selected.

• Scientific and technical mentorship. Each Steward is matched with experts who engage directly with their project context. It's not generic capacity sharing; it's tailored to the ecosystems and communities each fellow works in.

• Capacity development and training. Fellows deepen their understanding of holistic restoration methodologies and the landscape approach; an integrated framework that looks at ecosystems not as isolated units but as interconnected social and ecological systems.

• A global peer community. Fellows work alongside other Restoration Stewards from across the Global South and beyond, building the kinds of lateral relationships that often matter more, long-term, than the funding itself.

• Visibility on global platforms. GLF's communications infrastructure reaches policymakers, practitioners, and funders. Stewards share their work through GLF channels; giving community-level restoration projects a reach they'd rarely access independently.

What You'll Be Expected to Deliver

The fellowship runs for one year. During that period, selected Stewards set and pursue project-specific goals with mentor guidance, deepen their technical and conceptual understanding of restoration, and organise at least one community engagement event within their project area. They also contribute to public knowledge-sharing through blogs, articles, and social media, and maintain regular contact with their mentors and the GLF programme team.

This isn't a passive learning experience. It's structured around real output, real accountability, and real engagement with the communities the project serves.

Who's Eligible

• The core eligibility criteria are clear and intentionally broad in geographic scope.

• You're eligible if you're between 18 and 35 years old, actively leading or contributing to a youth-led restoration project that takes a holistic view of both social and ecological dimensions, and working in ecosystems including forests, mountains, oceans, wetlands, peatlands, drylands, rangelands, or other landscape types.

• The programme gives explicit priority to projects led by young people from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, or the Caribbean; women-led or Indigenous-led initiatives; and projects that have been active for at least six months. This isn't tokenism. GLF's prioritisation reflects a genuine localisaton commitment; the communities most engaged in landscape stewardship are disproportionately Indigenous, rural, and women-led, and the programme's design reflects that reality.

• One firm note: the GLF has stated clearly that applications containing AI-generated responses will not be considered. Write in your own voice. The application is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Bahasa Indonesia; use whichever language lets you express your work most accurately.

How to Apply

The application asks for a focused set of materials. You'll need to share:

• A short overview of your background, team, and project

• A 200-word reflection on your restoration experience

• A one-minute video introducing yourself and your motivation

• A 200-word description of your landscape and its challenges

• A 400-word summary of your project's goals, activities, and impact to date

• A 200-word vision for the coming year

• A budget plan for the €5,000 funding

• A photograph of your project area

The word counts are tight by design. GLF wants clarity and specificity, not exhaustive writing. Spend most of your preparation time on the budget plan and the vision section; those two elements tend to separate strong applications from unfocused ones.

Submit through the official GLF Typeform portal. Applications in all five languages are accepted through the same gateway.

Key Details at a Glance

• Programme: Restoration Stewards 2027

• Host: Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL)

• Duration: One year

• Funding: €5,000 (trust-based)

• Eligibility: Ages 18 to 35, youth-led restoration project, community-rooted

• Priority Groups: Africa, Asia-Pacific, LatAm, Caribbean; women-led; Indigenous-led

• Ecosystems: Forests, wetlands, drylands, mountains, oceans, peatlands, rangelands

• Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Bahasa Indonesia

• Deadline: 31 July 2026, 23:59 CEST

• Contact: youth@globallandscapesforum.org

• Apply: globallandscapesforum.typeform.com/EN-2027RSCall

Apply Here

• Official programme page: https://stewards.globallandscapesforum.org/2027-restoration-stewards-call-for-application/

• Direct application link: https://globallandscapesforum.typeform.com/EN-2027RSCall

• Queries: Eirini Sakellari, GLF Youth Programme Coordinator at youth@globallandscapesforum.org

Restoration work rarely earns the institutional visibility it deserves. Communities rebuilding degraded forests in the Sahel, restoring mangroves on Pacific coastlines, rehabilitating dryland grazing systems in the Horn of Africa; this work is climate-critical and chronically under-resourced. The GLF Restoration Stewards Programme is one of the few fellowships designed by people who actually understand that gap. If your project is active, community-rooted, and ready for a year of serious support, get the application started now.

For more fellowships, grants, and environmental opportunities across the humanitarian and development sector, stay with Community For Development.

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