1. Context and Rationale

Across diverse geographies; from the arid plains of Rajasthan and the fragile mountainous ecosystems of Uttarakhand to the forested borderlands of Meghalaya and Kenya’s Tana River Delta, communities are reimagining what sustainability truly means. Their stories reveal that environmental restoration cannot be separated from questions of gender justice, local knowledge, and Indigenous well-being. This session brings together five powerful case studies that collectively illuminate how ecological resilience is built from the ground up, through community stewardship, inclusive governance, and the courage to innovate within constraint.

At the heart of these experiences lies a shared realization: sustainability is not simply a technical challenge, but a social transformation. The abandonment of large-scale Jatropha plantations in East Africa left Indigenous communities to grapple with the legacies of “ghost” biofuel projects, yet they continue to reclaim agency, turning non-operational land into a space of communal negotiation and healing.

In India’s Northeast, research from Meghalaya’s Garo Hills interrogates the broader agrarian transitions of the Northeast. Here, shifting cultivation landscapes are giving way to commercial plantations, transforming communal tenure systems and reshaping social hierarchies- revealing both opportunities for prosperity and risks of deepening inequality. Empirical research from across India underscores the institutional dimensions of this transformation: the urgent need to strengthen regional capacities for inclusive land governance, the importance of integrating farmer preferences into policy frameworks, and the transformative potential of women’s leadership in climate-resilient agriculture.

Together, these narratives reframe sustainability as an ongoing act of repair of ecosystems, of social relations, and of governance structures themselves. This session situates local, gendered, and Indigenous experiences within a broader conversation on the future of sustainable development, seeking to build a bridge between ecological restoration, social justice, and policy innovation.

2. Objectives of the Panel

• To analyse socio-ecological transformations in land use, climate adaptation, and livelihood resilience across rural and Indigenous landscapes.

• To explore institutional and policy mechanisms that support inclusive, rights-based, and climate-resilient land governance.

• To foreground the role of women, youth, and Indigenous groups as key actors in sustainability transitions.

• To identify actionable frameworks for integrating traditional knowledge with modern sustainability practices and policy design.

3. Expected Outcomes

This session is all about merging ecological science, gender studies, and Indigenous knowledge to build a complete vision for lasting change. By grounding ideas of restoration and resilience in the real-life experiences of farmers, women, and Indigenous communities, the discussion highlights a crucial truth: sustainability simply won't work without justice for both people and the environment. We aim to achieve several things: redefine sustainability as a process that equally balances ecological health, social fairness, and institutional responsibility; pinpoint brilliant, replicable innovations led by communities, like climate-smart farming, women's producer groups, and Indigenous land management; offer clear policy ideas for embedding gender- and Indigenous-sensitive frameworks into how land is governed; establish cross-learning models that connect local stewardship directly to global goals (like SDGs 5, 13, and 15); and set a collaborative agenda for researchers and policymakers. Ultimately, the session is a call for a paradigm shift, moving away from disconnected conservation efforts toward a holistic, people-centered sustainability where healthy ecosystems and empowered communities naturally sustain one another, creating a just and resilient future for all.