OverviewResilience Design brings science-driven regenerative agriculture to the humanitarian sector.
Drawing heavily from permaculture design, passive water harvesting, nature-based solutions, agroecology, and agroforestry, it promotes tailored, community-led interventions informed by robust assessments and analyses.
The RD Approach uses local knowledge and resources to create an ecologically-driven, whole system design. It prioritizes hydrological stabilization, creating living soils, and building biodiverse systems.
Whole Systems DesignWhole Systems Design
Irene, living in Palabek Refugee Settlement in Northern Uganda, has transformed her homestead into a food forest in under two years using the RD Approach. Credit: Thomas Cole
SoilsSoils
RD prioritizes soil health through deep soil preparation, integration of diverse organic matter, microbe inoculation, ground covers, mulching, planting a variety of vegetation types and layers, biofertilization, and embedding plant material via chop-and-drop techniques, among others, to provide a regenerative supply of nutrients to the soil. This supports a healthy and living soil microbiome that is needed to supply plants with a steady stream of macro and micronutrients.
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RD training participants deeply prepare garden beds and amend the soil with dried manure and other locally-available resources to build healthy, living soils. Credit: Thomas Cole -
RD training participants add nutrients to the soil before planting, such as dried manure, compost, and other locally-available resources. Credit: Thomas Cole
BiodiversityBiodiversity
RD planting strategies increase the level of functional and structural biodiversity through layering annual and perennial vegetation to ensure stability and meet diverse production goals.
Using the Permagarden Approach, this household in Palabek Refugee Settlement produces an abundance of diverse foods using locally-available seeds. Credit: Thomas Cole
HydrologyHydrology
The RD approach to rainwater management supports erosion control and increases water availability in the soil, helping reduce the impacts of flooding, drought, and erratic rainfall. With these types of weather patterns increasing in frequency and intensity, stabilizing the hydrology of the land is critical.
The RD Approach encourages farmers and those who work with them to start at the top of the landscape and observe how water flows across the site. Once the slopes and nutrient flows are understood, micro and macro rainwater harvesting and flood mitigation techniques – such as contour planting, bioswales, half-moon berms, check dams, soil pitting, and more – are used to prevent soil erosion and increase water and nutrients banking in soils for optimal plant production and health.
