History

Restoring ecosystems, dignity, and rural livelihoods across the tropical belt requires long-term, community-driven solutions built on a restoration-based economy. Bamboo Village Trust (BVT) was founded to meet this need. Its origins lie in the early environmental work of Linda Garland, whose deep commitment to bamboo, ecological restoration, and community resilience shaped a generational vision. Building on his mother’s legacy, Arief Rabik established BVT in 2023 to continue advancing a landscape-level restoration framework capable of addressing the interconnected crises of climate change, land degradation, and rural poverty.

Through the Bamboo Village Initiative, BVT scales and operationalizes the Bamboo Village model across multiple geographies. More than a restoration program, the model integrates village-level empowerment, forest landscape management, and community-based governance to transform degraded and underutilized land into productive restoration landscapes that generate long-term livelihoods.
The model enables communities to mobilize local resources, build institutional capacity, and restore landscapes through bamboo-based agroforestry—laying the foundation for resilient, village-based economies. In doing so, BVT assists and empowers rural communities to lead climate solutions in their landscapes while strengthening local economies.
Recognizing that meaningful restoration requires sustained coordination and financing at scale, Arief created BVT as a financial vehicle and Project Management Unit.

Through this structure, BVT mobilizes resources across tropical belts, supports implementation partners, and establishes bamboo villages that channel both technical assistance and financial resources directly to communities leading restoration on the ground.
Aligned with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and in collaboration with national and international partners, BVT provides governance systems, technical assistance, and programmatic support to accelerate community-driven restoration at scale.
Looking ahead, BVT aims to establish 200 Bamboo Villages across the tropical belt by 2030, demonstrating that community-managed restoration can deliver ecosystem recovery, economic opportunity, and climate resilience simultaneously.