Community Stewardship at the Core: ReWET Roundtable on Wetland Restoration Financing

On 24 December 2025, the ReWET consortium organized a roundtable consultation on “Innovation for Wetland and Biodiversity Restoration Financing: Potential Models and Policies” at the Lakeshore Hotel, bringing together financial stakeholders, practitioners, researchers, and academics.

Experts shared their perspectives on the proposed community-led wetland financing models, including innovative approaches such as Nature-Smart Cash-for-Work and Bio-Token mechanisms, as well as on the indicative national wetland financing policy.

ReWET aims to propose a self-sustaining financing model in which local stewards are fairly compensated and can continue their role as environmental protectors beyond the project intervention period.

Incorporating feedback from participants, the ReWET stewardship and financing model seeks to address the strong need for a self-sustaining prototype for wetland restoration- one that is dynamic, community-led, government-owned, based on public–private partnerships, and structured as an endowment model that can be scaled up nationally.