The Roessner Restoration Initiative (RRI) began as a series of conversations — fragmented, late-night exchanges that stretched across continents and time zones. It started with a text to Yaspi Putraga in the remote Leuser Ecosystem of Sumatra, where we first imagined a model of conservation that wasn’t imposed, but co-created.

 

RRI took shape in the steep, mist-covered forests of Madagascar, where the critically endangered blue-eyed black lemur clings to survival. It expanded across the windswept plains of Patagonia, where former puma hunters now serve as the species’ fiercest advocates, and into the fertile highlands of Rwanda, where smallholder farmers are finding ways to coexist with some of the world’s most iconic wildlife.

 

From the beginning, the goal has been to create systems that don’t just preserve what’s left, but rebuild and regenerate what’s been lost. To create relationships that endure, that evolve, and that are as much about people as they are about wildlife.

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RRI is about the people like Yaspi, who see the potential for a Leuser Biosphere Reserve in one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems, where former loggers now work as rangers, and where conservation isn’t just an outside imposition but a locally-led movement.

 

It’s about local leaders like university student Daniel Ntakirutimana in Rwanda, who see regenerative agriculture not just as a way to improve crop yields, but as a buffer against the pressures that push farmers into protected forests. It’s about the smallholder beekeepers and avocado farmers who are redefining what it means to live at the edge of conservation.

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It’s about the scientists and storytellers who have found ways to make predators like the puma an economic asset rather than a threat, creating jobs and preserving cultures that have coexisted with these landscapes for generations.

 

It’s about the marine biologists in French Polynesia who are soon-to-experience local, decentralized systems to track individual whales without relying on external data pipelines or extractive research models.

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But more than anything, it’s about continuity. It’s about building systems that don’t just endure, but thrive. Systems that are resilient, adaptive, and deeply rooted in the communities they serve. It’s about recognizing that real conservation isn’t just about protecting what’s left, but about building a world we actually want to live in.

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It’s a philosophy that insists on local ownership, that rejects the extractive models of traditional conservation, and that aims to create sovereign ecosystems — places where people and wildlife can thrive together, not just for a generation, but for the long term.

 

Because in the end, conservation isn’t just about stopping loss. It’s about creating futures. And that’s what the Roessner Restoration Initiative is all about.