Resilient Forest landscapes for development and wellbeing In Belgium the support to tackle environmental issues increases, yet there is still insufficient behavioral and policy change. Our consumption and production patterns exceed the capacity of Earth. This causes, i.a., worldwide deforestation and forest degradation, which threatens the livelihoods of indigenous people.
BOS+ assists people in transitioning to a society supporting the resilience of social-ecological systems worldwide. In particular, we promote and facilitate actions having a positive effect on forests worldwide, that can be supported by civilians, companies and policy makers. Our interventions focus (1) on building up knowledge about the environment and its threats; (2) on awareness-raising on the importance of protecting, retaining and improving the environment; (3) on inspiring to act. These aspects reinforce each other, eventually leading to independent actions.
Children and youth are mainly approached within a school context, by educational material, workshops and trajectories. These are experience-based and transcend regular course subjects. The educational tools question and reshape our current consumption and production patterns and are also inspiring to family and friends of the children. By involving relatives and educators we broadly disseminate our message and call-to-action. 
Adults are reached by campaigns and inspiring actions. This triggers them to act, change their own behavior, raise their voices and/or actively participate in democratic processes. This develops a favorable public opinion and increases the external pressure on policy makers and companies.
Policymakers and companies are engaged in trajectories or through advocacy; all aiming to deliver sound knowledge and (policy) recommendations. Equal opportunities and means for companies with improved and more sustainable investments in their value chains and production process, will make it easier for consumers to change their consumption patterns to a more sustainable life style. The outcome focusses on a triple win, tackling climate change whilst protecting biodiversity and integrating social development. The program empowers local communities in the departments of Santa Cruz, Pando and Beni to become the guardians of the forests they inhabit. To achieve this, BOS+ identified 5 local partners specialized in sustainable forest management, forest conservation, diversification of agroforestry practices, forest restoration, and with sufficient administrative and technical management skills. 

By training ´sentinels´ or environmental monitors the program will improve forest conservation. They will monitor borders, forest changes, and hot spots, contributing to fire prevention. At the same time, we will support campaigns to raise awareness on the importance of forests. Local communities will be strengthened to develop qualitative sustainable forest management plans, being an essential part of forest conservation. We will also focus on a sustainable way to generate income and secure the livelihood of local communities, through the commercialization of forest products.   

The program will expand, improve and diversify agroforestry practices. The objective is to extend the duration of farmland use by applying improved agroforestry systems. This way, the program will also boost product quality and benefit the health of local consumers. In the long run this will also generate market opportunities, improving the income security of the local communities.  

Forest restoration areas will be enriched with local species and new restoration techniques. Policy work, both locally and nationally, will be key to achieving this result. The established partner mix will strengthen the policy work, as partners with more experience in policy work can rely on the input of local beneficiaries. 

Administrative and technical management capacities will be improved through mutual learning (partners, beneficiary organizations and BOS+). This outcome will be based on a joint intervention between BOS+ and Join For Water within landscapes of the Mpanga and Semliki Catchments in western Uganda. The focus of the outcome will be to help restore the balance between human and environmental needs towards strengthening resilience of the landscape as a social-ecological system, including better ecosystem services provision. To this end, the outcome will strengthen and support communities in their knowledge and implementation towards conservation, restoration and more sustainable management of (agro)ecosystems (strategic change 4) (incl. forests, wetlands, riverbanks, etc.). This focus is important to ensure sustainable water and food provision, as well as to help combat climate change impacts and other socio-ecological pressures. To reach this, a landscape approach will be adopted, which starts from a multistakeholder perspective to include the needs and interests of a wide variety of people living and working within a landscape. This will be facilitated through catchment and natural resource management committees. Policy advocacy at local and national level will contribute to a framework that facilitates better water and forest management following a rights-based logic (strategic change 1). Enhanced ecosystem integrity and access to ecosystem services (such as water provision and agricultural outputs) will be driven by local stakeholders themselves through improved knowledge (strategic change 2) and restored provision and access to ecosystem services (strategic change 3).  The outcome in Ecuador focuses on improving the resilience of forest ecosystems in the Southern Dry Forest, the North-West and South-Eastern Cloud Forest and the Amazon Rainforest. The program empowers local communities to become better guardians of the forests they inhabit. To achieve this, BOS+ identified 5 local partners specialized in sustainable forest management, forest conservation, improved agroforestry practices, forest restoration and education.
By training ´sentinels´ or environmental monitors the program will improve forest conservation. They will monitor borders, forest changes, and hot spots, contributing to fire prevention. At the same time, we will support campaigns to raise awareness on the importance of forests. Local communities will be strengthened to develop qualitative sustainable forest management plans, being an essential part of forest conservation. We will also focus on sustainable ways to generate income and secure the livelihood of local communities, through the provision of sustainably harvested and cualitative forest products.  
The program will expand, improve and diversify agroforestry practices. The objective is to extend the duration of farmland use by applying improved agroforestry systems. This way, the program will also boost product quality and benefit the health of local consumers. 
Forest restoration areas will be enriched with local species and new restoration techniques. Policy work, both locally and nationally, will be key to achieving this result. The established partner mix will strengthen the policy work, as partners with more experience in policy work can rely on the input of local beneficiaries.
Administrative and technical management capacities will be improved through mutual learning, also for beneficiary organizations and BOS+. Last but not least an inovative educational proyect will exchange between kids in the South of Ecuador and Belgium, allowing a boost in their local educational system and self esteem.  Communities living in forest landscapes conserve/restore/manage/use their forests sustainably. Community members apply more sustainable mechanisms by reducing pressure on natural ecosystems and are more resilient to the impact of climate change. This is facilitated by a strengthened governance framework at community and landscape level, in which civil society organisations play a key role.
In this way, women and men of all ages and backgrounds enjoy improved well-