Nurturing Trees as Green Family Members
Our Story
Familial Forestry is a unique, community-driven environmental movement that integrates ecological restoration with cultural values and familial responsibility. Conceptualised and led by Shyam Sunder Jyani, Associate Professor and UN’s Land for Life Award Laureate, this intervention has transformed the way people perceive and interact with trees—not as external resources, but as members of the family and community. Originating in the arid landscapes of western Rajasthan, Familial Forestry is rooted in the belief that environmental conservation must begin at home, with each household embracing trees as “green family members” and nurturing them with the same care and commitment as they would a loved one.
Core Philosophy: Cultural Ecology in Action
Familial Forestry draws upon India’s deep-rooted cultural reverence for nature—particularly the Jasnathi wisdom of ecological civilisation—blending traditional values with contemporary ecological needs. The approach is holistic, aiming not just for tree planting, but for ecosystem restoration, community empowerment, and climate resilience.
It operates within the framework of Cultural Ecology, where culture and environment are interdependent. By embedding environmental action in local customs, festivals, and family rituals, the initiative fosters a profound shift—from ownership to kinship with nature.
Key Components of Familial Forestry
Trees as Family Members
- Every family adopts and cares for trees with emotional involvement.
- This empathetic bond extends to community life, where trees are protected and nurtured as a shared responsibility.
Native Species Plantation
- Emphasis on drought-resilient, climate-adaptive, and ecologically appropriate native species and vegetation.
- Revitalisation of degraded landscapes, barren lands, and institutional campuses.
Public Nurseries
- Community-run nurseries provide free saplings to households and institutions.
- The Dev Jasnath Familial Forestry Public Nursery serves as a thriving model of public participation.
Trees as Family Members
- Every family adopts and cares for trees with emotional involvement.
- This empathetic bond extends to community life, where trees are protected and nurtured as a shared responsibility.
Native Species Plantation
- Emphasis on drought-resilient, climate-adaptive, and ecologically appropriate native species and vegetation.
- Revitalisation of degraded landscapes, barren lands, and institutional campuses.
Public Nurseries
- Community-run nurseries provide free saplings to households and institutions.
- The Dev Jasnath Familial Forestry Public Nursery serves as a thriving model of public participation.
Institutional Forests
- Over 200 institutional forests have been developed in schools, colleges, public institutions, and on common lands.
- These spaces serve as living classrooms, biodiversity hubs, and carbon sinks.
Institutional Forests
- Over 200 institutional forests have been developed in schools, colleges, public institutions, and on common lands.
- These spaces serve as living classrooms, biodiversity hubs, and carbon sinks.
Community Participation
- Engagement through storytelling, folk traditions, school programs, and village gatherings.
- Special emphasis on women, children, and elders as agents of change.
Roonkh Reet: A Social Duty
- Roonkh Reet (Tree Tradition) encourages every citizen to contribute ₹365 per year—just ₹1 a day—for tree care, nursery development, and environmental education.
- This tradition redefines environmental stewardship as a social and ethical responsibility.
Community Participation
- Engagement through storytelling, folk traditions, school programs, and village gatherings.
- Special emphasis on women, children, and elders as agents of change.
Roonkh Reet: A Social Duty
- Roonkh Reet (Tree Tradition) encourages every citizen to contribute ₹365 per year—just ₹1 a day—for tree care, nursery development, and environmental education.
- This tradition redefines environmental stewardship as a social and ethical responsibility.
Holistic Habitat Healing
Holistic Habitat Healing, as practiced through Familial Forestry, is a uniquely integrative approach that goes beyond tree plantation. It restores ecological balance by interweaving native biodiversity, community participation, and cultural values. This model transforms degraded lands into thriving ecosystems—where every intervention simultaneously nurtures the soil, water, wildlife, and the spirit of the land in harmonious unison.
Agroforestry
Familial Forestry promotes climate-resilient agroforestry by integrating trees intoagricultural landscapes. By cultivating native species alongside crops, we enhance soilfertility, improve water retention, provide shade, and create new income streams forfarmers, contributing to both ecological balance and rural livelihoods.
Holistic Habitat Healing
Holistic Habitat Healing, as practiced through Familial Forestry, is a uniquely integrative approach that goes beyond tree plantation. It restores ecological balance by interweaving native biodiversity, community participation, and cultural values. This model transforms degraded lands into thriving ecosystems—where every intervention simultaneously nurtures the soil, water, wildlife, and the spirit of the land in harmonious unison.
Agroforestry
Familial Forestry promotes climate-resilient agroforestry by integrating trees intoagricultural landscapes. By cultivating native species alongside crops, we enhance soilfertility, improve water retention, provide shade, and create new income streams forfarmers, contributing to both ecological balance and rural livelihoods.
Holistic Habitat Healing
Holistic Habitat Healing, as practiced through Familial Forestry, is a uniquely integrative approach that goes beyond tree plantation. It restores ecological balance by interweaving native biodiversity, community participation, and cultural values. This model transforms degraded lands into thriving ecosystems—where every intervention simultaneously nurtures the soil, water, wildlife, and the spirit of the land in harmonious unison.
Agroforestry
Familial Forestry promotes climate-resilient agroforestry by integrating trees intoagricultural landscapes. By cultivating native species alongside crops, we enhance soilfertility, improve water retention, provide shade, and create new income streams forfarmers, contributing to both ecological balance and rural livelihoods.
Our Impact
- Over 4 million saplings planted and nurtured across thousands of households and institutions.
- Restoration of 207 acres of severely degraded land at Dabla Talab, Bikaner—now a thriving desert ecosystem.
- Establishment of a North America Chapter, expanding into climate-vulnerable regions.
- Development of wildlife water points, food forests, and biodiversity pockets.
- Significant contributions to multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including:
Contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals
Life on Land
Climate Action
Gender Equality
Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Quality Education
Zero Hunger
Sustainable Cities and Communities
Responsible Consumption and Production
Recognition
UNCCD’s Land for Life Award – 2021
Featured by the Nature Positive Universities Network
A joint initiative of UNEP and the University of Oxford
Presented at UNCCD COPs events
Acknowledged by academic, governmental, and civil society stakeholders.
Join the Movement
As India’s largest non-governmental Tree plantation and Eco restoration initiative, Familial Forestry is more than a campaign—it is a cultural and ecological renaissance. At a time when climate change endangers ecosystems and livelihoods, this movement presents a people-led, low-cost, and deeply sustainable model of restoration rooted in emotion, ethics, and ecology.We invite individuals, institutions, and communities across the globe to become part of this green revolution—to raise a tree like a child and heal the Earth, one family at a time.
