A Living Lab brings people and place together
An RRL Living Lab brings together a place, the people who live there or care for it, and the partners involved in its work. Together, they investigate and try ways of living that support land restoration. The people affected help shape the questions, the work and the learning.
This builds on the European Living Lab approach and draws on Syntrociety’s definition of a Syntropic Living Lab. RRL Living Lab is our name for putting this approach into practice around rural living and care for the land.
The Lab includes the land, its community and their cooperation. The RRL platform supports them by bringing plans, sources, observations and evidence together.
What we want to find out
Could people living on and caring for rural land help restore it over time? What would make that care reliable, affordable and possible to continue? Could sharing information also reduce paperwork for residents, professionals and public services?
A pilot would investigate these questions in practice. It would examine changes in the land alongside the work, costs and difficulties involved. It should help participants understand what works, what needs changing and where the approach is unsuitable. Longer observation would be needed to understand lasting changes in the health of the land.
What each group could contribute and gain
The same person or organisation may have several roles. A possible partnership would make room for four groups:
- Residents, neighbours and community groups bring daily experience, local knowledge and care for the place, alongside landowners and other land stewards. Associations and volunteers can help identify shared concerns. They could gain clearer steps, a voice in decisions and access to findings that affect their surroundings.
- Local professionals and businesses bring design, construction, farming, maintenance and practical skills. They could work with better project information and clearer agreements about the work, costs and responsibilities.
- Researchers and educators help choose useful questions and practical ways to investigate them, examine findings and explain their limits. They could gain practical learning opportunities and access to information under agreed conditions and appropriate consent.
- Public authorities and services bring knowledge of public responsibilities, local conditions and the decisions within their powers. They could receive information in a more connected form and learn which parts of a process create unnecessary work.
Before anyone joins, the participants would agree what each role involves and what time or support is available.
The land and its long-term care
Stewardship means taking lasting responsibility for the care of a place. It includes doing agreed work, maintaining what has been put in place, noticing problems and adapting when conditions change.
Start by identifying the land, who may use it and who is responsible for it. Record its current condition: soil, water, plants, wildlife, habitats and relevant risks. Then agree what needs protection or improvement. Restoration may mean protecting existing habitat or reducing disturbance as well as planting or construction.
The plan should connect care for the land with practical needs such as water, wastewater, energy, wildfire safety and access. Housing proposals, where relevant, belong in that wider picture.
Who makes which decisions
Participants would agree who coordinates the work, who carries it out, who checks it and how disagreements are addressed. Residents and neighbours should help identify local concerns. Researchers should be able to question methods and findings. Public and commercial interests should be visible.
In Portugal, the câmara (municipal authority) and other public bodies make the decisions within their legal powers. Plans for living on the land, building, using the land and installing services need the checks and permissions that apply to that place. Joining a pilot, improving the land or completing a project file does not itself give permission to build or live there, or legalise an existing structure.
Where an independent check is needed, it should be carried out by someone other than the person responsible for the work.
A possible pilot in five steps
- Meet around a shared question. Discuss the place, the people affected and what each participant wants to learn. Identify the knowledge and responsibilities that are missing.
- Agree the approach. Set roles, realistic time and costs, access to information and how decisions will be made. Decide what would make the pilot worth continuing.
- Record the starting conditions. Gather available sources and observations. Choose measurements people can repeat, with professional help where needed. Keep gaps visible.
- Try and follow the work. Carry out agreed activities when the necessary decisions are in place. Record changes, maintenance, effort and difficulties as well as encouraging results.
- Evaluate together. Compare the experiences of all four groups. Decide what to change, continue or stop, what can be shared and who will keep caring for the place.
The scope and pace would depend on the place and the participants. Some questions will take longer to answer than the pilot itself.
An example: rainwater and soil
Imagine residents noticing that heavy rain washes water and soil off a slope. A researcher helps choose a simple way to observe runoff. A local professional examines possible measures and their effects on nearby land. The relevant public services consider the questions within their responsibilities.
Residents record what was done and observe what happens afterwards. Rainfall, photographs from the same position and maintenance notes help make those observations useful. Neighbours can raise effects beyond the boundary.
This is an example, not an existing pilot. One wet season would not prove the measure caused an improvement: weather, earlier conditions and other changes also matter.
Learning from evidence, including setbacks
Keep what was planned separate from what was actually done or observed. A hoped-for improvement is a target. A reported result needs observations or other evidence. Record where information came from, when it was collected and how. Estimates, missing information and differing interpretations should remain recognisable.
Compare similar observations over time and explain when methods change. Keep findings about soil, water, habitats and other concerns separate, rather than combining them into one overall score. Improvement in one should not conceal damage elsewhere.
Keep disappointing outcomes and disagreements in the account. They help the participants, and other places, avoid repeating mistakes.
Agreeing what to share
Before collecting information, agree why it is needed, who can see it, what may be published and how long it will be kept. Explain any consent needed in language participants can understand. People should know whom to contact with a question or a request to change an agreement.
Personal details, photographs and precise locations may need protection. Sharing useful lessons does not require publishing every project detail. Participants could share an agreed summary or findings that do not identify individuals.
The arrangements should also cover researchers and other partners receiving information, and what happens to their access when they leave.
Care continues after the pilot
Before work starts, agree who will maintain the land and any measures, who will continue observations and what resources that requires. Decide what happens if a participant leaves, funding ends or the work does not meet expectations.
A review may lead to repairs, a different plan or an end to the pilot. Closing the learning exercise still leaves practical questions: who cares for the place, who keeps the records and what commitments remain? Those arrangements need to be clear to the people taking them on.
What is still open, and how to take part
This is a proposal for discussion. There is no established municipal pilot or fixed group of confirmed partners. A place, participants, responsibilities, resources, support and a workable approach would need to be agreed before one could begin. RRL guidance or other personal support would depend on who could provide it and under what arrangements.
You can contribute as a resident, neighbour, association, professional, researcher or public-service representative. Bring a place, a practical question or knowledge that could help. Get in touch to discuss your idea.