Regenerative Verification Program: a way to measure regeneration on Vanua’s terms.

For seven years, Regenerative Vanua has been applying critical participatory action research with Vanuas in Vanuatu and across the Pacific, listening deeply, sitting together, walking through and caring for the land together, and swapping stories. It is from this work that the Regenerative Verification Program has emerged.

These Vanuas identified the need for an internationally recognised tool which uses their own ways of measuring the positive impact of their stewardship practices on their Vanuas. This is so that progress can be tracked and shared, and lessons learned can be passed to the next generation.

The Regenerative Verification Program is an outcome of Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) conducted in two ACIAR projects (LS-2020-155; SSS-2024-137). The RVP is guided by the Regenerative Vanua Stewardship Framework which supports regenerative stewardship in the Pacific, with a focus on regenerating Vanuas and building regenerative socio-economic markets.

The Regenerative Verification Program is transformative, grounded, designed by Indigenous stewards for their Vanuas, and refuses neoliberal, elitist, colonial frameworks.

The Regenerative Verification Program is a rigorous, transparent, outcomes-focused alternative to certification. It supports continuous improvement, place-based action, and whole-system regeneration, not just checklist compliance.

The Regenerative Verification Program was designed by Indigenous Pacific Vanuas: people who have stewarded land and life for thousands of years.

It isn’t an imported standard coming from above, with certification boards and checklists. It is a method grounded in Pacific values, lived experience, and responsibility to future generations.

Unlike traditional certification, the Regenerative Verification Program works at the scale of whole systems. This means that instead of individual businesses becoming verified, it is the bioregions, Vanuas, networks, and relationships which are verfified as regenerative.

This way of being recognises the interconnected relationship between climate, biodiversity, culture, and livelihoods.

We know that those working, living, growing and contributing to the regenerative space might be wary of any attempt to measure, verify, or certify regeneration. The nature of regeneration defies definition, boundaries, and standards.

We can’t regenerate our lands, waters, and livelihoods using the same frameworks that enabled this decline in the first place. As writer and activist Audre Lorde reminds us: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

Measurement within the RVP comes from the framework of Vanua Stewardship: a living set of values and practices that centre Vanua — the land, sea, people, culture, and the ties that hold them together — as the starting point for measuring renewal. It is a way for communities to tell the story of healing in their own words and to see, together, how care for place restores life.

Regenerative outcomes include richer agrobiodiversity, healthier soils and reefs, revived traditional knowledge, stronger social reciprocity, diverse and localised food systems, improved nutrition, and deeper resilience to climate shocks. This approach recognises that true regeneration is rooted in relationships and responsibilities. It returns decision-making to customary custodians, honours stewardship rather than ownership, and centres intergenerational wellbeing.

Baseline measurements and observations are noted to demonstrate improvement in areas including soil health, water and river system health, waste reduction and management, nutrition, health and food integrity, marine resource stewardship and harvest practices, and cultural heritage and storytelling and more. Individuals, businesses or Vanuas develop Regenerative Action Plans to address key areas and measure progress in self-determined areas.

The Regenerative Verification Program was born in the Pacific, but it has the potential to be applied in Vanuas throughout the world, led by those who understand and steward Vanua.

It is a place-based, Vanua-led way of regenerating our lands, bodies, hearts and minds, and of measuring our regenerative progress.

Regeneration looks different within every place, culture, and individual, and the Regenerative Verification Program begins with this understanding.