By Valery Ndagijimana, Michael Weinhardt, Stefan Sieber, and Katharina Löhr

Participatory restoration co-design with local communities in western Rwanda. Photo by William Apollinaire.

This Plain Language Summary is published in advance of the paper discussed. Please check back soon for a link to the full paper.

Globally, people see nature healing as a strategy to repair the environment. In places where our natural environment is damaged, less productive and less healthy, and these environmental problems overlap with societal relations. Repairing the natural environment must account for repairing the social glue. However, there is no standard framework, particularly in conflict-affected societies, to hold the society together.

In this study, we examined how healing the natural environment intersects with repairing the social glue.  We reviewed scientific literature to understand how different researchers frame societal glue, specifically in Rwanda, and organized group discussions and conversations with the purpose of understanding how people understand what holds their society together. We also researched nature-healing platforms and opportunities to hold society together. We found that social glue is best understood as the degree to which everyone participates in the social life, characterized by the feeling of being part of society, having shared norms and values. These are observed in shared health, happiness and prosperity, strong bonds between individuals, groups and the state that allow them to cooperate and trust each other. While nature healing initiatives can reinforce inequalities, marginalization, and resource competition, they also create social platforms, including project meetings, farmer project beneficiary groups, credits and saving groups, learning visits, community work, assemblies and parent evenings, all of which support nature healing efforts while mending the social glue. We also found chances in such initiatives, like training sessions, supportive government and partner programs, community mediators, extension officers, youth volunteers and access to resources that both aid nature healing and strengthen social glue.

Based on this research, what holds the society together is not simply social bonds such as friendships, dialogue, cooperation between individuals, groups and the state, as in conflict-affected societies, these are already torn by conflicts. Rather, holding the society together is reflected more broadly in the degree to which everyone participates in the social life, shares health with others, prospers, feels happy and is part of the society, alongside social bonds. We call for integrating social glue aspects into nature healing initiatives.