The Reindeer Chronicles takes listeners on a global tour of Earth repair, with visits to unsung heroes who are pushing the boundaries of ecological restoration to show how even the world’s most wounded places can be revived.

The book begins in China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. Journalist Judith D. Schwartz shows how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can be, in the words of permaculture pioneer Bill Mollison “embarrassingly simple" and surprisingly inexpensive, as the chief tools are keen observation and a desire to follow nature’s lead.

Schwartz introduces us to people around the world who are restoring degraded lands at any scale, in any climate, and often at minimal cost by embracing an understanding of how a given landscape “works” and allying with nature’s inherent inclination to heal.

The Reindeer Chronicles also challenges orthodoxies of conservation, such as that culling semi-wild animals like wild donkeys, reindeer, or dingoes is beneficial to the environment. Schwartz explores regenerative solutions in different landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, which may involve the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture and the endurance of indigenous knowledge.

These stories show that land restoration needn’t simply mean returning to a previous state, but to the renewal of ecological function: restoring the water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles and how this renewal can play an important role in stabilizing the Earth’s climate.

Ultimately, The Reindeer Chronicles reveals how much is in our hands. It provides a roadmap to help us reorient ourselves during a time of uncertainty toward productive, empowering work on behalf of the home we all share and cherish.