The initiatives have important features that might explain their success, be it on a large or a smaller scale. This means that it will have to be grounded within the community itself and be adopted and implemented by community members with or without support from others. When people feel ownership and see their needs met in both the short and the long run, they are more inclined to use certain methods as an alternative way. Another important feature is inclusiveness: all people shall be positively or negatively affected by sustainable land use or restoration activities(herders, farmers, women, youth, and water users amongst others) since they will be involved in decision-making and implementation of these initiatives.

For climate change mitigation, fruit trees shall be intentionally designed to store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with other agricultural systems. Selecting options with lower embodied energy, such as replacing synthetic fertilizer with local organic nutrient sources, is an example of a management strategy that could alter the overall carbon footprint of the food produced. Like other treed habitats, community orchards hold the potential to store relatively large amounts of carbon on a small portion of land. Forage crops, which can be grown at the base of woody plantings, can provide additional carbon storage. Evidence suggests that increasing tree density and species richness can also improve carbon storage. Trees and shrubs planted in multi-strata systems will allow species to occupy different niches both above- and below-ground, optimizing the carbon stored in the biomass of these perennial woody plants.

Community orchards also have the potential to contribute to well-being through the restorative benefits of being in nature and interacting with other people, which contributes to psychological health. In tribal community contexts, they will contribute to greater movements of survival, a term used originally by Anishinaabe cultural theorist Gerald Vizenor to describe the present continuance of native lifeways and “renunciations of dominance, tragedy, and victory”. Survivance is an active survival and resistance, enacted in many ways, including through the embodied practice of traditional foodways and lifeways connected to place. As much as community orchards can serve as a place to grow traditional healthy foods, they can also locate related Indigenous sovereignty efforts tied to food justice and food sovereignty: education, health care, language, land and water rights, and cultural vitality

Once the fruit trees are established, they will provide a large yield of fruit year after year for decades, requiring little human input when compared to the growing, planting, weeding, watering, and pest control involved in annual vegetables. As a deep-rooted, long-lived perennial, the trees have time to adapt to local conditions and be more resilient. Therefore, by working with nature, and not against her, we shall create healthy, diverse, and resilient systems, while reducing the impact of climate change and environmental degradation.

Orchards offer a beautiful home to a multitude of animals and insects. From lesser spotted woodpeckers to red-headed cardinal beetles. They’re a mini ecosystem in their own right. The trees and surrounding grasslands support a huge variety of insects by providing them with nectar, grass seeds, fallen fruit, and wildflowers to feed on. The insects, in turn, offer a food source for birds and small mammals, which themselves fuel the food chain up to larger mammals and birds of prey (like peregrine falcons).

The project shall offer a space to learn from each other and nature and a place in which training in traditional skills can occur, such as pruning and grafting. And a place for celebration of diversity, nourishing fruit, and the trees that provide it. Sedated lifestyles and poor diets have led to rising rates of diabetes and obesity. Fresh, nutritious fruit and the activity involved in growing and harvesting have to be part of the solution.