The "Empowering Communities through Citizen Science and Monitoring" session highlights the vital role of local communities in environmental monitoring. It showcases the Global Information Restoration Hub (GIRH), built on citizen-collected restoration data from around the world, and features the experiences of three volunteers involved in the process. Key themes include the power of citizen science in enhancing environmental monitoring, training communities with the necessary tools, effective data collection and analysis methods, successful case studies, and strategies to maintain long-term community engagement and collaboration in land restoration efforts.