About
About
Meet the team and learn more about Agroforestry
Our Ethics & Worldview
We will forever remember the diverse plant and animal life-forms we have lost. So too will we remember the diverse indigenous cultural expressions of the people lost to toxication, unsustainable production, genetic alteration and cultural devastation.
The Team
We work and collaborate with a multi-disciplinary Team from around the Planet. Our team is led by Roman Eisenkoelbl, a student, resident and teacher in Permaculture Projects, Ecovillages and Alternative Communities for over 10 years.
What is Regenerative Agroforestry?
We honor the pre-colonial Agroforestry Systems and their stewards around the World. Agroforestry was developed over millennia by indigenous peoples, who are still its foremost practitioners. We have grouped together some of the best resources for you.
Our Ethics & Worldview
Living together in a co-creative symbiosis
Our Ethics
There is a need, it seems, to shift many of our basic values, habits and behaviors.
While working and living within this Macro-organism Planet Earth we always ask ourselves:
Is my intervention in the local environment resulting in an increase of Quality and Quantity of Life?
We are also guided by Kant’s categorical imperative: “Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a Universal Law of Nature” and the Permaculture Ethics of Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share are valuable tools for developing ethical lives for the benefit of all and the continuity of the micro- and macrocosm.
In the Spirit of one of our great inspirations Victor Schauberger who conceived humanity’s foreordained tasks to be threefold:
- To make a small piece of the Earth fertile.
- To evolve oneself to a higher level.
- To preserve oneself and the species.
“The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener.”
Bill O’Brien
It Is No Measure of Health to be Well Adjusted to a Profoundly Sick Society
Krishna Murti
Our Worldview
We consider ourselves Endosymbionts within the Macro-Organism Planet Earth.
“We Are Not Faced With Two Separate Crises, One Environmental And The Other Social, But Rather, One Complex Crisis Which Is Both Social & Environmental.”
Pope Francis’ encyclical
We consider ourselves Endosymbionts within the Macro-Organism Planet Earth. ENDO means “inside” , BIOS means “Life”, SYMBIOSIS means “ a state of living together”.
We are living within the Macro-organism Planet earth in a co-creative symbiosis through mutual beneficial relationships. We are not the ones in control we are just one part of an “INTELLIGENT SYSTEM”. It is clear that Nature’s intelligence is more superior then human intelligence, as we are just one part of nature. We believe we should develop our agriculture systems by mimicking Nature and thrive together with her in symbiotic prosperity.
We aim to fulfil our function driven by “INNER PLEASURE” and “UNCONDITIONAL LOVE” to achieve beneficial regenerative outcomes in a dialogue with the natural world around us.
Inspired by Otto Scharmer – Theory U
“We might say it this way: the success of our actions as change-makers does not depend on What we do or How we do it, but on the Inner Place from which we operate.”
Otto Scharmer
We believe that only a person who is internally “healed” , ”awake” and has an integrated worldview, and therefore is at peace with her/himself would have the insight and depth of understanding to get married with the natural world and step into harmonic resonance with all forms of life.
Our interventions in a given place are inspired by the STRUCTURE & FUNCTION of the natural forest ecosystem and our aim is an increase in QUALITY & QUANTITY OF LIFE” through our harmonious dialogue with the ecosystem around us. We seek to act in a beneficial way in order to become loved ones and be considered useful beings in the ecosystems we live and work.
Our aim is as well to maximize output with minimum inputs in energy terms which enables us to create a positive energy balance utilizing NATURAL SPECIES SUCCESSION, STRATIFICATION, SPECIES LIFECYCLES , HIGH DIVERSITY & HIGH DENSITY. Our goal is to maximize carbon or biomass and not necessarily maximize economic gain in the narrow sense. We believe HUMUS is the foundation of our human civilization and economics as well as any other activities are depended on Planet earth and its functional ecosystems.
Our approach to food production is based on the universal values of compassion, synergy & service . These are similar to the values that many of the traditional farming/foraging communities around the world utilized.
We have a vision to see every farmer prosperous and successful, to see every consumer healthy and happy and to see Mother Nature thriving through our cultivation and beneficial relationship with her.
Food on the one hand is one of the most basic requirements of human beings. On the other hand, it is one of the strongest factors that determine the quality of society’s health. The “quality of health of society” is determined by the health of every individual vis-à-vis his/her interpersonal relationships in a community and also the collective health of his/her surroundings. The word “health” includes physical, emotional, social, economical and ecological health! If food is the factor determining the health of society, it becomes important to pay attention to the way we grow our food.
Deepak Suchde
Our Mutual Indebtedness
In memory of all the diverse plant and animal life-forms we have forever lost.
“Freeing itself from the ‘laws’ of physics, from mechanical determinism and mechanistic control, the organism becomes a sentient, coherent being that is free, from moment to moment, to explore and create its possible futures”
Mae-Wan-Ho
Together we must resist the rapid disappearance of biodiversity, indigenous cultures and shared human values.
In memory of all the diverse plant and animal life-forms we have forever lost. In memory of the diverse indigenous cultural expressions of the people in Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, North, Central and South America, Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia who have been forced into toxic, unsustainable mechanical food production, genetically altered, culturally devastated or have disappeared forever altogether. These traditional cultures, their seeds and life-ways, their worldview founded on reciprocity, respect and interrelations must be kept alive! Making up only 6.2% of our global population, indigenous people steward 80% of Earth’s biodiversity while managing over 25% of her land.
Our thoughts, words, prayers, images and actions when planted into fertile ground will grow into a life-giving regenerative healing force for all beings. We can overcome the worlds insanity and its cloud of ignorance and grow into roses that feed the hummingbirds of the holy in nature, keeping the seeds of life and an integrated diverse culture alive. The task of our time is the Re-weaving and strengthening of the bonds between all beings. People belong to land rather then land belonging to people, healing of land MUST include healing of people. Recognizing & healing all of our own traumas IS healing Earth’s traumas, because we are ONE!
Lets become a welcome sound in the symphony of nature again! Lets become part of the living process of creation again and cultivate respect, gratitude and love for the gifts of the earth/universe.
Always remember your grandmother is underneath your feet and your grandfather is above. The animals, plants and rocks are our brothers, sister and uncles, re-learn to appreciate the kinship of all life. All of nature is in us, all of us is in nature.
The Team
Meet the Regenerative Agroforestry Collective
The Team
We collaborate with a multi-disciplinary team from around the planet
Roman Eisenkoelbl
Regenerative Agroforestry Collective Founder
Soil Sun Soul Founder
Roman Eisenkoelbl
A semi-nomadic Tree Planter, Soil Builder and Seed Disperser….
Roman has been studying and living in Permaculture Projects, Ecovillages and Alternative Communities for over 10 years which brought him to a diverse range of Projects, Countries, Climates, Cultures and People all over the planet.
He has lived, worked and learned in places like East Africa, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, the Caribbean Islands, South and Central America, Germany, Portugal and Spain.
He has been involved in the organization or co-facilitation of over 25 PDCs and several short courses in various projects and climates around the world. He has learned from some of the Pioneers and Experts of Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture including David Holmgren, Darren Doherty, Rosemary Morrow, Robyn Francis,Jude Hobbs, Sepp Holzer, Jairo Restrepo, Martin Crowford, Larry Korn, Alex Kruger, Bernard Declercq (Pebble Garden, Auroville), Rico Zook and Govinda Sharma.
The last few years his focus has been on developing Regenerative Agroecosystems in different climates and has learned directly from Syntropic Agroforestry Pioneer and Founder Ernst Goetsch and his long term students like Namaste Messerschmidt, Felipe Amato and Gabriel Menezes. He received a over 100hour training in Dynamic Agroforestry Systems in Boliva from the Ecotop Team Joachim Milz and Walter Yana. He was also part of a Analog Forestry Training at Belipola the Pioneering Analong Forestry Site in Sri Lanka with the Founder of Analog Forestry Dr Ranil Senanayake. He also was part of two Dynamic Agroforestry Trainings with Dr. Noemi Stadler-Kaulich at the internationally known Ecovillage Community near Berlin called Sieben Linden.To deepen his study about Regenerative Soil Health Management and Composting he participated in a Training with the Internationally recognized Soil Experts Urs Hildebrandt & Angelika Luebke from U.R.S. Landmanagement – United Research For Soil.
He is the founder of the Soil-Sun-Soul Project and Blog.
For 3 and a half years he has been living, working and learning in the pioneering Ecovillage in Auroville, India and visiting, advising and volunteering at countless other projects in South East Asia. He spent 6 months doing a Practical internship program at the Permaculture Research Institute Maungaraeeda, Sunshine Coast, Australia, where he deepened his experience and studies in the field guided by PRI Teacher Tom Kendall. Recently he has been deeply involved with organizing together with an international Team the Pre IPC India Permaculture Teacher Training and PDC in India with a total of over 100 participating students from over 30 countries and organizer 2 Natural Farming courses and 2 tours with Pioneer Larry Korn in India and Thailand which greatly furthered his international experience and connections.
Currently he is based half of the year in Spain to start a regenerative Enterprise at Can Lliure a 100ha Living and Learning Centre for Regenerative Landmanagement Practices and half of the year he spends in Asia supporting different projects and facilitating courses. Recently he also became Farm Manager of the Centre for Regenerative Agroecosystems & Agroforestry on Palawan Island in the Phillipines. His aim is in the process of project management and course facilitation learn more about eco-social life systems design and integrated , regenerative Agroecosystems whilst still supporting various projects in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Philippines and Nepal by co-facilitating and sharing his experience on a grassroots farmer to farmer basis.
Rico Zook
A Permaculture designer, consultant and instructor
Rico brings over four decades of experience in nature to his work. As well as creating and working with a wide variety of land-based systems in all types of climatic environments, for the past 23 years he has been a Permaculture designer, consultant and educator working with farmers, villagers, private individuals, and local organizations in India, SE Asia, Spain, USA, the mid-east and other parts of the world.
He is the founder of iPermaculture.
Over the years he has worked from the village level to the international. For the 2017 International Permaculture Convergence in India he organized, managed and taught the pre convergence PDC, with Robyn Francis and an Int’l instructor crew, and Teacher Training, with Jude Hobbs.
Currently much of his work is assisting and mentoring his advanced students who are now working in permaculture and evolving as instructors. When not working internationally he is developing a 2-acre regenerative farm, and learning centre (Kapehu Farm) on a remote small Hawaiian island.
Rico Zook
Permaculture Designer, Consultant & Teacher
Asanga Namal Jayasinghe
Agroforestry & Permaculture Consultant and Educator, Sri Lanka
Asanga Namal Jayasinghe
A dreamer, permaculture farmer, designer and teacher
Asanga has worked with Mahamankadawala Piyarathana Thero (eppawala hamuduruwo) on traditional rice cultivation in Sri Lanka and done volunteering in organic farms and on permaculture farms in Auroville, India. It is great motivation for him to educate and empower people.
He loves to do research on regenerative agriculture and agroforestry systems.He graduated in Bsc. Agricultural sciences and management from Sabrgamuwa Unversity of Sri Lanka and has done Introduction to Analog Forestry Course, (International analog forestry network), Belipola, Sri Lanka, Permaculture design course (PDC) with Govinda Sharma at Hasera agriculture research & training center in Nepal, Eco Village Design Course (Auroville) in India. He also did his Permaculture teacher training with Rico Zook and Jude Hobbs certified by Permaculture institute of north America and trained as teaching assistant during the pre IPC PDC at 13th international Permaculture convergence, Hyderabad ,India.
He is currently coordinating power Plant Organic Farm project as well as coordinator of Permacultulture Network Sri Lanka. He has been organizing and co facilitating a permaculture design course and other workshops with Roman Eisenkölbl and Kate Curtis (Soil*Sun*Soul) Spain. He has designed and established various Regenerative Agroforestry Designs in Sri Lanka and teachers regular courses on the Island too.
Kiaruwa Team
Windylen Abo
Kiaruwa Eco-Sanctuary Co-Manager, Organic Gardener, Photographer
Age
Kiaruwa Eco-Sanctuary Farm Staff
Ghie
Kiaruwa Eco-Sanctuary Farm Staff
What is Regenerative Agroforestry?
Understanding the basics of the Agroforestry (R)evolution!
What is Regenerative Agroforestry
Learn more about Regenerative Agroforestry
What is Regenerative Agroforestry?
Learn About Regenerative Agroforesty
What is Regenerative Agroforestry?
One of the first Agroforestry definitions was published in 1977, defined Agroforestry as:
“a sustainable management system for land that increases overall production, combines agricultural crops, tree crops, and forest plants and/or animals simultaneously or sequentially, and applies management practices that are compatible with the cultural patterns of the local population.”
—
The Agroforestry Center of Missouri University defines Agroforestry as:
“Trees and shrubs deliberately integrated with crops or livestock.”
—
The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) has suggested the following definition of Agroforestry:
“Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/ or animals, in either a spatial arrangement or a temporal sequence.
—
Agroforestry by definition requires a synergistic interaction between species.
7 Key Tools
Agroforestry offers seven key tools:
- Alley Cropping: is the cultivation of food, forage or specialty crops between rows of trees.
- Forest Farming : growing high-value specialty crops under the forest canopy
- Forest Gardening : is a designed agronomic system based on trees, shrubs and perennial plants that mimic the structure of a natural forest.
- Urban Food Forests: intential use of perennial food-producing plants to improve the sustainability and resilience of urban communities.
- Silvopasture: integration of livestock and trees
- Windbreaks – rows of trees to protect soil, crops, and/or livestock from wind
- Riparian Buffer: is an area adjacent to a stream, lake or wetland that contains trees, shrubs or other perennial plants which helps to shade and protect the water body from the impact of adjacent land-use.
In recent years Syntropic Agriculture/Agroforestry has received a lot of attention. Syntropic Agrofrestry is a type of Alley Cropping system that works with the dynamics of Time & Space: Succession, Plant Lifecycles and Stratification as well as utilizes strategies like pruning and selective weeding. It has a high focus on management and the beneficial interaction of humans and the ecosystem they are participating in.Syntropic Agriculture/Agroforestry has been a great inspiration for our work.
Regenerative Agroforestry
For us Regenerative Agroforestry is one way forward into the future that can support small scale and larger scale farmers on the path of regeneration of our production landscapes and at the same time create socially flourishing and economic abundant bioregional communities.
Regenerative Agroforestry is already practiced in many countries worldwide by 1000s of small-scale farmers in tropical climates and in recent years in Temperate Climates. Also some mechanized, larger scale farm trails have been implemented in various countries.
Regenerative Agroforestry mimics the STRUCUTURE & FUNCTION of Forest Ecosystems and works with SPACE (Stratification) & TIME (Succession, Plant Lifecycles) while producing a variety of economically viable yields utilizing a HIGH DENSITY & HIGH DIVERSITY of annual and perennial plants.
We integrate knowledge and experiences from various fields like Analog Forestry,Syntropic Agriculture, Permaculture, Holistic Management,Natural Farming and Agro-ecology into our Regenerative Agroforestry practice to be able to increase profitability while at the same time regenerating the soil and ecosystem health.
Regenerative Agroforestry increases economic and ecological benefits through maximizing eco-system services such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, water-holding capacity and photosynthetic potential while offering climate and nutritional resilience and diversified multi-capital yields.
Regenerative Agroforestry is a PROCESS & CYCLIC based Agriculture Production system offering solutions and alternatives to the highly toxic and destructive INPUT & LINEAR based Industrial Agriculture Production systems.
Regenerative Agroforestry aims to work with the dynamics of nature to increase QUALITY & QUANTITY of consolidated life in the area of our intervention. Agriculture is a inherently anthropogenic activity that can be guided by unconditional love, empathy and inner pleasure so we can become a useful species once again in the ecosystem we interact with. We all can be stewards and co-creators of healthy vibrant life.
Why We Need Regeneration
What is Regeneration?
For us REGENERATION is about the capacity to re-build or to evolve to another level to be able to sustain healthy thriving life on the long-term for our future generations and all life forms.
We acknowledge the need for total systems transformation and aim to contribute to the Regeneration of:
- Ecosystem and Production Landscape Health
- Soil Health
- Public Health through nutritionally dense high brix food as medicine
- Small-scale Farmers Economic Flourishing
- Our connection to nature, ourselves and other forms of life
Why Do We Need Regeneration?
“Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world.” By E. O. Wilson
We have to understand the deep interrelationship between our Food System, Agriculture Crop Production and human and ecological flourishing.
In the early 1900s more than half of Americans for example were either Farmers or lived in rural communities. Since the early 1900 and the beginning of “Industrial Farming” which promoted the use of big machinery and chemical inputs we saw a vast amount of SPECIALIZATION leading to genetically modified monoculture crops, reduction in genetics of farm animals and traditional open-pollinated seeds as well as the eradication of trees from our production landscapes which created every higher soil erosion. Many soil scientists are warning us that we have about 60 years of Topsoil left if we continue our current unsustainable soil management practices. The ever greater SPECIALIZATION required more and more MECHANIZATION which resulted in a reduction of American workforce involved in agriculture from 41% to 2% between 1900 to 2000 and the CONSOLIDATION towards fewer and fewer farms of which the remaining farms got bigger and bigger.
This process incentivized greater and greater DISCONNECTION FROM NATURE and drove Industrial Farmers to FIGHT AND WORK AGAINST NATURE instead of being our collaborator she became the farmers enemy. The vast amount of MONOCULTURES covering 1000s of Hectares land can only be sustained by the excessive use of CHEMICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL INPUTS in just 12 years for example between 1964 and 1975, synthetic and mineral fertilizer application on U.S. crops nearly doubled, while pesticide use increased by 143%.
Big corporations started to take over the food supply, chemical input production and seed business leading to an OLIGARCHICAL MARKET CONCENTRATION and vertical integration (when companies gain control of multiple industries in the food sector) in many areas of our food system which was now not anymore focused on NOURISHING people but making HIGHEST AMOUNT OF PROFIT and focusing on SHAREHOLDER BENEFITS. All this led us to a PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS and a global CLIMATE EMERGENCY situation.
The key factors in extreme Weather are excessive heat, precipitation and air moisture. Many scientific studies have shown that monthly mean temperature records, extreme precipitation events and average air moisture content all have risen over the last 50 years – 150 years (see for example Dr. Dim Coumou).
The loss of our fertile soils all around the world, the loss of forest cover and biodiversity going hand in hand with the loss of indigenous seeds and cultural knowledge are a extreme threat to our very survival as a species. The qualitative and nutritional loos of the food we consume has resulted in an unprecedented public health crisis to the point of out of control cancer and hearth disease pandemics coupled with infertility of our population.
GLOBALIZATION resulted in the exporting under the name of development of our “western and colonial “ neurotic nature-killing cultures & life-ways on a global scale. Our human-created misery of war, economic subjugation, nuclear weaponry and displacement and eradication of people, cultures and their practices and the massive loos of genetic diversity are some of the symptoms of the disconnection of the human race and the lack of regenerative stewardship of what as been given to us as a gift.
Mother Earth was created and started out organic, she has gone through a lot of human abuse, chemical scientific experimentation and genetic-tinkering. Mother earth is resilient, self-regulating, self-organizing, self-healing and forgiving but she will fight back and come through the back door with a pitchfork if the human race doesn’t change and continues to abuse her.
So WHY do we need Regeneration ? If not NOW when?
The UNEP Report Dead Planet, Living Planet states : Ecosystems, from forests and freshwater to coral reefs and soils, deliver essential services to humankind estimated to be worth over USD 72 Trillion a year – comparable to World Gross National Income (USD 58 Trillion in 2008) . Yet in 2010, nearly two-thirds of the globe’s ecosystems are considered degraded as a result of damage, mismanagement and a failure to invest and reinvest in their productivity, health and sustainability.
The Agrobiodiversity Loss
100 YEARS OF AGRICULTURAL CHANGE: SOME TRENDS AND FIGURES RELATED TO AGROBIODIVERSITY
- Since the 1900s, some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide have left their multiple local varieties and landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties.
- 30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction; six breeds are lost each month
- Today, 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species.
- Of the 4 percent of the 250 000 to 300 000 known edible plant species, only 150 to 200 are used by humans. Only three – rice, maize and wheat – contribute nearly 60 percent of calories and proteins obtained by humans from plants.
- Animals provide some 30 percent of human requirements for food and agriculture and 12 percent of the world’s population live almost entirely on products from ruminants
Source: FAO. 1999b
We need to Re-remember the noble aim and original purpose of agriculture:
To grow nourishing crops with nutritional integrity that don’t destroy our land base and are economically viable for the grower without the need for constant outside inputs.
There are several different pathways of integrated growing systems that facilitated achieving this noble aim and original purpose of agriculture. The production system choice is determined by the context you are nested in and the quality of life you are looking for.
We exist, as a collective initiative to help facilitate the process of Regenerative Food Production so it becomes the status quo and mainstream within two decades.
Origins & Inspirations for Regenerative Agroforestry Systems
Most forest communities in the tropics practiced traditional agriculture utilizing agroforestry systems or forest gardens with the integration of non-timber forest products ex. Sri Lanka Kandy Forest Gardens, Indonesia Java Forest Gardens, Amazon Rainforest Communities. These indigenous communities often combined the cultivation of agricultural crops and timber species. They also frequently use perennial tree crops such as palms, fruit trees, coffee, and cocoa, in combination with annual crops such as cassava, plantains, corn, and beans. Sun loving trees and food crops where usually cultivated early in the cycle, while shade crops such as coffee and cocoa are cultivated underneath a forest canopy.
These practices have been observed for example by Agroforestry Pioneers like Dr.Ranil Senanayaka from Sri Lanka or by Ernst Goetsch during his time in South and Central America and who afterwards experimented for many years to evolve these traditional Agroforestry systems further and systematize them. We are in big admiration and incredibly grateful to the various indigenous Agroforestry Practioners as well as to Dr.Ranil Senanayaka and Ernst Goetsch for their lifelong dedication to the Agroforesty practice, evolution and research.
Key Challenges for Regenerative Agroforestry Adoption
We have been programmed to “compartmentalize” agriculture, and separate trees from annual crops and taking animals out of our production landscapes because of mechanization ,single crop focus & monocultures, economic pressure and regulatory challenges.
You didn’t inherit the land from your ancestors — you are borrowing it from your children.
Native American Quote