Projects
Centers
Check out these global regenerative agroforestry demonstration sites
Can Lliure: Living & Learning Center, Spain
Can Lliure is a place for mindful Human-Nature relationships. Our aim is to create a Living, Learning & Research Center where one can develop their own capabilities and to realize inherent potentialities, with Nature’s guidance and support.
Kiaruwa Eco-Sanctuary, Palawan Island
Kiaruwa promotes the co-creation of regenerative cultures worldwide through demonstration and transformative education on our experimental research site on Palawan Island. Creating environmentally regenerative, socially flourishing and economically viable Agroecosystems.
The Woods: Eco-Based Project, Sri Lanka
The Woods is an innovative eco-based project located in the lush greenery of the Sri Lankan tropical jungle, on the doorstep of one of the world’s most bio-diverse places. The Woods is Sri Lanka’s First Permaculture & Regenerative Agroforestry Training and Demonstration Center.
Initiatives
Join these global regenerative initiatives!
Regenerative Agroforestry Collectives
Discover how to increase profitability whilst having a regenerative impact on your production landscape.
Regenerative Consumer & Producer Webs
With regenerative consumer & producer webs local farms can reach economics of scale by forming farmers cooperatives or collectives.
The Soil (R)evolution
Healthy soils are the basis for healthy regenerative food production! In 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt said “The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”
Centers
Check out these global demonstration sites
Can Lliure
Alta Garrotxa, Catalunya, Spain
Can Lliure Living & Learning Center
Alta Garrotxa, Catalunya, Spain
Can Lliure is a place for mindful Human-Nature relationships. Our aim is to create a Living, Learning & Research Center where one can develop their own capabilities and to realize inherent potentialities, with Nature’s guidance and support.
We see Can Lliure as a vital place and seeding ground for ourselves and the wider global community to adapt to their surrounding environments once again and enjoy their bounties in a sustainable manner. Can Lliure is based in the wonderful and magical Alta Garrotxa area close to the Spanish Pyrenees. The land we steward of is 100ha and is mainly covered in wild Oak forest with lots of wild goats, wild boars and limestone cliffs. There are 3,5 ha of cleared terraces with stunning views of the surrounding mountains. We are very blessed and very grateful to have a clean and natural freshwater spring on our land from which we drink.
About
Can Lliure started approximately three years ago with the aim of experimenting and transmitting regenerative agricultural practices, but also acting as a place where people can experience the magic of pristine mountains and forests and reconnect with the natural environment and with the way food is being produced.
Located on a very challenging terrain, on a mountain slope with poor soils and a rough climate, the project aims to demonstrate that regenerative agricultural practice can be successful even in the most challenging places.
The main goal of the project is to promote a life style close to nature and least impactful for the environment. This is done by developing a functioning regenerative small scale farm, based on Permaculture principles & Regenerative Land-Management Techniques, including vegetable and fruit production as well animal husbandry, organizing workshops to promote the techniques used on the land, and offering a farm stay for people to be able to immerse in and experience our lifestyle while enjoying the bounties of the land.
Bio-Intensive Vegetable Production
We practice bio-intensive vegetable production on about 1000 m2 which has allowed us to reach self-reliance in terms of vegetables, for both our selves and the workshops and trainings as well as to generate a surplus sold to our neighboring project, Active Earth and various other clients.
Regenerative Agroforestry System
A diversified Fruit and nut Alley Cropping System using tools like Syntropic Agroforestry and Forest Garden Principles on about 1000 m2. We have a diversity of Trees like walnuts, Pecan, Almond, Cherry, Apple, Apricot, Fejoa, Pomegranates, Fig, Peach, Plum, Lemon and many more support and biomass species like Paulownia, Willow, Eucalyptus, Alder, Ash, Melia to name a few.
Permaculture Design Course (PDC) Video
Kiaruwa Eco-Sanctuary
Palawan Island, Philippines
At Kiaruwa we focus on the co-creation of regenerative cultures worldwide through demonstration and transformative education on our experimental research site on Palawan Island. Creating environmentally regenerative, socially flourishing and economically viable Agroecosystems.
Eco Sanctuary
Eco-Sanctuaries offer the space and opportunity to find meaning, purpose, value in one’s life and to become a fully integrated human. We need to regenerate our relationships to self, others and nature. We need to work on the process of the integration of the “Big Three (person, culture, nature)” is one of the single greatest task facing modernity (and postmodernity). What is demanded of us to solve the global crisis is the integration of the interior or subjective worlds (I and we) with the exterior or objective (Nature); the integration of “Ego and Eco.” We need to especially remember our relationships to that which is emphatically non-human: the interbeing with other living beings. We have to become animal to truly feel what it means to be human, we have to become plant, we have to become stone. Only by the experience of the living depth of nature, the own inner universe of which the poet Rilke is speaking of the “intensified sky” becomes accessible .
Eco-Sanctuaries offer the opportunity to be living a well-cultivated life were one gardens ones’ capacities and develops her/his full creative inherent potential. A space for interdependent Human-Nature flourishing through our conscious intimate participation in a vast web of dynamic life. Touching the Earth means being touched by the Earth at the same time.
Guiding Principles of our Eco-Sanctuary
- To be an ecological sanctuary unique for the climate, biodiversity, and people
- To regenerate the land by creating productive and diverse ecosystems.
- To educate visitors to the eco sanctuary on the principles and philosophies implemented on site.
- To become an eco-tourism destination with accommodation options that financially supplement the site’s agroforestry production.
- To establish a welcoming and co-operative relationship with the local community
- To protect, conserve and restore this incredible planetary biodiversity and thriving ecosystems
- To help people to build relationships and co-create and facilitate local holistic agriculture systems transformation through focusing on the high percentage of small farmers
- To enable farmers to switch away from the input based model to the process based, from linear to cyclic, from entropic to syntropic model of Regenerative Agroforestry farming
- To be a driving force and inspiration in the healing process of our ecological, spiritual and social reconnection to self, others and the environment
- To life a simple and close to nature life-style
- To be committed to work with Space (Stratification) and Time (Succession & Lifecycles) in our production Landscapes
- To aim towards an integral ecology and integral Post-modernism: against patriarchal, euro-centric, anthropocentric attitudes and celebrating mulit-culturalism and mulit-perspectivalism , criticize and offer solutions to Pathological forms of modernity
- To always create conditions conducive to life
One of Our Forest Gardens
The Start of a New Forest Organism
Kiaruwa
Palawan Island, Philippines
The Woods
Haputale, Sri Lanka
The Woods
Haputale, Sri Lanka
The Woods is an innovative eco-based project located in the lush greenery of the Sri Lankan tropical jungle, situated at the doorstep of one of the world’s richest bio diverse places in the island and we are Sri Lanka’s First Permaculture & Regenerative Agroforestry Training and Demonstration Center. The Woods also works as a host site for the Permaculture Network of Sri Lanka.
Visit: The Woods Homepage
Facebook: The Woods Facebook
About
The Woods offers an amazing Eco-retreat & Agro-Tourism opportunities, a unique place filled with breathtaking vistas and one of a kind experiences. Full of treks, natural pools and serene spaces – The Woods is the ideal place get in touch with nature and yourself.
The Woods initiative is to reconnect one with nature. Since 2017, Our mission has been finding the right method to build a cycle through maintaining a natural progression in maintaining our main crops Pepper,Cinnamon ,Coffee, and Vanilla.
We plan to do this by rewilding and transforming this disturbed, mismanaged piece of forest back into a thriving, self-sufficient eco-reserve hub.
Aim
We are at the initial stages of observing the land and learning about the local ecology to develop structures, on how we can live off the land whilst protecting and enriching the wildlife,native plants, and other species.
The Woods has become the pioneer in Permaculture and Agroforestry Training and Demonstration Center in Sri Lanka and also a proud host for the Permaculture Sri Lanka Network.
Our project’s aim is also to engage by creating a self-sustainable tourism development. We are adapting Permaculture principles to design a space through creative, cross-disciplinary solutions to handle issues such as waste, water mismanagement and creating sustainable buildings.
Permaculture
The Woods has become the pioneer in Permaculture and Agroforestry Training and Demonstration Center in Sri Lanka and also a proud host for the Permaculture Sri Lanka Network.
Initiatives
We support a range of global initiatives you can join!
Regenerative Agroforestry Collectives
Increasing Profitabilty, Regeneratively.
Regenerative Agroforestry Collectives
Increasing profitability, regeneratively.
Increasing profitability while having a regenrative impact on your production landscape.
Re-vitalize Rural communities towards climate and nutritional resilience and to re-enliven its local ecologies through an regenerative cooperative economy that brings money and investment “down to earth” , from wall-street to rural bio- regional main-streets and back-streets. Through small scale cooperative regenerative enterprises fuelled by Regenerative Agroforestry Systems that keep value in our local communities and creates regenerative solidary economies that serves people and planet. We all together cooperatively as self-organized regenerative producer and consumer groups can make a difference! We vote every day with where, how and what we buy with our money.
Why Should Farmers Join?
Dimensions of Farmer & Community EMPOWERMENT
Regenerative Consumer & Producer Webs
Economics of Scale through Collectives
Local Farmers reach ECONOMICS OF SCALE through forming FARMERS COOPERATIVES/COLLECTIVES.
Transparent Local and Global Regenerative Producer and Consumer Webs managed via innovative technologies to distribute a variety of diverse produce fair and efficiently while the ecological , social and economic value stays within the local communities. Farmers receive PREMIUM PRICES for ethically and environmentally produced products on the beyond organic regenerative fair trade niche markets. We support and follow production standards like the Rodale Institute Regenerative Agriculture Certification which is a beyond Organic Certification Label.
Success Indicators
Regenerative Consumer & Producer Webs offer total participatory involvement from farm to finished quality and ethical product enabling a decentralized Participatory Guarantee System. The social and environmental benefits can be measured, felt and experience in local bio-regionally flourishing communities and ecosystems.
As a result the Quality and Quantity of consolidated life increases within the local area and the eco-systemic evolutionary upwards spiral continues towards more complexity, more resilience and more stability.
Diversified Small-scale regenerative Agroforestry Farms are the backbone and stepping stone towards an abundant future, thriving life and rural bio- regional re-vitalization, climate and nutritional resilience and biodiversity increase.
Most of current challenges like climate change, water wars , social unrest, desertification, soil, water and air pollution and biodiversity, forest loose, overall health of humans and their nutrient dense nourishment have their roots in the way we do Agriculture
There is not one solution that fits all contexts but we believe we have a roadmap towards a Regenerative Agroforestry transition nurturing the virtues of love, reciprocity, compassion and collectivism. Build community and collective networks of deep shared human values that connect us all, to cultivate our co- creative human potential and achieve extraordinary regenerative eco-social outcomes. Enabling meaningful and right livelyhood with regenerative adaptive land-stewardship supported by Regenerative Cooperative Enterprises.
Our Participatory Process
Our Agroforestry Design Proposals are developed jointly “with” and “among” farmers, considering their desires, vocations, objectives, knowledge and skills.
Together in collaboration with clients, farmers or shareholders we define the outcomes, vision and holistic goals of the site and its stewards. We understand the Farmers’ specific contexts and his/her specific circumstance, including the landscape’s limitations and opportunities. Afterwards we analyze & asses the site and do an ecological evaluation to priorities leverage points where small changes will have a big transformational ripple effect on the whole production system. We look at existing maps of the farm and also go through an extended period of Observation, Interviews and Participatory Processes to find out about current agriculture use of the land, history and cultural context , Climate and Geology , existing Infrastructure and the Farms/Projects economic situation.
We deeply believe in The Transformational Power of locally integrated networks of diversified small-scale Regenerative Multi-Strata Agro-forestry Systems…
…with 365 days covered (mulched) micro-biologically active soil , integration of native high-value timer trees and native biodiversity species, biomass and nutrient accumulation species, nitrogen fixing species, shade trees and high variety of productive cash crops (focus on perennial crops), climate and nutritional security crops. Creating a socio-economic dynamism within local communities around the world!
Our Holistic Approach
Regenerative Consumer & Producer Webs
Economics of Scale through Collectives
The Soil Revolution
It's All About Soil
Soil
by Irene Mathieu
the way you say soil
sounds like soul, as in
after we walked through the woods
my feet were covered in soul
when it rains
the soul turns to mud
the soul is made of decomposed
plant and animal matter;
edaphology is the study of the soul’s
influence on living things
while pedology is the study of how
soul is formed, its particular granularity.
you are rooted in a certain red patch
of soul that bled you and your
hundred cousins to life, a slow
warm river you call home.
maybe there is soul under everything,
even when we strike rock first.
the way you say soil you make
a poem out of every speck of dirt.
The Soil (R)evolution
Regenerative multi-functional Land-use Models can build organic matter at rates of 0.5% up to 2% per years through utilizing well-known Regenerative Agriculture techniques of Cover Cropping, Crop Rotations , No-till farming , Integration of Perennials, Livestock Integration , etc. These is very encouraging results and help us to transition our Food Production systems towards healthier soils and ultimately healthier plants,animals and people.
Healthy soils are the basis for healthy regenerative food production! In 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt said “The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” The Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (www.fao.org) states:
“A healthy soil is a living, dynamic ecosystem, teeming with microscopic and larger organisms that perform many vital functions including converting dead and decaying matter as well as minerals to plant nutrients (nutrient cycling); controlling plant disease, insect and weed pests; improving soil structure with positive effects for soil water and nutrient holding capacity, and ultimately improving crop production. A healthy soil also contributes to mitigating climate change by maintaining or increasing its carbon content”.
What Soil Does?
Healthy soil gives us clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes. Soil does all this by performing five essential functions:
- Regulating water – Soil helps control where rain, snowmelt, and irrigation water goes. Water and dissolved solutes flow over the land or into and through the soil.
- Sustaining plant and animal life – The diversity and productivity of living things depends on soil.
- Filtering and buffering potential pollutants – The minerals and microbes in soil are responsible for filtering, buffering, degrading, immobilizing, and detoxifying organic and inorganic materials, including industrial and municipal by-products and atmospheric deposits.
- Cycling nutrients – Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other nutrients are stored, transformed, and cycled in the soil.
- Physical stability and support – Soil structure provides a medium for plant roots. Soils also provide support for human structures and protection for archeological treasures.
For more details check out: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/health/
Plant-Soil-Microbes
“The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt