Archive

  1. The Rewild Project CIC

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    The Rewild Project CIC (TRF) has existed as not-for-profit in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, UK since January 2016.

    With no nature connection organisations in the area and having the highest rate of mental health issues in the county, TRP aims to build the resilience of all who get involved through their Radical Regen Rewilding approach.

    Its achievements so far include:

    • Since June 2021, TRP have offered free open access Craft and Land skills, 4 days a week. Including free transport free cooked meal and drinks.
    • Delivering hundreds of affordable and accessible workshops (over 200 days since 2016)
    • Setting up a community craft centre in the centre of Forest of Dean.
    • Setting up three community orchards, one of which is award winning.
    • Coppicing and restoring acres of neglected woodland and part-planting a community coppice.
    • Creating a sensory garden for a home for people with disabilities
    • Training many local people in chainsaw and regenerative woodland practices
    • Setting up the ‘Springs and Wells project’, which organised community clean and refurbished 2 local Wells.

    TRP is close to becoming an Open College Network Learning Centre to deliver Craft and Land Skills qualification for youth who are experiencing or at risk of exclusion or home educated.

    It has so far achieved all of this without secure land tenureship, having run most projects on land under license or from the roadside as travellers. This is increasingly more challenging with the Trespass Bill. A vision to secure land for the people through setting up SEED (Social Environmental Education Diverse), Community Land Trust based on coop principles.

  2. Sol Haven

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    Community Interest Company Sol Haven (registered as SOL LAUG HAVENS C.I.C.) started in January 2018 in the UK, drawing on the founders’ shared passion for sustainable agriculture and personal experiences of homelessness.

    Its vision is to create a blueprint for sustainable permaculture care hubs across the UK that are a showcase for rural arts and crafts while providing a sustainable local source of food.

    More widely, the project seeks to explore, develop and create a practical environment that can be used to determine a better today and brighter tomorrow. By involving people who have very real needs today, it also encapsulates a genuine chance to change lives and build a community.

    Sol Haven has regenerated disused farm buildings and gardens to create a social gathering space that hosts various groups and events that contribute to strengthening the local community.

    The project’s ‘Ploughing the mind’ 12-week course has been carefully designed to help people struggling with their mental health to reconnect with community, themselves and make new friends.

    Activities within the course include:

    • Nature and horticultural therapy
    • Mental health education
    • Movement meditation
    • Drumming
    • Cooking.

    A mixture of activities are combined to provide support, outlets for expression and the ability to learn new skills.

    Following the completion of the programme Sol Haven seeks to support people in a wider programme, which will continue to help people overcome the barriers to both engaging socially with others and finding work.

  3. The Lions’ Gate Garden at Edinburgh Napier University

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    The Lions’ Gate Garden is an urban permaculture project based at Edinburgh Napier University’s Merchiston campus. It is supported by the School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment, the School of Arts & Creative Industries, and Properties & Facilities.

    The project’s design and development are guided by 12 permaculture principles and three core ethics: people care, planet care and fair share. In following these, the garden seeks to provide a safe, welcoming, and inspirational space for students, staff, local and international communities. It seeks to empower individuals by envisioning and ‘doing’ sustainable and regenerative activities; growing sustainable futures through exploration and immersion in nature whilst investigating the impact of digital media on the environment.

    With the support of many, The Lions’ Gate Garden now includes:

    • Outdoor classroom
    • Green-roof
    • Ponds
    • Storytelling throne
    • Staging
    • Living-geodesic-dome
    • Relaxation space
    • Water-harvesting systems
    • Pathways
    • Power and plumbing
    • A sustainability library
    • And many other creative interventions by and for students, staff, and the public.

    The project has led to further regeneration of spaces on campus including a rooftop allotment and rewilding space. It has also influenced conversations at university and societal levels.

    Lions’ Gate has published papers on the project, been awarded 4* in a 2021 Research Excellence Framework Impact Case Study on ‘Blended Spaces Design,’ and contributed to publications and events concerned with planetary and human health. In September 2022, Lions’ Gate organised another amazing Open Day event as part of Climate Fringe, Great Big Green Week and Permaculture Association’s My Green Community.

  4. Size of Wales

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    The size of Wales (2 million hectares) is often used to measure the rate of global deforestation. The charity was set up to turn the negative use of Wales’ size on its head, and encourage people across the nation to help protect an area of tropical forest the size of Wales, as part of the national response to climate change.

    The charity recognises how consumption habits, food and farming systems are causing a climate and nature crisis and is supporting community action both in Wales and overseas to tackle the underlying structural problems.

    Currently, Size of Wales funds nine impactful projects in South America, Africa and South East Asia that support Indigenous and local communities to protect tropical forests, grow over 20 million trees using agro forestry techniques and promote regenerative farming, such as coffee cooperatives and permaculture groups.

    Over the last three years, it has developed a campaign to make Wales a Deforestation Free Nation which calls on Government, public sector bodies, businesses and community groups to take action to eliminate imported deforestation from their supply chains. The charity is now a pivotal force for change in Wales and is influencing policy makers and the public to bring about action.

    Size of Wales has also engaged with over 18,000 children in Wales to inspire climate action, run the award winning MockCOPs programme and supported the Youth Climate Ambassadors, a youth led climate activist group. They amplify the voice of Indigenous Peoples and youth, who are often excluded from climate discussions.

  5. Think Like a Tree

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    Think like a Tree was founded by Sarah Spencer in 2017, following her Diploma in Permaculture Design.

    Sarah recognised that the valuable tools, principles and ethics from permaculture, biomimicry, and other nature-inspired design solutions, had application to all human systems, but felt this valuable information was not reaching the mainstream fast enough in the context of a rapidly warming world, ecological destruction and mental and physical ill-health.

    The ultimate aim of Think like a Tree is to bring regenerative, nature-inspired ideas to the mainstream. It recognises these approaches as the only solutions known to work on planet Earth. All its work aims to ‘meet people where they are’ in a language that is familiar and welcoming, valuing diversity. It campaigns and raises awareness of the importance of nature as a teacher, and ecosystems as a model for human systems, and tries to reach as diverse audiences as possible, both in the UK and worldwide.

    The project comprises a number of different elements:

    • The Think like a Tree programme supports individuals to design the life they want with the ethics of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share woven in.
    • The book Think like a Tree: The natural principles guide to life by Sarah Spencer enabled greater reach.
    • The Think Like a Forest programme is targeted at businesses and organisations and how these can become regenerative, using the principles of natural ecosystems as a guide.
    • 17 facilitators have been trained already in the UK, with 2023 seeing the movement expand worldwide.

  6. Six Inches of Soil

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    Six Inches of Soil is the first feature length documentary film with an impact campaign to be made about regenerative farming and agroecology in the UK.

    The project began with a 2021 NGO-commissioned film about regenerative farming in Cambridgeshire. With over 15,000 views and enthusiastic reviews, the producer-director team realised a more in-depth story needed to be told. “Six Inches of Soil” tells the story of our broken food system and what can be done to change it, following the compelling journeys of three new entrant regenerative farmers. At its heart is a call to restore our soils, increase diversity and rediscover our regenerative nature.

    The film, due for release in late 2023, is an educational and advocacy tool that seeks to influence:

    • Farmers: sensitively portraying the opportunities and challenges faced in adopting regenerative practices and establishing alternative supply chains.
    • Policymakers: fostering a supportive policy environment for building a regenerative food and farming culture.
    • The Public Everyone that eats: explaining the impact of food choices and how these can support alternative food systems that provide healthy, affordable, regenerative food.

    Six Inches of Soil is already creating waves in the UK regenerative and agroecology movements through its active social media engagement, a successful Crowdfunder and NGO partnerships. The team is designing a yearlong social impact campaign for 2024 with screenings, Q&A sessions, a shorter schools version and tailored resources. There are already many offers for farm screenings. Six Inches of Soil is an entirely voluntary and not-for-profit initiative.

  7. Middle Ground Growers CIC

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    Based in the city of Bath in Somerset (UK), Middle Ground Growers has developed a viable economic and ecological model for small-scale regenerative growing.

    Its team comes from the low-income communities they came from, and its project works in a context of wealth inequality.It sees the work of closing nutrient loops on the farm as the same work as closing wealth loops in the local economy: each benefits the people and land’s well-being.

    Middle Ground Growers’ has a thriving 15.5 acre farm which provides fresh organic food to over 200 households. It aims to provide up to 10 subsidised or free veg boxes every week.

    It hopes to expand this work and develop the UK’s first sliding scale regional Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) network so it can provide an ongoing supply of fresh healthy food for all communities in an affordable, equitable and regenerative way.

    It is developing a cyclical and circular approach to farming. For example, exploring the use of ramial woodchip from coppice to fuel the farm’s compost, and developing systems to utilise the natural spring water on site, pumping it to the crops, which store the water before letting it gradually drain through the orchard, the wetland and then back to the source.

  8. Forest Without Frontiers

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    Forests Without Frontiers (FWF) was born in 2018 out of a love for forests and the people and wildlife they support, as well as the art and creativity these landscapes inspire. FWF’s current projects focus on reforestation and rewilding of the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, where the founder of the project originates, and in the UK where the organisation is headquartered.

    FWF’s work is about creating holistic forest ecosystems that revitalise landscapes, people and traditions rooted in the beauty of nature and the arts. Since starting, it has:

    • Planted 150,000 trees in Romania and the UK
    • Regenerated 30 hectares of degraded landscape by planting native species at strategic times and places using local knowledges and methods; all trees are maintained and cared for until they reach maturity and legally protected to ensure long-term survival
    • Employed 200 local people to carry out FWF’s reforestation activities
    • Engaged youth in nearby forests, nature, music and arts
    • Tapped into traditions centred around forests such as music and folklore, including creating an album recorded in and inspired by the forests where we plant and featuring traditional instruments played by local musicians who were paid for their work.

    FWF is the only non-profit of its kind to harnesses the power of music and art and turn it into a holistic approach to forest conservation and regeneration. We aim to inspire and support as many people as possible to engage with forests, nature and art holistically, thereby becoming a powerful and harmonious ‘voice of the forest’.

  9. Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity

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    Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity fights for liberation as a youth-led environmental group actively practising solidarity. They resist white supremacy, heteropatriarchal dominance, imperialism, speciesism and all forms of oppression, in solidarity with Indigenous and local communities.

    The group has emerged through working together for a youth mobilisation based on solidarity. They have created actions, events and campaigns: their work is their answer to the question of how to live and resist well, while taking on the journey of unlearning oppressive mindsets and learning how to embody non-violence.

    Spaces and sparks created include:

    • Exploring decolonisation in Education and Environmentalism with grassroots educators and Maasai leaders
    • Collaborated on a 5-day educational event at Imperial College London, calling to Decolonise, Decarbonise, and Democratise.
    • Influenced landmark judicial land rights case in Brasil supporting Guaranì Mbya community, organizing an open letter to the judge.
    • Produced and disseminated Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis within XR UK.
    • Organized The Future of Conservation: COP26 and Beyond, involving 5 Indigenous and local-community leaders from Africa and Abya Yala.

  10. RE-PEAT

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    Because peatlands are the largest land-based carbon stores in the world, their degradation results in large amounts of carbon emissions (5% of global emissions caused by humans). But it is not just the carbon power that is so special about peatlands.

    Youth-led collective RE-PEAT believe that peatlands should be a vital part of ecological and climate conversations. They also see that discussions about peatlands can create very novel viewpoints on other intersecting topics such as social justice, health, economics, language and history.

    Their work, based across Europe, follows 3 major pathways: education, collaboration and re-imagination. Examples of how they do this include: developing a primary school education program to foster awareness from a young age, as a scalable pilot project starting in Ireland they hope to launch this in many more schools next year; collecting personal and artistic accounts of peatlands from across Europe in a EU Peat Anthology, prior to the Common Agricultural Policy decision by the EU Members of Parliament; hosting two 24hour global peat festivals that, combined, included over 80 online talks and sessions; creating a 10-part series of webinars focusing on UK peatlands to build momentum before COP26 and the WCSS22 in Glasgow.

    Over the next 5 years they hope to build an international youth network for peatlands, push for bolder peatland policy, as well as work to amplify underrepresented voices.

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