Young Award

Für Projekte oder Organisationen, die 1–5 Jahre alt sind, um ihre Arbeit zur ökologischen und sozialen Regeneration zu unterstützen.

Dieser Preis geht an junge (1–5 Jahre alte) Gemeinschaftsgruppen, Organisationen, Netzwerke und Unternehmen, die nachweislich erfolgreiche Projektarbeit leisten und mehr Mittel für ihre Expansion oder Entwicklung benötigen.

In dieser Kategorie gibt es mindestens drei Preise, die jeweils mit bis zu 20.000 Pfund dotiert sind. Wir beabsichtigen, mindestens einen Preis für ein kleines Projekt in dieser Kategorie zu vergeben.


Die Preisträger*innen des Jahres 2023

Preisträger

Cooperativa Agropecuaria de Servicios Tonanzintlalli R.L

Die Cooperativa Tonanzintlalli wurde von 23 indigenen Frauen aus Matagalpa gegründet, um unter dem Dach der Bäume regenerativen Bio-Kaffee anzubauen und damit Mehrwert zu schaffen – in einer optimalen Beziehung zum Land und den Menschen in der Gemeinschaft.

Mit diesem Projekt versuchen die Frauen, ihr ökologisches und kulturelles indogenes Wissen sowie ihre wirtschaftliche und politische Selbstbestimmung wiederzuerlangen, zu fördern und zu verteidigen.

Tonanzintlalli bedeutet „Heilige Mutter Erde“ Die Genossenschaft setzt sich für die Rechte unserer Mutter Erde und unsere heilige Beziehung zu ihr und allen ihren Lebewesen ein. Die Kaffeemarke Café D’Yasica hat verschiedene nationale Auszeichnungen für Integrität und Qualität erhalten.

Sie ist Symbol für die Heilung, die durch agroforstwirtschaftliche Verfahren möglich ist. Diese Verfahren schützen und regenerieren Wald und Gewässer und bieten den Menschen Nahrung und Einkommen, sodass sie nicht mehr auf den Abbau von Rohstoffen angewiesen sind.

Die Genossenschaft spielt außerdem eine wichtige Rolle für den Zusammenhalt und die Gesundheit der größeren indigenen Gemeinschaft. Sie hat Aktivitäten wie die kulturelle Entwicklung der Jugend und die medizinische Grundversorgung während der Corona-Pandemie finanziert und geleitet.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects

Projektinformationen

Preisträger

Organización Waorani de Pastaza (OWAP)

Die Waorani Organization of Pastaza (OWAP) umfasst 30 indigene Gemeinden des Waorani-Territoriums von Pastaza im Amazonasgebiet von Ecuador.

Unter der Leitung der international anerkannten Waorani-Aktivistin Nemonte Nenquimo wurde OWAP 2018 ins Leben gerufen, nachdem die ecuadorianische Regierung angekündigt hatte, eine neue Ölkonzession zu versteigern, die sich auf mehr als 200.000 Hektar Waorani-Gebiet erstreckt. Die weltweite Kampagne und die Klage von OWAP führten zu einem historischen juristischen Sieg gegen die ecuadorianische Regierung, der das angestammte Territorium schützt und einen wichtigen rechtlichen Präzedenzfall in der Region geschaffen hat.

Heute setzen sich die OWAP und ihre mehrheitlich weibliche Führung für die Rechte des Waorani-Volkes ein, stärken die Resilienz der Gemeinschaft und schützen mehr als 230.000 Hektar Amazonas-
Regenwald, der von Abholzung und Ressourcenabbau bedroht ist.

Die Organisation arbeitet direkt mit den Waorani-Gemeinschaften zusammen, um:

  • Stammeskulturen neu zu beleben und junge Führungskräfte durch ein neuartiges interkulturelles Bildungsprogramm zu stärken.
  • Die Rechte indigener Völker zu fördern und zu wahren, um Wälder durch Klagen und Basisarbeit zu schützen.
  • Eine nachhaltige Zukunft ohne Abbauaktivitäten im Amazonasgebiet aufzubauen, indem die lokalen Regierungssysteme gestärkt, die Ernährungssouveränität gefördert und die von Frauen geführten wirtschaftlichen Alternativen zum Ressourcenabbau unterstützt werden.
  • 2023
  • Young Projects

Projektinformationen

Preisträger

Rwamwanja Rural Foundation

Die Rwamwanja Rural Foundation ist eine in Uganda ansässige, von Personen mit Fluchterfahrung geführte Basisorganisation. Sie arbeitet insbesondere mit Gemeinschaften in Lagern für Geflüchtete Flüchtlingslagern und anderen vom Klimawandel betroffenen Randgruppen in Ostafrika.

Die Gruppen von Personen mit Fluchterfahrung, mit denen die Stiftung arbeitet, sind stark von Hunger und Unterernährung bedroht, was durch die hohen Preise infolge der Pandemie und der russischen Invasion in die Ukraine noch verschlimmert wird.

Hinzu kommt, dass die Ökosysteme, die die Personen mit Fluchterfahrung mit Nahrungsmitteln, Medikamenten und anderen lebensnotwendigen Gütern versorgen, nicht mehr in vollem Umfang funktionieren, weil durch intensive Landwirtschaft, Massenbewässerung, Überfischung und Abholzung zur Gewinnung von Brennholz und Holzkohle für die private Energieversorgung Raubbau betrieben wurde.

Diese geschädigten Ökosysteme sind weniger resilient gegenüber den Auswirkungen des Klimawandels. Daraus ergibt sich schließlich ein Teufelskreis, der die Klimaanfälligkeit von Personen mit Fluchterfahrung und anderen vertriebenen Bevölkerungsgruppen weiter verstärkt, weil die Lebensgrundlagen und die Gesundheit beeinträchtigt werden.

Die Stiftung wurde gegründet, um jungen Personen mit Fluchterfahrung die Möglichkeit zu geben, ihr Potenzial auszuschöpfen und ihr Leben zu verändern. Sie soll sicherstellen, dass diese Gemeinschaften lokale Ökosysteme wiederherstellen können, um die Klimaresilienz und die biologische Vielfalt zu erhöhen.

Gleichzeitig soll es ihnen möglich sein, von regenerativen landwirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten zu profitieren, die den Zugang zu nahrhaften Lebensmitteln verbessern. Sie kombinieren Permakultur, indigene Anbaumethoden, lokale Sprachen und moderne, erschwingliche und leicht zugängliche digitale Technologien, um die Reichweite und die Gesamtwirkung zu erhöhen.

Die Stiftung::

  • Bietet Schulungsprogramme für regenerative Landwirtschaft und Aufforstung
  • Schafft Zentren für die Durchführung der Schulungen
  • Macht Personen mit Fluchterfahrung und andere Mitglieder lokaler Gemeinschaften, insbesondere Frauen, zu Unternehmer*innen

Sie hat vor, in ihren 12 Schulungszentren in den nächsten fünf Jahren 9.000 Menschen zu erreichen.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects

Projektinformationen


Auf der Shortlist

Agro-Perma-Lab Foundation (APLab)

Agro-Perma-Lab (APLab) is a women-led training foundation based in Poland. It was formed in 2019 as a branch of the Polish Food Sovereignty Network (Nyeleni Polska) in response to a need to build leadership capacity within its organisations. The Foundation brings together practitioners, educators and garden designers, leaders of ecological organizations and creative people working at the intersection of art, activism and social animation.

APLab is working towards transformation of the food system using the synergy of agroecology and permaculture: it supports the implementation of ecological and social education projects in the areas of community and ecology, mitigating climate change, transforming local food systems and designing edible urban gardens. The Foundation’s “Lab” approach draws on social movement pedagogical methods- community action research, participatory and peer learning and pilot innovations. APLab trainings nurture leadership skills, bonds of reciprocity, intergenerational collaboration, regenerative activism, design thinking and dialogue of diverse knowledges. Numerous educational resources in multiple forms include podcasts, video tutorials, guidebooks, web-docs and workshop scripts. Projects have included:

  • 10-module open source online training in community seed-saving.
  • Piloting the first regional Community Seed Home in Poland.
  • Co-organising regenerative cultural garden events for Ukrainian migrants in Warsaw in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
  • Co-creating international web-docs: Supermarket Museum & Garden in Your Hands.

APLab is aiming to develop learning progression pathways and permaculture design services that are at once inspiring, educational, economically viable and team-based as a way to scale up and scale out local food system strategies.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Agro-Perma-Lab Foundation (APLab)

Projektinformationen

Associação Terra Sintrópica

Associação Terra Sintrópica (ATS, Syntropic Land Association) was created in 2018 in Mértola, Portugal, when a group of motivated citizens came together in response to various challenges facing the area.

Terra Sintrópica practices and spreads the concept of ‘regeneration through use’. This being the idea that we need to reconnect with the Earth, relating its use and enjoyment with long-term sustainability goals, preservation and recovery of ecosystems and biodiversity. As Terra Sintrópica sees the food system as intrinsically interconnected with issues of desertification, climate change and depopulation affecting Mértola, this is where it focuses its attention.
The association works to regenerate the food system through a transition to agroecological practices, rooted in both community participation and international collaboration.

Since its creation, ATS has developed:

  • A Local Food Network, which links farmers, local institutions and consumers
  • An Agroecology Centre
  • Five Forest Gardens in schools
  • A regenerative food meeting and sharing centre
  • A Land Exchange project (connecting new farmers with rural landowners)
  • The Shelter Land Project, which relates these challenges to the reception of refugees from Afghanistan.

ATS wants to invest more in the urgent need to communicate and celebrate regeneration and regenerators to inspire action.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Associação Terra Sintrópica

Projektinformationen

Cabarete Sostenible

Cabarete Sostenible (CS) is a project based in the town of Cabarete, a town in the north coast of the Dominican Republic. It is Dominican-led, and uses active participation to ensure community ownership of the project. It began in April 2020 as a response to the urgent need for food that residents faced when tourism closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cabarete is recognized worldwide as a destination for watersports, but tourism development does not contribute to the prosperity of the local population.
Cabarete Sostenible divides its work into four key areas:

  • Emergency food aid
  • Civic agriculture and food sovereignty
  • Regeneration of the land
  • Support to local entrepreneurs.

The project maintains a ‘social justice approach’ which to Cabarete Sostenible means leading with all food sovereignty efforts with anti-racist and decolonial perspectives. So far it has:

  • Provided 3,700 nutritious food packages benefiting an estimated 13,600 people.
  • Created a community kitchen, garden and farm which draw on ancestral knowledge, permaculture and regenerative forestry techniques.
  • Used these spaces to provide workshops for local women to create products with local ingredients and excess harvests from the farm and garden.
  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Cabarete Sostenible

Projektinformationen

Dularia

Dularia is an immersive education centre which empowers socio-economically disadvantaged indigenous Santal tribal communities in West Bengal, India, to generate livelihood through regenerative practices.

Santals are one of the largest indigenous tribes of India. In the state of West Bengal, they work primarily as rice farming labourers using toxic chemical pesticides and fertilisers, which devastate the ecosystem and damage their health. To provide them with regenerative livelihood alternatives, Dularia promotes natural farming, natural building, agroforestry, indigenous herbal medicine, and natural arts and crafts.

In order to facilitate true empowerment, Dularia is autonomously run by a team of Santal tribal members, led by a Santali woman, who take all the day-to-day decisions, with national and international experts who support them each year through workshops and trainings.

To date, its major milestones are:

  • Using permaculture techniques to restore a degraded plot into a thriving and diverse ecosystem within two years.
  • Building natural building structures integrating vernacular art with modern building techniques, and demonstrating the use of upcycled waste and locally abundant materials as alternatives to cement.
  • Demonstrating natural rice farming as a viable alternative to the current toxic practices by applying biochar and “Jeevamrit”, a traditional microbial inoculum, to regenerate soil.
  • Developing entrepreneurial skills of Santal Tribal team members so that they can start generating their own livelihood.
  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Dularia

Projektinformationen

Forest Without Frontiers

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’.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Forest Without Frontiers

Projektinformationen

Instituto Janeraka

The Janeraka Institute was born in the Amazon region, Altamira, from the Awaete ancestry in the resistance of a population with less than 50 years of contact with the global society.

Since then, the Awaete population has faced numerous psychosocial and ecological challenges, such as the consequences of genocide and ethnocide since the first contact, which has been increasing with the construction of hydroelectric power-plants, mining activities, culminating in one of the worst deforestations in the world, threatening the existence of the water peoples, land and forest, in the region and around the planet.

Janeraka is an Awaete word meaning “neither mine nor yours, our house, and the house belongs to the one who takes care of it”. All of the Janeraka Institute’s activities are centred on strengthening the traditional Awaete culture and exchanging knowledge and practices with other forest peoples.

The Janeraka Institute has co-created several projects, including:

  • The Awaete Agenda is a knowledge exchange program that seeks to reflect on the relationship flows between indigenous, non-indigenous, and other forest peoples, focusing on indigenous rights and ethics in relationships.
  • The Janereka Podcast Channel, to strengthen the practice of orality, awarded by Art Artivism.
  • The Kujy Ete Women’s Collective participated in an international exhibition of indigenous art (staged by an indigenous curator) called Ka’a Body: Cosmovision of the Rainforest and created two award-winning documentaries.
  • The Janereka Ryru is an Awaete multimedia collection platform designed to decolonize the Awaete heritage for use by the Awaete people themselves.
  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Instituto Janeraka

Projektinformationen

Khetee

Khetee (which translates as Cultivation) is an organisation which began three years ago in Durdih, one of the most deprived villages of the Lakhisarai district in the Indian state of Bihar, where most households live below the poverty line.

Khetee worked with village farmers and women to develop the use of agroforestry to both improve living standards and reduce climate impacts. For Khetee, creating regenerative systems is not simply a technical, economical, ecological, or social shift. It goes hand-in-hand with an underlying shift in the way we think about ourselves, our relationship with each other, and with life as a whole.

Khetee works for community development through regenerative agroforestry. It focuses on land restoration, supporting livelihoods, improving food and nutrition security and reducing poverty in the Indian state of Bihar. It trains small and marginalised farmers in the methods and techniques of developing agroforestry and its maintenance.

To this day Khetee has:

  • Developed five different model farms
  • Converted and restored 5 acres of degraded farmland
  • Trained more than 150 farmers in regenerative agroforestry
  • Developed thirty community champions on agroforestry through its Khetee Fellowship Program
  • Conserved nearly 100 different varieties of native seeds.
  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Khetee

Projektinformationen

Meli Bees Network

Meli Bees Network engages and strengthens communities developing regenerative practices in the Brazilian Amazon.

Through what it calls “relationships of trust”, the network supports communities to maintain and/or further develop regenerative practices. The network aims to create positive impacts on local biodiversity, community resilience, education and cultural heritage protection, food sovereignty and economic security, community science and international visibility. Meli is inspired by the meliponini bees (stingless bee species native to tropical and subtropical regions around the globe) which through the production and gathering of their food provide vital ecosystem services that allow their habitat to thrive.

Currently, Meli engages 30 communities (16 smallholder, 10 Indigenous and 4 Quilombola communities). With these communities, the network has:

  • Started regenerative agriculture in 35ha of previously degraded land
  • Started three native beekeeping areas with +100 beehives in total
  • Supported 10 indigenous villages (+500.000ha) to protect their primary forest
  • Developed multiple workshops on traditional storytelling, native beekeeping and regenerative agriculture.

Meli Bees is a growing network and is open to welcome new communities which show an interest in developing regenerative activities. Meli Bees Network gUG is registered in Germany where it focuses on the development of a decolonial form of international cooperation, establishing international partnerships and fundraising. The organisation is also starting a global movement, as community leaders that met through Meli’s activities are now starting an independent Brazilian association that will strengthen their governance and autonomy.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Meli Bees Network

Projektinformationen

Middle Ground Growers CIC

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.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Middle Ground Growers CIC

Projektinformationen

Perfect Village Communities (PVC)

Perfect Village Communities is a social enterprise based in Burundi, working especially in rural communities. It was founded in 2020 by a nurse who noticed the direct impact of environmental degradation on the community’s health, as people struggled to meet the cost of healthcare.

PVC’s vision is a healthy planet for a healthy community. It wants to empower people to regain a sense of pride in the community which stimulates a desire to care for and protect rural culture and the environment. It seeks to heal people’s health via environmental and agroecological education, through activities tackling hunger and poverty.

PVC works to ensure every member of the community is empowered with skills to become self-sufficient and employable, to manage projects and social enterprises, to train others, to connect with the international network, to revive their traditional medicine and to strengthen the social bonding through sharing abundant food instead of the current burden of hunger and poverty.

It has already:

  • Produced and planted 500,000 diverse seedlings and trees (including indigenous, medical and crop species)
  • Regenerated 5,000 ha farmland and mountains drawing utilising permaculture and agroecology.
  • Successfully partnered with various local organisations to create 3,000 new jobs and offer health services to 12,000 patients.
  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Perfect Village Communities (PVC)

Projektinformationen

Rocciaviva

Rocciaviva is a group of young people based in southern Italy.

It’s common for local young people to leave the area in search of other opportunities, but Rocciaviva’s founders made the decision to return home and create regenerative opportunities in their local community, sharing skills and knowledge they have learnt while away.

Rocciaviva’s mission is to cultivate well-being, environmental and social regeneration by sowing change, through:

  • Construction of a community and a network on the territory
  • Reforestation of degraded areas
  • Expanding ecosystem restoration to different lands in the south of Italy
  • Spreading permacultural values (sustainable way of living)
  • Creation of educational and cultural opportunities for the local community and visitors.

Rocciaviva has already planted 12,000 plants, restored a lake as a water retention system and ran educational and community events such as seminars on permaculture, and has made a strong positive connection with the community it works in.

  • 2023
  • Young Projects
Photo: Rocciaviva

Projektinformationen

Sporos Regeneration Institute

Sporos Regeneration Institute was founded in 2019 by four activists and operates on the island of Lesvos, the main gateway of refugees into Europe.

It aims to act as a bridge between the two worlds, bringing locals and refugees together, helping people to understand and respect each other by facilitating integration and hosting activities that bring disparate communities together in an effort to create lasting social change. Its mission is the regeneration of the environment, culture, and human relations.

Its offering includes:

  • Free permaculture design courses (PDC) for refugees.
  • Forest schools for children to reconnect with nature and develop their environmental identity.
  • Courses on regenerative farming, organic gardening, natural building and more.
  • Internships and vocational training in permaculture, agroforestry and regenerative agriculture.
  • Building school gardens.
  • Teaching relevant courses in local schools.
  • Conducting outreach work (such as project consultations, guest lectures, practical and theoretical support, and local and global networking).

Highlight achievements to date include how it has:

  • Regenerated 11 acres of land
  • Worked with 150 school children
  • Had 80 permaculture design course graduates
  • Produced thousands of kilos of fresh produce free to people in need
  • Provided seeds, seedlings & training to dozens of local growers.
  • 2023
  • Young Projects