## 1. Describe the problem your organization will address. Please include detailed information explaining the causes of this problem and why it still exists. (1,000 characters)

Since 1980, wildfire has burned 2-5% of the entire landmass of Portugal each and every year (ICNF) and the central underlying cause is rural abandonment (Beighley).

As smallholder farmers were outcompeted by mass-produced imports, globalization led to massive emigration both abroad and to cities. With an aggregate decrease of rural population of 36% (Worldbank), some villages experienced a yearly loss of up to 15% between 1950 and 1991 (Devy-Vareta).

Abandoned land causes fire to advance (Quercus). Fires cause unsustainable erosion of topsoil. And erosion leads to a further reduction in productivity. This is a vicious cycle that continues to force people to emigrate (Cerdá).

What’s more, those who are left, manage the land in their spare time and prefer species that require little attention and thrive in poor soil. This has left us with fire-loving monocultures of pine and eucalyptus that exaggerate the wildfire and now account for over 50% of the forested land in Portugal (Lopes).

999c

## 2. Describe the specific product(s) or program(s) your organization will implement to solve the problem. (1,000 characters)

We repopulate through a regeneration that is ecologic, economic, and communal. Our approach has 3 central pillars:

1. Develop
We create models of regenerative agroforestry that prioritize (bio)diversity. These models produce goods and services revolving around timber and non-timber forest products as well as ecosystem services, carbon sequestration, and ecotourism.

2. Support
As part of the emerging solidarity economy, we see the health of the network as equal to our own. We will incubate other forest projects; facilitating access to funding and mentorship while internalizing processing and distribution to retain value within our communities and achieve economies of scale.

3. Educate
An informed population, inspired to act, is stronger and more capable than any single organization. We work to unite and teach the worlds of science, cutting edge ecological practice, and traditional wisdom through courses, written guides, and consultancy so that anyone can plant their own forest.

> 994c

## 3. How is your idea innovative compared to other individuals or organizations addressing the problem? (1,000 characters)

In our region, the millions of hectares of land are distributed in microparcels among millions of landowners. Often, plots are no bigger than a few hundred meters lost away in the woods. This has hindered large-scale development and is a genuine bother to most people. Current reforestation initiatives (e.g. Plantar Portugal, Terra de Esperança) are having trouble gathering more than a few hectares in the same place. In this dynamic, our neighbors become a hindrance standing in the way of reforestation.

Yet, as we see it, the ‘problem’ of microparcels is a beautiful precondition that necessitates grassroots movement. In other words, in order to reach the large-scale effects of reforestation from small-scale actions, our neighbors have to want to work with us. For this reason, we’re creating a model of forestry that's regenerative, pretty, satisfying/fun, and designed to be fullyopen source in order to prove that small articles of land can turn a profit while respecting nature.

> 992c

## 4. How will the lives of the target population be better because of your organization’s work? (1,000 characters)

1. Locals
Creation of a cooperative to group forest products and integrate the value chain. This stimulates rural economy by maximizing added value through transformation and sale in nearby cities as well as northern Europe.

2. Aging population
Portugal is facing the isolation of its elders as well as the demise of traditional culture. We’ve been thanked many times for working the land, as we provide hope that these are the forests their grandkids might live on and from.

3. New Rural and Returning migrants
While global youth are better educated than ever before, they’re increasingly urged to take uninspiring low-paying jobs with no prospects (Standing). We’re creating a path for them to be skilled employees who live healthier lives, cheaper than the city, and in closer contact with nature.

4. Emigrant Land Owners
By offering a more profitable alternative to pine and eucalyptus monocultures, we open the door for investment and the ability to offer long-term contracts for land use.

> 997c

## 5. How will you track and assess the status and success of your organization? (500 characters)

Regeneration is a lifelong process, for which we've established short, medium and generational goals in our yearly revised policy plan. Based on those qualitative and quantitative measures we will assess our own performance in key areas such as ecology, economy, and community, as well as in research and education. The results will be published in our yearly report. If there are any strong deviations, a rationale will be given and our strategy will be refined accordingly.

> 474c

## 6. When and how did you come up with the idea for the organization? (500 characters)

One winter night, watching a flame burn safely in a fireplace, we were talking about the relationship between local forest commons and wildfire. Here, communities choose to plant eucalyptus/pine, when those same species threaten the community with fire.

We realized that there is very little trust in these communities, that very few are willing to invest in the common good, and also what we could do about it; create a new forest commons with the interests of nature, people and economy, aligned.

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## 7. Explain why you are so passionate about the problem and the population you described above. (1,000 characters)

Diego
Though I was born and raised right outside New York, I’m the child of immigrants who made the choice to leave their land in Spain. Yet, when there were unexpected costs, my parents would still call back to my aunt in order to sell a few pine or eucalyptus. And that’s all land ever was to us: a little extra cash. I know now that land is more. It’s food, shelter, and employment. It’s home. I need to plant forests. And I want to prove that the right choice of the future is to raise my kids on land in Spain.

Mathijs
After co-founding a successful startup, the death of my father brought me to realize the emptiness of my career and the profound sanctity of life. I abandoned the city and its exploitation of nature and discovered people like myself, people looking for meaningful and realistic alternatives to self-destruction. Through the process, I’ve learned that my potential is greater than working only for a salary and that I’m uniquely positioned to provide this real alternative.

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## 8. What skills or experiences demonstrate that you will be able to attract money, people, and other resources to your organization? (1,000 characters)

It's been strange to discover that not only do we have something to say, but that people have been waiting to hear it. When we’re invited to give talks, people search us out afterward to keep us talking because they’ve felt we’re proposing something real. Something with a chance at locally confronting climate change.

And yet, Diego’s forest serves as proof of concept for regenerative agroforestry. He doesn’t need words to convince people; he can walk around eating wherever he goes. He’s regenerated what was once 2 hectares of industrially managed land into a lush and biodiverse forest garden that today produces year-round fruit, nuts and vegetables.

We’re also in place to mobilize Mathijs’ international network, which includes leaders in sustainability (Eva Gladek, Metabolic), commons philosophy (Michel Bauwens, P2P Foundation), and crowdfunding (Bart Lacroix, 1%CLUB), with our local network which boasts the support of our local government and organization like Reflorestar Portugal.

> 1000c

## 9. Describe one example of your entrepreneurial spirit. (750 characters)

We see climate change as an opportunity for good. At last, there’s market pressure to innovate in ways that take scientific reality into account. And this is where we shine.

For example, Diego knows that fire is the main risk facing forest businesses. For this reason, he’s spent the past three years studying fire and developing resilient forest designs. And relocated again, this time from Spain to Portugal, to be on the front line and confront wildfire head-on.

With an understanding that cooperation must be able to compete with competition, Mathijs has spent months studying cooperative law. The result has been a unique cooperative that plants the seed for a new forest commons where the needs of nature, people and economy are all aligned.

< 750c

## 10. Provide one or two examples of your ability to overcome adversity. (1,000 characters)

Mathijs
The death of my father has been the worst thing that has ever happened to me, yet paradoxically, it had a deeply positive effect on my life. While taking care of him, I discovered profound pleasure in sharing my time. The experience taught me that life is too precious to be limited by fears and that when I’m confronted with challenges, I’m capable of caring for myself. Also, if I seek out authentic connection I can find happiness within anything.

Diego
Five years ago, I left my life, my partner, career, and apartment in New York, and moved to Spain. I had no job, no social network, and no promise of either. Yet, within a year I’d started an association for forest gardens, Onda Vital, with new friends. The few clients I could find often backed out, one leaving me with two months of work unpaid. Yet I see adversity like adventure, and far from disillusioning me, it made me realize that society’s lack of financial appreciation for nature is a serious problem that I can tackle.

> 997c

## 11. Describe one past experience or accomplishment that demonstrates your leadership potential. (1,000 characters)

To Mathijs, leadership is the ability to act on collective needs in a way that invites others to join in. This is why he co-founded Visualspace an IT cooperative, is collaborating on the creation of a search engine for the decentralized internet, and why he's co-founded Sol Nascente. Mathijs brings simplicity to group projects, prioritizing short-term decisions by realistically accounting for resources, time, and failure to keep us on the long term road-map.

For Diego leadership is slightly different. It’s knowing when to act, but also when to step back. For that reason, he reminds us that at the heart of any organization is people. And that we can’t care for forests if we don’t first care for ourselves. Due to the complexity of the project and intense collaboration, the temptation to keep working is always present. We have both been on the verge of a burnout at different points. Diego has anticipated moments of stress, and been a continuous voice to ‘do less’ and ‘hurry calmly’.

> 994c

## 12. Why are you dedicated to the issue of climate change? (750 characters)

In our lives, we’ve always felt something off about nature. While young, nobody seemed particularly alarmed, so we went along with it and didn't panic. As we grew older, we started gaining insights into that feeling. Through the science behind climate models, economic theory and psychology it became clear: our species and our planet are in declining health, perhaps mortally so.

We want to heal nature by healing ourselves. We want a beautiful life despite the meager prospects given to us by climate change and resource decline. We want to bond in community over recognition of these bitter truths. And we believe that this is the only way towards a loving relationship between ourselves and our environment.

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## 13. Describe how you expect your organization to grow over the next two years. (1,000 characters)

The next 2 years will be pivotal in setting up the structures we’ll be working with for the next generation.

Develop
We’ll continue work on our first forest/community project “Ecoaldeia Silverto”. So far, we’ve begun planting our first forests. Within the year, we’ll employ 1-2 forest managers, and begin our search for people to join our rural co-housing who would earn a wage by creating associated forest products like furniture or honey.

Support
Simply by creating our own project, we’re building a juridical, ecologic and financial infrastructure that we’ll be using to accelerate other projects through a similar process. We’ll mentor 1-2 projects, facilitate access to subsidies and crowdfunding, and form relationships of social, cultural and economic exchange with peer initiatives.

Educate
We’ll create educational material focused on diverse, economically viable and fire resilient forest design. Also, we’ll be hosting workshops, and conferences on regenerative agroforestry.

> 985c

## 14. How much money do you anticipate you will need in two years to reach the level of growth you described?

90,300.00

## 15. Since you have applied for an Echoing Green Fellowship before, what has changed about you and your idea since your last application? (750 characters, each!)

### Mathijs
Last year, around the time of the application, I decided to fully commit to this project. My life has been a rollercoaster since. Writing, meetings, research, more meetings, brainstorms and slowly but surely: actual progress. A foundation in January, a cooperative in July and land bought in that same month, with a forest and a house posing a seemingly insurmountable amount of work.

Like many starting organizations, we discovered that we set our goals unrealistically high. We are still learning to tone that down, that working with uncontrollable outside factors requires patience and respect, and if the social challenge of working in community is to be confronted, one must learn to deal with one's own uglier sides.

> 727c

### Diego
Over the past year, I must admit, I’ve met this small voice in my head that says that after almost two years we should have more to show. There’s been a seed of self-doubt that the challenge we’re facing may well be too large to solve. Yet, in the face of climate change, large solutions are necessary.

For that reason, while we started out as a reforestation effort, pure and simple, we realized that the challenges of climate change run deeper than ecology. That spurring a systemic transformation, requires a lot of moving parts, and we can’t do it alone. This has led to our focus on supporting others; identifying and helping people and projects that want to act, instead of trying to do everything ourselves.

> 713c

## 16. How long have you known each other, and in what context? (500 characters)

We met when Mathijs, on a pilgrimage across sustainable initiatives of Europe, visited Diego’s forest garden, and was floored by the possibility of it. This shared understanding has been the basis of our friendship, and the spark which helped Mathijs choose to stay in the region. After a few years, our friendship evolved naturally into this collaboration. And now, two years into this project, we’re living together for the majority of the year in order to work full time on this initiative.

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## 17. Describe your individual roles within the organization and the nature of your working relationship. (500 characters)

Diego (Forest Designer); forest maintenance, ecology, design, storytelling.

Mathijs (Community Architect, Operations); coordination/management, finances, (social) networking, community micro-economics, IT-infrastructure.

We strive for consensus in all our decisions, but more importantly for care. We care about and trust each other, so within that care, we’re able to engage rather than avoid conflict. Practically, daily tasks are claimed from Trello or scheduled depending on availability.

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## 18.
Mathijs: I hope to use the grant money to be able to allow us to work full time on the project without the worry of having to think we’re rushing in order to start making money. This project of this scale requires time and attention. I hope to contribute the undeniably (to me) obvious idea that a large part of the solution to climate change is trees. That with a bit of planning, they can help us to strengthen local economies, empower communities and avert ecological collapse.

Diego: It seems to me that the most important part of the whole Echoing Green experience will be the ability to connect to amazing people. Any initiative seems easy enough to accomplish from an armchair. It’s not until you open yourself up to the right eyes that you might realize the effective path. In time, I hope I’ll be able to be one of those people, who can help people find clarity in their ideas, purpose, and move projects that reforest Earth.

## Points of Improvement (isolated from feedback)

Che...What seems to be the proposed multifaceted use of the forest (perhaps you could discuss this more explicitly)

The application was not specific enough in terms of what it would take to achieve the impact you desire and what your proposed approach entails - what types of economic activities would you enable? How would you incentivize replication and scale? If a dozen owners own one hectare of land how many people would you need to convince to achieve meaningful change? In addition you should have some examples of models thathave worked elsewhere that you can test rather than wait 5 years for phase 2 to begin testing potential economic outcomes of this approach. Finally your examples of personal leadership and resilience were very broad.

check - business model details

ch.... - How will you raise the funds?

che.. - plan to attract and retain people who will make their livelihoods from rural forests

chec. - how this venture might expand its impact (either through inspiring others to do the same or by directly replicating).

che.. - How will you attract a critical mass of people to your communities and retain them there?

ch... - plan on doing for the elders in the community who have been left behind and feel isolated

c.... - bolster your credentials in forest management either enroll in a formal degree program or list the courses you have taken by name to give the reader more comfort that you have the appropriate experience/expertise/schooling in the latest thinking re. correct methods or forest management etc..

check - Are there stronger stories and examples that can be shared to demonstrate your leadership resource magnetism and resilience?

c.... - To what extent have any of these groups engaged with the commons idea? are they ready for a substantive change in how the forests are managed?

check - get support from local government NGOs and government

chec. - What types of economic activities would you enable? How would you incentivize replication and scale? If a dozen owners own one hectare of land how many people would you need to convince to achieve meaningful change?