A conversation with Willem Ferwerda, one of the founders of the regeneration space, which barely existed 11 years ago when he started Commonland. How and why is it so fundamental to take a landscape view and get all the stakeholders to look at a map- yes, a physically printed large map- together? Because chances are they never have done that. The farmers, the real estate developers, the nature conversation professionals, the local politicians spent most of their time in their own silos and if they talk to each other often it isn’t very friendly.

LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION ON:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Youtube Channel

How do you get them to develop a shared vision of what they want their landscape to look like in 20 or 30 years? How do you trigger that kind of inspiration? Nobody likes to live in a dying landscape where biodiversity has left, where people have left or are leaving, schools are closing, and shops as well.

We are at the beginning of what was barely a space 11 years ago, of course holistic landscape management existed in indigenous circles and ecology silos, but barely outside of that. Only now, though, we see the financial space starting to dip its toe into this and we will need them, as we talk billions of real green infrastructures, not hard infrastructure made of concrete, but soft, healthy spongy soils, thriving ecosystems, beneficial keystone species including people coming back to the countryside and managing landscapes holistically.

THE RETURN OF INSPIRATION AND A LONG-TERM VISION ARE KEY

Willem shares dreams for community revival and landscape restoration.

‘’At the beginning in Spain, or in South Africa, of course, we started to have a conversation about the crisis on the lands, the social crisis, the inspirational or lack of purpose crisis. Especially that one was the entry point where we could make commitments and also building a relationship. If you start to work with actors in a landscape and promise them to stay to work together for 20 years, something will happen. Because they have never experienced that before. […] We had that conversation for several days, we were sitting together for three days, using the theory, which is a co-creation process of sensing and listening to come up with the kind of solution, in this case for a landscape.” Willem Ferwerda

---

“We just asked them: what are your dreams for the coming 20 to 30 years for this landscape? And dreams were not about productivity, they were not about soil health, they were not about biodiversity or protected area management or about water. The dreams were, we want to have our community back. We want to have kids playing in the street again, we want to have swimming pools open and the school open and the local bakery open, so these things were social things first.”

– Willem Ferwerda

---

SOCIAL COMES BEFORE ECOLOGICAL AND FINANCIAL RETURN

Participants map out landscape partnerships for social and environmental goals:

”Through the social discussions on social things you could talk about, but what does it mean? What kinds of appointments do you see in future, and what does it mean for the landscape? And what does it mean for water and what does it mean for productivity and the connection of protected areas or parks? So, we had that whole conversation. We’ve had many of those conversations and, at a certain stage, using this framework, which is basically simplifying the reality of the complexity of a landscape into three words, losses, risks, and returns. Words that everyone understands because using losses, risk and returns, you can create a relationship. Because you can talk about trauma, pain, landscape pain, whatever pain or anguish or pain because people, because the community has disappeared, which is a profound cultural pain. And then you move further to how does that affect the landscape? And what would that landscape look like if you start to dream a little bit.” Willem Ferwerda

TAKING THE LANDSCAPE VIEW IS SO REVOLUTIONARY

Zooming out to see the bigger picture can lead to new insights and collaboration.

”Using the three zones and talking about it and trends, you could say, implement that or make it more visible on the map as an imaginary tool, helping people understand how they are connected in their own landscape. And that is the process that we guide.” Willem Ferwerda

”So, we come up with our maps, or they come with their maps. And then we are for days around the table and say, first, we help them understand what are the three zones. So, the three zones are a language tool, and visual to help them understand landscaping. And to read their own landscape, basically, because they don’t read their landscape, they cannot read the landscape.” Willem Ferwerda

”So, what if we want to beautify our landscape and make it more green, more healthy, better access to water, increase biodiversity, increase food productivity, make it more resilient to climate change, all these things and more local, more local economy… If you move that from A to B in 20 or 30 years, how would those zones then we’ll move from A to B in those 30 years then talk about it with the map. So, draw that on maps, and then people start to understand. Ah, it means that I rely on this water catchment. I didn’t know that before. Or maybe that aquifer, my neighbour is trying to drill to get illegal water out because he wants to have or she wants to have, I don’t know, broccoli fields. How does that work? With my farm or my protected area or my village as a mayor, […] All the things then you bring it into the map of now and into the future of that certain landscape.” Willem Ferwerda

BIODIVERSITY IS THE MANIFESTATION OF OUR SOUL

If everyone felt connected to nature, not separate, everything would change. Willem discusses the indigenous perspective on biodiversity and its connection to spirit.

”I always like to use the quote of one of our colleagues from Western Australia, Aboriginal Noongar people, ‘Biodiversity is the manifestation of the Spirit’. And I think that includes everything. That’s what it is. So, we can talk a lot about it. We can talk about economics, landscape finance, Wall Street, and carbon credits, but the whole essence of life is that biodiversity is the manifestation of the Spirit. So, we are a manifestation of that spirit as well. So, we need to deal with it and why not open up our hearts, and use our technology. Technology follows ecology, not the other way around.” Willem Ferwerda

OTHER POINTS DISCUSSED

Koen and Willem also talked about:

• Why 20 years is the bare minimum of landscape work
• A long term vision for a landscape can mobilise people
• Landscape finance and restoration, including challenges and lessons learned
• Using nature to solve environmental issues
• Leadership transition in an environmental organization

LINKS:

• Commonland
• 4 Returns Framework

LINKED INTERVIEWS:

• Yanniek Schoonhoven – Training the next generation of farmers with an academy and regenerative farm of 1100HA
• Michiel de Man, pushing back the desert in Spain with regenerative agriculture
• Jasper Bertels on how to regenerate and calculate the returns in a landscape of 1M ha
• Gijs Boers on why the biggest drive to the growth of regenerative agriculture is quality

——————————————

Feedback, comments, suggestions? Reach me via Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, in the comments below or through Get in Touch on this website.

Join the Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P

The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.