Tag: regeneration

Porous dams in the river slows down the water and allows for infiltration

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Porous dams in the river

I asked one of the people working for us to start a new project today. It’s a series of porous dams in the river that runs through the finca. The river is mostly dry. When it rains, it has a good amount of water, although it runs through swiftly and is gone. The dams will help slow down the water so it can infiltrate into the ground.

This will bring moisture into the ground which will help the vegetation along the river, it and it will provide water for longer for the animals in the area. Until about twenty years ago, there was a spring near the river, not too far from our current houses. These dams may help bring that spring back, especially in combination with more trees and improved soil. (The spring likely went dry because of grazing and deforestation.)

The top series of photos are from the river from a couple of years ago and I assume it looks similar now. The two photos below show dams from a similar project in the area (not my photos).

Dam construction and spacing

We have two small rivers meeting on our land. I checked the distances and elevation differences on Google Earth. The longer section is about 280 meters with 25 meter elevation difference. The shorter is about 70 meters with 8 meter elevation difference. That’s a slope of 5-7 degrees. This is straight line, and the river meanders a bit, so the actual slope will be a little less.

I suspect low dams about 5 meters apart may be ideal. Maybe 3-4 meters where it’s steeper, and 5-6 meters apart where it’s less steep. The distances are just a very rough guidelines, and it’s important to follow the terrain and make use of what’s already there. For instance, there may be large boulders we can use as part of the dams.

The dams should be low so they are less likely to be damaged from strong flows during heavy rain. We will use larger stones as anchors and smaller stones to fill in between the larger ones. The dams should be slightly lower in the middle to center the water flow in the channel.

There is no need to make the dams perfect. They can be rustic as long as they are stable. The purpose is just to slow the flow of the water.

It’s best to start at the downhill side of the river since the water flow is stronger there.

The dams should be inspected after the first heavy rains to see how they hold up.

Reservoirs?

In time, we can also create one or more natural reservoirs next the river, and channel some of the river water into these. We would use simple natural filtration, and a small channel or pipe to bring the water into the reservoirs. It’s also important to channel any overflow back into the river (or into a second reservoir).

This water can be used for watering plants, for the houses, as a swimming pool, and so on. They will also allow more water to infiltrate into the ground and recharge the groundwater.

If several are located uphill from and in the vicinity of the now-dry natural spring, they may also, in the best case, help bring the spring back. I will ask the previous owners to show us where the spring used to be. It will help us plan where to focus the regeneration work and where to locate the reservoirs.

Natural disasters: Often a design problem with design solutions

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Many of the current natural disasters in the world – wildfires, flooding, drought, dry rivers, and so on – are design problems.

They come from how we have designed our civilization and how we change ecosystems. Climate change is just one aspect of this, although it gets most of the attention.

It’s simple. Healthy ecosystems prevent or reduces the scale of almost all natural disasters. For instance, they are hydrated so they prevent or reduces the scale of wildfires and droughts, and they feed springs, creeks, rivers, and the ground water. Healthy mangroves reduces the impacts of hurricanes and typhoons. Food production that’s diverse, in layers, and uses ground cover is much better able to thrive in droughts, hot weather, and a changing climate.

At Finca Milagros, we are very aware of this and actively work on creating and encouraging a healthier ecosystem. We create terraces which slows down the water and helps it soak into the ground. We improve the soil through compost and mulch which helps water soak into the ground and reduces evaporation. We will slow down the water in the mostly dry creek/river with porous stone dams. We are planting a large number of diverse native and climate-appropriate trees which helps the water soak into the ground. We are planting in layers which creates shade and cools the area through evapotranspiration. In all of these ways, we are creating a more healthy ecosystem, and that – in turn – reduces the risk of wildfires, drought, flooding, and more.

These design solutions can be used at any scale, including at community and regional levels.

A FEW MORE NOTES

As usual, there is a lot more to say about this.

When I say “design problem” I mean that they are often caused by poor design and they have design solutions.

Even earthquakes are a design problem. They are not caused by human activity, but how we design our communities and houses obviously can prevent a disastrous outcome when they first happen. Preventing poverty is a big part of this since it’s typically those with the least resources who are impacted the most.

I don’t know why reporters and experts in the media rarely mention this. They seem to have a fixation on climate change which is important but just a small part of the bigger picture. If I was a reporter, I would include this as much as I can and put it in the foreground whenever possible.

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Barichara plant database – for regeneration, reforestation, and food forests

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I have developed a Barichara plant database. As of now, it has 259 plant entries. Of these, 139 are native and the rest are suitable for a food forest in the area. Each plant has 212 fields with information used by the front-end interface.

There are three main ways to find plants: A simple search and the two discover and design sections. Each of those sections has subsections with several plant lists and filters. There is also a details page for each plant.

I made this database specifically for reforestation and food forests in the Barichara area, at about 1000 to 15000 meters above sea level in a dry tropical forest in the Andes.

It’s still at a draft stage and the info and interface need to be refined and improved. If there is interest, I’ll make a Spanish language version.

If it is to be used outside of Barichara, the plant selection and plant info needs to be tailored to each location.

This plant database is made with Google Sheets (spreadsheet) and Google Apps (interface and programming). That means that the URL for the current version may change over time, although I will aim at keeping it at this URL for a while. The images are from Wikipedia and Wikimedia with sources listed.

I made it mostly for our own food forest and regeneration project on Finca Milagros. If others in the area find it useful, they are of course welcome to use it.

This is the first time I used AI as an assistant for a project like this. I started it in 2024 and worked on it for about a week, and then another couple of weeks in 2025. My life was too full to do more with it until this summer where I spent maybe three weeks to continue the work on the content and interface. There are many questions about the use of AI for these kinds of projects, including the use of natural resources and copyright questions. Still, I chose to use it for this project.

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Global ecological overshoot (AI)

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I asked ChatGPT for an article on global ecological overshoot, and gave it quite a few pointers for what to include. See below.

See also additional texts on how we each participate in the evolution of humanity and Earth, economic systems aligned with ecological realities, a text written in an imagined regenerative civilization 300 years from now, and a letter of gratitude from that time.

Global Ecological Overshoot

A Larger Perspective

We are not visitors on Earth, nor beings standing outside nature. We are one expression of Earth’s own unfolding: a species through which this living planet has developed reflection, symbolic thought, technological power, and the capacity for both destruction and care. Our societies, cultures, economies, and choices are all taking place within the larger seamless system we call Earth.

In that sense, humanity is a kind of experiment within Earth’s long evolution. Through us, this planet is exploring what consciousness, memory, technology, domination, care, and deliberate transformation can become. Each of us participates in that experiment. Each choice, each institution, each community, each act of extraction or regeneration becomes part of the larger pattern. We are local expressions of a deeper living process, and each of us helps shape what happens next.

That perspective does not make the crisis smaller. It makes it more meaningful. The question is not only whether our present systems can continue. They cannot. The deeper question is whether humanity can become a wiser expression of Earth’s unfolding—whether this experiment in civilization can move from overshoot and domination toward a more mature form of participation in life.

Before Agriculture: A Different Orientation

Before agriculture, human beings generally lived in more direct relationship with local ecosystems. These societies were diverse and should not be romanticized, but many seem to have lived with a more immediate awareness of dependence on land, water, animals, plants, and seasonal cycles. Survival depended less on large-scale control of ecosystems and more on skillful participation within them.

In many such cultures, and in many indigenous and traditional cultures that still preserve aspects of this orientation, the world was experienced less as inert matter and more as alive, relational, and meaningful. Humans were not separate from nature, but part of a larger web of life. That older partnership orientation cannot simply be copied today, but some of its qualities remain deeply relevant: reciprocity, restraint, reverence for life, local ecological knowledge, respect for limits, and a felt belonging within a living Earth.

These older and still-living strands of human wisdom can help inspire what a future regenerative civilization might be: a civilization aligned with ecological reality, grounded in reciprocity and restraint, and organized in deeper partnership with life and Earth.

The Civilizational Shift

Agriculture, Surplus, and Durable Power

The agricultural revolution did not make overshoot inevitable. It made many important things possible: settlement, continuity, cities, writing, and long cultural memory. But it also transformed the structure of human life. Surplus could now be stored, counted, taxed, defended, and seized. That made it possible for power to accumulate and remain concentrated over time.

Once surplus could be controlled, durable hierarchies became easier to maintain. Class divisions, territorial control, large states, standing armies, and systems of command could stabilize around the management of land, labor, water, and food. Agriculture did not create domination by itself, but it made large-scale domination far more structurally possible.

From Hierarchy to Domination Culture

Over time, this fed into what can be called domination culture: a way of organizing life around hierarchy, expansion, concentration of power, extraction, and the treatment of land, animals, and often people as resources. Land increasingly became something to control, simplify, own, and exploit. Forests became timber reserves. Rivers became irrigation systems. Animals became units of production. Human labor could be organized at much larger scales.

This was not true everywhere in the same way, and partnership-based traditions persisted in many places. But the broad arc of dominant civilization increasingly moved toward management, accumulation, control, and disembeddedness from the living systems on which it depended.

Separation and the Myth of an Infinite Earth

The Worldview of Separation

Modern industrial civilization radicalized this trajectory. It rests on deep assumptions: that we are fundamentally separate from nature, that the Earth exists primarily for human use, that natural systems are effectively inexhaustible or replaceable, and that growth can continue indefinitely. In practice, our systems behave as if they exist on an infinite Earth.

This worldview has been shaped not only by economics and empire, but also by strands of religion and philosophy that placed the sacred outside the world, imagined humans as fundamentally above or apart from the rest of life, or treated Earth mainly as a stage for human salvation and use. These themes were never the whole of religion, and many spiritual traditions also preserved deep reverence for life and participation in a living cosmos. But where religious imagination reinforced hierarchy, human exceptionalism, and distance from the living world, it helped support the wider logic of domination.

Systems Built on Separation

This worldview is built into nearly everything. The economy treats forests, soils, rivers, minerals, and oceans as inputs. Production systems assume endless extraction and somewhere else to dump the waste. Food systems simplify ecosystems into production zones. Political systems reward short-term gain and systematically discount long-term ecological reality. Fossil fuels then gave this entire arrangement extraordinary power, allowing industrial civilization to push beyond many local limits and turn overshoot into a planetary condition.

What we have built is, in effect, an overshoot civilization: a civilization organized around drawdown rather than regeneration, around expansion rather than balance, and around the illusion that human systems can remain healthy while the living systems around them are degraded.

Overshoot Is the Larger Frame

Climate change is one expression of overshoot, but only one. The larger problem is that civilization is consuming the living foundations of its own existence. Even major progress on emissions would not solve overshoot if humanity continued destroying soils, exhausting freshwater, overfishing oceans, eliminating species, and converting diverse living systems into simplified extraction landscapes.

Overshoot is the wider frame because it reveals the common pattern beneath many crises. The pattern is a civilization organized as though it were exempt from ecological law: entitled to unlimited drawdown, endless expansion, and the degradation of the very living systems that make its existence possible.

Why So Many Seem Unaware

It Is Hard to See

Overshoot is often difficult to perceive directly. Supermarkets may still be full. Water still comes out of the tap. Electricity still flows. The damage often shows up first somewhere else: in a distant forest, fishery, wetland, aquifer, coral reef, or species population. Overshoot is real, but it is often delayed, displaced, and hidden from everyday perception.

It Is Hard to Interpret

Modern systems are remarkably good at concealing ecological drawdown. Global trade allows wealthy societies to import the ecological capacity of distant regions. Fossil fuels temporarily compensate for declining local fertility or scarcity. Debt allows societies to consume now and defer costs into the future. Technology can create the impression that limits have been overcome, when they have often only been postponed, outsourced, or obscured. A society can therefore look prosperous even while undermining its own foundations.

It Is Hard to Think

Modern culture normalizes overshoot. It is shaped by the assumption that more is better: more production, more infrastructure, more extraction, more consumption, more growth. Economic expansion is treated not merely as a tool, but as a civilizational good. At the same time, public discourse tends to fragment reality into separate issues—climate, biodiversity, pollution, water, food, waste—rather than seeing them as interconnected expressions of a larger overshoot dynamic.

Overshoot is also a genuinely difficult systems problem. It involves population, consumption, technology, agriculture, trade, economics, power, and worldview. Many people and institutions are not well equipped to think in that integrated way. It is easier to focus on isolated symptoms than on the larger metabolism of civilization.

It Is Hard to Bear

To take in overshoot fully is to confront the possibility that the basic trajectory of modern civilization is self-undermining. That can evoke fear, grief, guilt, helplessness, denial, or numbness. People often retreat into narrower frames that feel more manageable: carbon alone, recycling alone, technology alone, or individual consumer choices alone.

It Is Hard to Act On

A full recognition of overshoot raises deeper questions about wealth, empire, growth, inequality, consumption, and the legitimacy of current institutions. Existing power structures therefore benefit when the crisis remains fragmented, softened, or partially hidden. If the whole pattern were widely seen, the demand for civilizational transformation would become much harder to contain.

It Is Not the Kind of Threat We Evolved to Notice Easily

Human attention is often drawn more strongly to immediate, visible, local dangers than to slow-moving, cumulative, systemic ones. Overshoot rarely arrives as one single event. It often unfolds as gradual depletion, weakening resilience, and compounding stresses that only later become unmistakable.

What Is Actually Needed

What is needed is not just better policy or cleaner technology. What is needed is a transition from overshoot civilizationto regenerative civilization.

A regenerative civilization would be a civilization aligned with ecological realities, living within limits, restoring the living systems it depends on, and organizing itself in deeper partnership with life and Earth.

A Transformation of Worldview

This requires a different understanding of who we are and where we live. The worldview of separation must give way to one of participation, interdependence, reciprocity, limits, and belonging. Humanity is not outside the biosphere, managing it from above. We are one expression of it, dependent on its health at every level.

This is where the older partnership orientation becomes relevant again. The point is not to copy pre-agricultural life, but to recover and reinterpret some of its deeper wisdom: that the Earth is not a warehouse of resources, that life is relational, that limits are real, and that a good human future must be embedded in a larger living whole.

A Transformation of Systems

That shift in worldview must take institutional form. It requires a reorganization of our systems of economy, production, food, water, energy, materials, waste, transport, settlement, and governance. These systems are currently built on the assumptions of separation and the fantasy of an infinite Earth. They need to be redesigned around regeneration, resilience, sufficiency, long-term stewardship, and respect for ecological limits.

Without both levels of change, inner and outer, worldview and systems, the crisis will continue. A civilization built on separation will keep reproducing that separation in its institutions.

Likely Scenarios for the Coming Decades

There will not be one universal human response. Different regions will respond differently, and different subcultures within the same region will respond differently too. Some wealthy regions may preserve relative stability for a while through stronger institutions, imported resources, and technological buffering. Other regions may face earlier breakdown through drought, crop failure, debt, conflict, or political fragility.

Within the same society, some groups may become more authoritarian, exclusionary, and committed to preserving privilege. Others may move toward mutual aid, ecological restoration, local food systems, and lower-consumption forms of life. Some may cling to denial or fantasies of technological rescue. Others may accept limits and reorganize around resilience, stewardship, and place.

The most likely broad pattern is neither a smooth green transition nor immediate extinction. It is more likely to be an era of uneven descent: disruption, simplification, conflict, adaptation, and partial transformation unfolding differently across regions, classes, and cultures.

Four Broad Pathways

Fortified Overshoot

In this pathway, enclaves of privilege try to preserve order and consumption through borders, surveillance, militarization, and sacrifice zones. Ecological decline continues, but its costs are externalized onto poorer populations and regions.

Chaotic Unraveling

In this pathway, breakdown outruns coordination. Ecological, economic, and political stresses interact faster than institutions can respond. Food and water insecurity grow, infrastructure degrades, and social trust erodes.

Adaptive Simplification

In this pathway, some societies consciously reduce throughput, relocalize food and energy systems, restore ecosystems where possible, and reorganize around resilience rather than perpetual growth.

Regenerative Transition

In this pathway, some societies recognize that overshoot is not merely a technical problem but a crisis of worldview and civilization. They begin laying the foundations for regenerative civilization: more place-based, participatory, ecologically literate, and aligned with the realities of a living planet.

The Harder Possibility: Severe Population Decline

Overshoot may lead not only to hardship and regional collapse, but to a dramatic reduction in human numbers over time. The sequence could unfold across gradients: mounting instability, regional breakdown, cascading systemic failures, severe depopulation, and, in the most extreme case, possible human extinction.

That most extreme outcome should not be dismissed out of hand. But the more likely danger is a long era of interacting crises that greatly reduce human numbers and sharply contract the scale and complexity of civilization.

If Some of Us Survive

If industrial civilization contracts but humanity survives, the future may belong to smaller, more regionally rooted societies. These would likely be much more constrained by local ecological reality and much less able to depend on vast global systems of extraction and transport.

Some may become neo-feudal, militarized, and harsh, with power concentrated around land, water, weapons, or remaining infrastructure. Others may develop more partnership-based forms, drawing on both ancient human patterns and surviving cultural wisdom: local democracy, distributed power, reciprocity, ecological restraint, practical knowledge, and a deeper felt sense of belonging to place.

If survivors understand overshoot clearly, they may build cultures with strong taboos against overuse and institutions designed to protect watersheds, soils, forests, and biodiversity. They may preserve some knowledge from industrial civilization, but only what can be maintained under lower-energy conditions and within ecological limits.

In the best case, the long human future after overshoot would not be a simple return to the past, but the emergence of a new kind of society: perhaps more modest materially, but ecologically wiser, culturally deeper, and more consciously rooted in partnership with life. That too would be a form of regenerative civilization, shaped under harsher conditions but more aligned with the realities of a living planet.

The Essential Point

Global ecological overshoot may be the most important issue facing humanity because it is the wider frame that contains so many other crises. It is about population, yes, but also about worldview, power, food, water, energy, waste, production, and the civilizational logic that ties them together.

Before agriculture, human beings often lived with a more immediate awareness of belonging to the living world. With agriculture, and especially with the rise of hierarchical civilizations, humanity increasingly moved toward stored surplus, concentrated power, control, accumulation, and domination. Fossil-fueled modernity turned those tendencies planetary. Now the consequences are converging.

The real question is whether humanity can move from overshoot civilization to regenerative civilization. That would mean a profound transformation in both how we understand ourselves and how we organize collective life: from separation to participation, from domination to partnership, from extraction to regeneration, and from the fantasy of an infinite Earth to a mature relationship with a finite, living planet.

The deeper question is whether humanity can become a wiser expression of Earth’s own unfolding. Each of us participates in that possibility. Each of us helps shape the experiment. And each of us, in ways both small and large, plays a vital role in what kind of future this living planet is able to bring forth through us.

Beyond Overshoot

Global ecological overshoot is not only a material crisis. It is also a crisis in how we are participating in the larger life of Earth. We have built systems as if we were separate: separate from nature, separate from consequences, separate from the living processes that sustain us. But we are not separate. We are one expression of this living planet’s own unfolding.

From a wider view, humanity is not outside Earth, managing it from above. We are Earth in one of its experimental forms: conscious, symbolic, technological, self-reflective, and dangerously powerful. Through us, this planet is exploring what intelligence can become. It is also discovering what happens when intelligence becomes detached from the living whole that gave rise to it.

That is why overshoot is not just a failure of policy. It is a distortion in relationship. A civilization organized around extraction, abstraction, and endless growth cannot remain in harmony with a finite living world. It will overshoot. It will undermine its own foundations. It will mistake drawdown for wealth and domination for maturity.

What is needed, then, is not only reform but transformation. Not only greener systems, but a different civilizational consciousness. We need to move from control to participation, from separation to interbeing, from accumulation to reciprocity, from managing Earth to belonging to Earth. This is what a regenerative civilization would mean at the deepest level: not just sustainable techniques, but a culture that knows itself as part of a living whole and organizes accordingly.

Some of the guidance for this future is ancient. Many indigenous and traditional cultures, and many deep spiritual traditions, have remembered what modernity forgot: that life is relational, that limits are real, that the world is not a dead backdrop, and that human flourishing depends on right relationship with the larger field of life. We cannot simply return to earlier forms, but we can let their wisdom inform what comes next.

The transition ahead may be difficult, uneven, and marked by loss. But it is also part of a larger unfolding. The question is whether humanity can become a wiser expression of Earth’s own intelligence. Each of us participates in that possibility. Each of us helps shape whether this civilizational crisis becomes only collapse, or also initiation.

A regenerative civilization would not be perfect. But it would be more humble, more reciprocal, more rooted, and more aligned with the deeper patterns of life. It would know that we do not stand over this world. We arise within it, belong to it, and help shape its future through how we live.

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Reflections on society, politics and nature – vol. 73

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This is one in a series of posts with brief notes on society, politics, and nature. I sometimes include short personal notes as well. Click “read more” to see the entries in this installment.

I TOLD YOU SO

We all have a large number of views and sometimes predictions, and it’s all mostly from conditioning. It reflects the influences we grew up with and now expose ourselves to.

We are also all sometimes right and sometimes wrong in our views and predictions. And many of us are inclined to remember and emphasize the times we (think we) we are right, and dismiss or explain away the times we were wrong. We also tend to pick out data that makes it seem we were right, and ignore the rest.

That said, there are many “I told you so” moments in my life, including when I have written about politics and society as I do in these posts.

I started with blogs in 2002. My first was Society and Ecology and then Rants.

Back then, I wrote about much the same as today – global ecological overshoot, misguided wars, neo-liberalism and erosion of democracy, and so on.

For instance, it was clear that the US lied about the reason for the Iraq war, and that was later confirmed. Already then, the information was readily available. Today, the information needed to see that any war with Iran is misguided is also readily available.

All empires fall, and since the ’90s, it seemed clear that the erosion of the US empire likely would happen within a couple of decades. For instance, Johan Galtung studied the fall of empires, saw the signs of it happening with the US, and that it would become obvious in the 2020s. I wrote about that too, and it’s happening. The status of the US as a global superpower is eroding, hastened by Trump.

Trump 2.0 was always likely to start wars, as I wrote about in November 2024 before his second term: “We don’t know what wars Trump may start, possibly in an attempt to distract from unpopular policies and unite the US population behind him. He avoided wars during the first presidency, but Trump 2.0 will be different.”

Since middle school in the ’80s, I have been aware of global ecological overshoot. We are collectively using far more resources than Earth can replenish. We are metaphorically living on a draining savings account. As it continues to deplete, we see the unraveling of ecosystems and eventually an ecological and civizational collapse. We have a civilization that operates on the assumption of unlimited Earth, and that is out of alignment with ecological realities. That leads to overshoot and, if not corrected, collapse. Our civilization is ecocidal and suicidal. That too is easy to see and understand.

It’s also easy to see why global ecological overshot is by far the most serious issue facing us today. If you care about anything, you also have to care about global ecological overshoot. This living system we call Earth is what supports and makes everything we care about possible, including our own lives. With an ecological collapse, all we care about collapses. A mature and sane civilization will have ecological health as a priority since everything else depends on it. It’s the context for everything else.

Organic food is often presented as a luxury for a few, and unrealistic for the many. To me, it seems reverse. What’s unrealistic is to continue growing our food with poison, and poisoning ourselves, the land, and our ecosystems in the process. That cannot last.

When the US elected Trump for president the first time, it seemed equally clear that it would lead to an erosion of US democracy. Back then, I wrote about that as the main danger of his presidency. That has become even more clear now in his second period. We also know that he planned to implement Project 2025 in his second period, and that’s what we are seeing. And we know that his policies will hurt most of the people who voted for him, and they still voted for him.

Norwegian politicians seem to assume that when Trump is gone, our relationship with the US will return to normal. That seems naive and misguided. The dynamics in the US that brought Trump to power will not go away. Someone like him is likely to return, and likely one who is smarter and more competent. The US cannot be trusted or relied upon. We need to deepen our ties with Europe, Canada, and other more reliable and aligned countries.

As I wrote in a previous post, we know that nuclear energy in Norway is misguided. It will be too expensive and is not needed. Still, many political parties support it and want nuclear energy development, including parties that pride themselves on being fiscally responsible.

From the ’80s, it’s been clear to me that taking a significant portion of our abundant resources in Norway and investing in renewable energy research and technology is the wise way forward. If we did, Norway would be at the forefront of the inevitable renewable energy revolution, and we could have built a thriving research community and technology around it. It would go hand-in-hand with the current petroleum industry and be fueled by it. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Norway is very much dragging its feet when it comes to renewable energy, and it has left the leading edge research and technology to other countries.

In most of these cases, I feel that reality spoke clearly. We just need to be slightly more attuned to reality than our ideologies to see it.

Why do some tend to be more often accurate than others? Partly, it has to do with basic knowledge about history (patterns repeat), society, and psychology. Partly, it may be that reality has a “left leaning bias” as Stephen Colbert said, slightly tongue in cheek but also with some truth to it. Partly, and perhaps most importantly, it has to do with whether we seek reality and truth over ideologies.

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Two ways to grow Maya Nut trees: win-win vs zero-sum

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We have a regeneration and food forest project in the Andes, and one of the trees I wish to grow – for biodiversity, food for animals and humans, and income – is the traditional Maya nut tree (Guáimaros as they are called locally).

Last November, I was lucky enough to find two sources of Maya nuts in our neighborhood, so we now have about 100 Maya nut trees growing – some in the ground and a few still in large growing bags. This is just the start, and I hope to plant a few hundred more trees over the coming years.

I have been in contact with someone advising people on growing Maya nut trees, and we were recommended to plant them four meters apart, in full sun, and remove nearby plants since they compete for resources (water, nutrients, sun, etc.).

I understand where those guidelines come from, and I know it’s meant well. At the same time, we are doing something quite different. We wish to work in a deeper partnership with nature, natural processes, and the local ecosystem.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

We are creating a food forest that’s as wildly diverse as possible. We create terraces, swales, and porous dams to slow down the rain water so it is absorbed by the ground. We work actively on building soil, which for now includes bringing in compost and soil materials. We use mulch to protect and build the soil, and retain moisture longer.

This plant diversity creates a more healthy and resilient ecosystem. It helps build soil, encourages healthy and diverse soil life (including microbes and fungal networks), create shade to retain moisture, reduce the chance of an explosion of one types of insects, supports the insect life and wildlife, and produces a variety of foods for us and wildlife, and so on.

This diversity means the Maya nut trees will be about 10-15 meters apart from each other, which is fine since we will rely on a wide diversity of food plants, not just Maya nut trees.

WIN-WIN VS ZERO-SUM FOOD GROWING

As I see it, what we were recommended reflect a zero-sum approach to food growing, and what we are doing reflect more of a win-win approach.

In zero-sum food growing, we see plants – and life in general – as primarily competing for resources, so what doesn’t produce food needs to go. We may use artificial fertilizers and pesticides, which destroys the soil and the web of life supporting all life. We may rely on just one or a few crops, which creates vulnerabilities. We create ecological deserts that lead to habitat loss and extinctions.

We are, in essence, gradually destroying the web of life we and all life depend on.

In a win-win orientation, we support the web of life that supports all life – including ourselves, what we eat, and all we love. We seek diversity since a diverse system is more resilient. We seek to build soil and create healthy soil, since soil is the foundation for all plant and animal life. We seek to make maximum use of rainwater by slowing it down, allowing it time to infiltrate, and retaining moisture.

We help regenerate the web of life which we all depend on.

WHY IS THE MAINSTREAM APPROACH STILL MAINSTREAM?

This mainstream zero-sum approach is relatively new. It has happened over just the last one to three generations. It’s a blip in human history.

The modern conventional approach seems successful on the surface. We have dramatically increased the world’s food production over the last few decades, which seems desirable.

And it comes at a high cost. It’s part of the unraveling of the web of life supporting us all. It’s extractive food growing that’s destructive to soil, ecosystems, and ourselves. We borrow against the future. It cannot last.

It comes from a zero-sum orientation, and what loses is not only the others – what we call weeds and pests, and wildlife – but eventually ourselves. We are all in it together.

So why do many still use this approach? Because it does produce a lot of food. It’s a profitable business for those selling machinery, pesticides, fertilizers, and so on. Our whole system is now set up to support it. It has become the norm. It’s what’s expected. It’s what farmers now know and understand. It’s what they learn and pass on.

HOW DO WE SHIFT OUT OF IT?

What does it take to shift out of it?

That’s obviously a big and complex question.

Some answers are: Knowledge and education. Pointing out who benefits and who loses from each system. (In our current mainstream food system, we eventually all lose.) Good examples of alternatives, including some that work at larger scales. Systems change to encourage win-win systems, which includes putting the real cost into the finances of food systems.

We are doing our small part by developing and living a more life-centered alternative.

Edible tree leaves – an often overlooked source of food

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In this episode of the Food Forest Podcast, Eric Toensmeier talks about perennials, and the value of edible leaves from trees. Here is the full episode: Food Forest Podcast: Eric Toensmeier – The Power of Perennials

AT FINCA MILAGROS

Moringa leaves
Chaya / Tree Spinach

What trees have edible leaves on Finca Milagros? I am just aware of a few: Chaya (Tree spinach), Moringa, and Maya nut (Guáimaro). Above is a picture of Moringa and Chaya leaves from Milagros. The Maya nut trees are still too young for harvesting.

I am sure many other trees have leaves that can be used medicinally, but I am thinking of the ones that can easily be included in a meal.

I want to find more, so I asked ChatGPT 5 for info about trees with edible leaves from different climate zones, and then specifically for Finca Milagros in a dry tropical forest zone. See below.

TREES WITH EDIBLE LEAVES

Tropical / Dry Tropical

  • Moringa (Moringa oleifera) – Árbol de la vida
    Superfood tree; fast-growing, drought-hardy; leaves very high in protein, vitamins, minerals; eaten fresh, cooked, or as powder.
  • Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum) – Guáimaro, Ramón
    Native to the Americas; staple food tree; leaves edible (especially for forage, also for humans), nuts highly nutritious.
  • Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) – Tree spinach, Chaya
    Hardy shrub/tree; leaves rich in protein, iron, calcium; must be cooked to remove toxins.
  • Nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea) – Nacedero, Oreja de ratón
    Colombian native; often used as forage; young leaves edible, mild flavor, also medicinal.
  • Baobab (Adansonia digitata) – Baobab, Pan de mono
    Iconic African tree; leaves rich in calcium and iron, eaten as greens or dried powder.
  • Katuk (Sauropus androgynus) – Katuk
    Popular leafy vegetable in SE Asia; high in protein; eaten raw or cooked; thrives in tropical food forests.
  • Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and relatives) – Cayena
    Ornamental but edible; young leaves tangy, used in salads or cooked.
  • Mulberry (Morus alba / Morus nigra) – Mora
    Fruit tree; young leaves edible cooked, also used for teas; good drought tolerance.

Temperate

  • Mulberry (Morus alba / Morus nigra) – Mora
    Same as tropical; highly versatile tree with edible leaves, fruit, and forage uses.
  • Linden (Tilia cordata / platyphyllos) – Basswood, Tilo
    Young leaves edible raw (mild, lettuce-like); also famous for calming teas from flowers and leaves.
  • Beech (Fagus sylvatica) – Haya
    Very young spring leaves edible raw or cooked; slightly tangy flavor.
  • Oak (Quercus robur and other Quercus spp.) – Roble
    Very young leaves edible in small amounts; more survival food than regular diet.
  • Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis, Celtis australis) – Almez
    Young leaves edible, mild; fruit also edible.
  • Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) – Ginkgo
    Young leaves used in teas (mostly medicinal, for circulation and memory).

Boreal / Cold Temperate

  • Birch (Betula pendula / pubescens) – Abedul
    Very young leaves edible raw or brewed as tea; mild, slightly bitter.
  • Alder (Alnus glutinosa) – Aliso
    Young leaves edible in small amounts; mainly survival food.
  • Aspen (Populus tremula) – Álamo temblón
    Very young spring leaves edible; mild bitterness.
  • Willow (Salix spp.) – Sauce
    Young leaves edible in moderation; bark and leaves used as tea for pain relief (natural aspirin).

Arid / Semi-Arid

  • Moringa (Moringa oleifera) – Árbol de la vida
    Same as tropical; excellent drought-resistant leaf crop.
  • Baobab (Adansonia digitata) – Baobab, Pan de mono
    Same as tropical; highly drought-resistant.
  • Mesquite (Prosopis spp.) – Algarrobo
    Young leaves edible sparingly; more important for nutritious pods.
  • Acacia (Acacia spp., e.g. Acacia tortilis)
    Some species have edible young leaves (often cooked); commonly used as fodder.
  • Jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana) – Azufaifo
    Fruit tree; young leaves edible sparingly; mostly valued for fruits.

Subtropical / Mediterranean

  • Mulberry (Morus alba / nigra) – Mora
    Same as tropical/temperate; very adaptable.
  • Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) – Laurel
    Leaves used dried as flavoring herb, medicinal teas.
  • Olive (Olea europaea) – Olivo
    Leaves used for teas and extracts; medicinal (antioxidant, lowers blood pressure).
  • Carob (Ceratonia siliqua) – Algarrobo europeo
    Young leaves edible in moderation; tree mostly valued for pods.
  • Fig (Ficus carica) – Higuera
    Very young leaves edible when cooked; sometimes used in traditional recipes.
  • Citrus (Citrus spp.) – Cítricos
    Leaves used for aromatic teas, flavoring.

From this whole list, the best everyday edible-leaf trees (nutritious, tasty, and safe) are:

Moringa, Guáimaro (Maya nut), Chaya, Nacedero, Mulberry, Linden, Katuk, and Baobab.

This list was generated by ChatGPT 5.

EDIBLE-LEAF TREES FOR FINCA MILAGROS

1. Guáimaro / Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum, Ramón)
A keystone native of Central America, also found in Colombia. Extremely resilient in dry tropical forests. Its seeds are a traditional staple, and the leaves are edible — mostly used for forage, but humans can also eat them cooked in stews or teas. The leaves are protein-rich and can supplement nutrition during dry seasons. Guáimaro also creates shade, builds soil, and supports wildlife, making it one of the most important regenerative species you can plant.

2. Moringa (Moringa oleifera, Árbol de la vida)
Originally from India but now naturalized worldwide, moringa thrives in poor soils and drought. The leaves are among the most nutrient-dense of any plant: rich in protein, vitamins A & C, calcium, iron, and antioxidants. They can be eaten raw, cooked, or dried and powdered. It’s fast-growing and coppices well, so you can harvest continuously. On Milagros, it can provide a near year-round supply of leafy greens when other crops fail.

3. Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, Tree spinach)
A hardy shrub-tree from Central America, perfectly suited to hot, dry climates. The leaves are very nutritious, with high levels of protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins. They must always be cooked (boiled or fried) to neutralize toxic compounds, but once prepared, they’re delicious — often compared to spinach. Chaya is also used as a living fence or hedge, and once established, it requires almost no care.

4. Nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea, Oreja de ratón)
Native to Colombia and widely planted as a forage tree. It thrives in the tropics and tolerates dry spells once established. The young leaves are edible for people — mild tasting, often used in soups or as spinach substitutes — and very nutritious. It’s especially valuable because it resprouts vigorously after cutting, so you can regularly prune it for mulch, animal fodder, and food.

5. Mulberry (Morus alba / Morus nigra, Mora)
Although not native, mulberries grow well in Barichara’s climate with some water support during establishment. The young leaves are edible, cooked or used in teas, and are rich in protein and antioxidants. The fruits are, of course, a delicious bonus. Mulberries are also excellent for silkworms, birds, and other wildlife, making them a multi-use addition to your food forest.

6. Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and relatives, Cayena)
Often planted as an ornamental hedge, hibiscus also offers edible young leaves with a pleasantly tangy flavor. They can be eaten raw in salads or lightly cooked in soups and stir-fries. In addition, the flowers can be used for teas (similar to hibiscus sabdariffa / “agua de Jamaica”). Hibiscus provides beauty, food, and pollinator habitat.

7. Katuk (Sauropus androgynus, Katuk)
An Asian species that adapts well to tropical agroforestry systems if it has some partial shade. Leaves are very high in protein and have a nutty, pea-like flavor, eaten raw or cooked. In very dry spots it may struggle, but planted in more shaded, moist niches of Milagros, it could become a steady leafy green source.

Summary for Milagros:
The most reliable and high-priority edible-leaf trees for your dry tropical forest are Guáimaro, Moringa, Chaya, and Nacedero — all hardy, nutritious, and multipurpose. Mulberry, Hibiscus, and Katuk can supplement diversity, with mulberry also offering fruit, hibiscus adding beauty and pollinator support, and katuk providing protein-rich greens where moisture allows.

This list of trees for Finca Milagros was also generated by ChatGPT 5.

A NOTE ON USING AI

How do I use AI in this context?

I use it to generate ideas for what we can do on Finca Milagros. It’s not the final word, and I don’t rely on it to make decisions. For that, I talk with local experts and sometimes use other reliable sources.

Sometimes, it’s all in alignment. (Which makes the decision easier, although it doesn’t mean the info is 100% reliable or appropriate for our situation.) Sometimes, there are discrepancies and I take a closer look and consult other sources.

In general, it’s good to use AI with caution and always consult experts before making decisions. In this case, when it comes to plants and ecology, it’s wise to consult local experts familiar with the local conditions.

Rethinking political maps: The green and inclusivity axes

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The old left–right political map grew out of 18th-century France and no longer captures the challenges of our time. Today, two dimensions matter more: whether policies are green, aligning with ecological realities in the face of global overshoot, and whether they are inclusive, expanding the circle of who is cared for and who has a voice, from marginalized people to non-human beings and future generations. These axes reveal four broad orientations — inclusive but extractive, exclusive and extractive, exclusive but green, and inclusive and green — with the last offering the only truly sustainable, win-win path forward. By adopting this updated map, we can better see through superficial politics, focus on what matters, and orient ourselves toward futures where both people and the Earth can thrive.

We all use mental maps to think about political parties and their policies.

I like to ask myself some important questions about these maps.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What mental models do I use to organize political parties and their policies?

What do these mental maps say about me? How do they shape my views and behavior? What do I see because of them? What do they hide?

Are they aligned with what I really value? Are there models that better fit what’s important to me?

THE LEFT-RIGHT AXIS

For a couple of hundred years now, we have used a left-right axis to understand politics.

This comes from the seating arrangement in the French National Assembly after the 1789 storming of the Bastille at the beginning of the French Revolution. Those who defended the monarchy, church, and aristocracy sat on the right. Those who wanted radical change sat on the left.

This was more broadly adopted in Europe in the 1800s, when right came to mean defense of privilege, and left meant reform, redistribution, and often a more inclusive democracy.

THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE LEFT-RIGHT AXIS

As with any map, the left-right axis has shortcomings.

It reflects the political situation of France in the late 1700s where the focus was on tradition versus revolution, and the social distribution of money and resources.

That’s why others have used other axes, often in addition to the left-right one. For instance, progressive-conservative (more about openness to change), urban-rural, secular-religious, globalist-nationalist, libertarian-authoritarian (the Political Compass), and so on.

So the question is: What’s different today from revolutionary France? What’s important to us in our world?

GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT

These days, our overarching crisis comes from global ecological overshoot. We are spending far more natural resources than this living planet can replenish. Our collective ecological footprint is larger than this planet. That means unraveling of ecological systems and eventual ecological collapse, and with it, civilizational collapse. We are on a path that’s ecocidal and suicidal.

So shouldn’t our political maps reflect that urgency?

THE GREEN AXIS

In my mental maps, the green axis is essential.

Do the policies take our ecological reality into account?

Do they come from an understanding of the urgency of our situation?

Do they reflect the understanding of a need for a profound transformation of our civilization?

Are they regenerative?

THE INCLUSIVITY AXIS

I also use another mental dimension, the inclusivity axis.

How inclusive are the policies? How wide is the circle of WE?

How wide is the circle of those we aim to benefit through the policies? A segment of our own society? All of our society? Everyone globally? Non-human beings and species? Ecosystems? Rivers? Future generations? Who are harmed by our policies? Who is left out?

How wide is the circle of those that have a voice in the forming and implementation of these policies? How deep is our democracy? Do we include all of society? Passively, by allowing them to vote? Actively, by seeking out the voices that are often quiet, including of those who are marginalized? Do we give a voice to non-human beings, rivers, and mountains? Do we give a voice to future generations?

This dimension is perhaps most similar to the partnership-domination spectrum from Rianne Eisler, rephrased as power-with and power-over by Starhawk.

Unlike the libertarian–authoritarian axis, inclusivity is not primarily about state control vs. personal freedom. It’s about who is included in our circle of concern and who has a voice.

IT MAY SEEM NAIVE

As I write this, I have a mental image of people dismissing this as naive.

And yet, is it naive?

To me, it seems more naive to use political maps that belong to the 1700s and a very different world than the one we live in. It seems naive to ignore Earth’s limits and pretend it has infinite resources for us to use, and infinite capacity to absorb the waste of civilization. And it seems naive to continue on a path we know leads to ecological and civilizational collapse.

As I and many others see it, we have two main tasks ahead of us:

Reducing our collective ecological footprint, which means a thorough redesign of our civilization – from our basic assumptions about the world (separation vs interconnectedness) to education, technology, energy production and use, and every other aspect.

Creating a deeper democracy. One that actively seeks win-win solutions that benefit as many as possible, including non-human beings and species, ecosystems, and future generations. And one that actively seeks input from as many voices as possible, including the same.

And those two go hand-in-hand. We cannot have one without the other. To gain support for regenerative policies, we need the support of the people. They need to know it benefits them as well. They need to be heard and included.

GREEN-INCLUSIVITY MODEL

I made a simple diagram of the green-inclusivity map of politics and policies.

It doesn’t cover everything that’s important, of course, but it does cover two essential dimensions.

The horizontal/green axis shows how green a policy is, or how green a political party tends to be. At the far left is explicitly anti-green policies. To the far right, deeply regenerative policies.

The vertical/inclusive axis shows how inclusive it is. At the bottom are strongly exclusive (authoritarian) policies. At the top are deep democracy policies.

That gives us the following quadrants:

  • A. Inclusive but extractive
  • B. Exclusive & extractive
  • C. Exclusive but green
  • D. Inclusive & green

FAMILIAR POLITICAL PARTIES

I’ll take some examples to see where they fall in this map. First, some familiar political parties.

In the U.S., Democrats are moderately inclusive within the human sphere, although still in the pockets of Big Money and only marginally green. Trump Republicans would be quite far down on both dimensions. They want to exclude minorities from voting through gerrymandering and other policies, and their policies are often explicitly anti-green.

In Norway, the Green Party are somewhere in the top right quadrant. They are averagely democratic, and somewhat include the imagined views of non-human beings and species and future generations. They are about as green as any political party can be in our society. In both areas, I imagine they would go much further towards the top right if it was realistic in our society. Most other parties are middling in terms of democracy, and somewhere on the left side on the green axis.

EXAMPLES BY QUADRANT

And then, some examples of each quadrant, including some especially clear ones.

A. Inclusive but extractive. In this quadrant, we find 20th-century welfare states, or liberal parties that champion human rights but rely on extractive growth. This liberal orientation can be strongly inclusive within the human sphere, which brings them somewhat into the inclusivity side of the map.

That said, it’s difficult to imagine an orientation that’s deeply inclusive while also strongly extractive. In this map, if you are highly inclusive, it means you bring in the voices of the non-human and future generations, and that means you’ll have to be at least somewhat green.

B. Exclusive & extractive. Authoritarian regimes are often also extractive. As mentioned above, the Trump Republicans unfortunately fall into this category. Historical fascist regimes, under Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet, and others, were even lower on the inclusivity scale and equally extractive.

C. Exclusive but green. Ecofascism is an interesting example of a dangerous orientation that’s at the low extreme of one axis and the high extreme of the other. We’ve seen only hints of this so far, which is for the best, though the risk may grow as ecological collapse deepens. We may, for instance, see forms of ecofascism emerge among some of the super-wealthy. Among existing ecofacists, for instance in Eastern Europe, I get the impression that they claim to be green without actually being very green.

Some forms of fortress conservation is another example for this quadrant, where nature is preserved at the expense of the indigenous population.

D. Inclusive & green. Green parties are mainly in this quadrant, as mentioned earlier, although they can typically go much further on both dimensions. They are limited by the realities of our current society, culture, and civilization. Bhutan is likely here too, reasonably green and inclusive, a somewhat flawed democracy although young and aspiring.

The imagined future society in my own Long Journey Home project would be in this top right quadrant, and further along than just about any political party today. They strive to be deeply democratic and actively engage marginalized people and include the voices of non-human beings and species, rivers, mountains, oceans, and future generations (they give voice to them, as best as they can, in councils, community decisions, and the law and legal system). This society is also regenerative and deeply green.

REFLECTIONS ON THE QUADRANTS

The top left (inclusive/extractive) and bottom right (exclusive/green) are, in some ways, mirror images of each other. They are both high in one dimension and low at the other. As I see it, they are both self-contradictory. One cares for people but not so much for the living systems we are part of or future generations. The other cares for our living systems, but less for (other) people.

Both come from a zero-sum orientation. To make life better for people today, we need to extract natural resources. To protect our living systems, we need to oppress people.

The bottom left (exclusive/extractive) and top right (inclusive/green) quadrants are, at least, more internally consistent.

The exclusive/extractive quadrant is a kind of lose-lose quadrant. Most people lose, and our living systems lose. Just a very few benefit from it, and only in a narrow sense and in the short term.

The inclusive/green quadrant is a win-win quadrant. Since it’s inclusive, it does depend on people wanting it and that’s its weakness. If people want it, that’s also its strength. It’s the only one that’s sustainable both socially and ecologically, as long as people want it.

Looking at the few examples I placed in the diagram, I wonder if more examples would create a pattern similar to a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for stars (!) – a diagonal band across the chart, with a few outliers.

THE TOP SECTION OF THE DIAGRAM

I mentioned briefly that it’s difficult for me to find examples for the top of the diagram from current politics, whether for the left or right side of the diagram.

On the left side, it’s because none are as inclusive as they can be in terms of including voices for non-human beings, ecosystems, and future generations. (In practice, it would be someone speaking for them, and their rights embedded in enforced law.) Current parties and policies are, at most, inclusive within the human realm, and that brings them only up to the middle or just above.

On the right side, it’s because none are as green as they can be in terms of working for a thorough transformation of our society, culture and civilization, and creating deeply regenerative versions of these. I assume many Greens want this and have it as a vision, but it’s not yet realistic in our society and culture.

Some do write, speak, and do work on these topics, and live it in their own lives and in smaller groups. They fit higher up. Some examples are Arne Næss with his Deep Ecology, Joanna Macy, ecovillages, people working with deep democracy models, and so on.

A FEW MORE THOUGHTS

I first called this article A politics of oneness. That’s what it is, of course. A wish to create a regenerative and inclusive society grows out of recognizing our interconnectedness. We are all local and temporary expressions of the living system we call Earth. Our own health and well-being, and even our existence, depends on a thriving social and ecological whole.

Our old maps were useful, and now they hide what matters most. A politics that ignores ecology and excludes voices drives us toward collapse. A politics that is both green and inclusive gives us a chance to thrive. Our political maps need to reflect this reality.

These dimensions don’t capture everything, but they highlight what matters most in our time. They show us whether our politics align with the living systems we depend on, and how wide our circle of concern reaches. They help us cut through superficial politics, focus on what truly matters, and create a future where life can thrive.

WHO IS THIS FOR?

Who are these kinds of updated political maps for?

I imagine some groups will resonate with it, especially people who are into sustainability, systems views, and so on. They will at least understand it, although I am sure they have their own views and see inevitable shortcomings of this and similar models. (Spiral Dynamics Green and second tier.)

People who have a modern mainstream mindset may not see the need for such a model. It may seem naive, hippieish, idealistic, and so on. To speak to this group, emphasizing the science and the pragmatics of it may be important. We are in ecological overshoot, which has dramatic consequences, and this is a framework we need to include to understand politics, society, and our economy. By exploring these kinds of maps, and taking these kinds of concerns into account, you can be ahead of the competition. (Spiral Dynamics Orange.)

People who are traditionalists and religious will likely see these maps as irrelevant to their lives. To speak to these groups, it may be good to emphasize that the aim is to care for God’s creation, family, community, and our children and their children. It’s about creating a world where people are taken care of. (Spiral Dynamics Blue.)

Of course, even by adapting the language and speaking to their values, only a few will likely be interested. That’s fine. That’s how the world works.

A NOTE ON AI USE IN THIS ARTICLE

I used AI to summarize the article, which is the first paragraph. Otherwise, I used AI minimally for feedback of the kind you would receive from an editor.

Why am I fascinated by these topics?

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Why am I fascinated by these topics – the ones I write about here?

Why have I been fascinated by them since my mid-teens?

I could say something impersonal about it. For instance, I see them as important and often overlooked. That’s true enough. I see them as important, and the reason I keep exploring them is partly that not too many do.

The real answers, as usual, are much more intimate, personal, and interesting, and although there is an essence that’s the same for all of them, the answer for each topic also has its own flavor.

AWAKENING

Why am I interested in awakening? After all, I grew up in an agnostic/atheist family and culture, and still socially often label myself an atheist. I don’t see it as particularly noble to be interested in some of the topics of religions, considering how religions have often been used to justify dominance and different forms of marginalization and violence. Spirituality also doesn’t have a very favorable image, considering how it’s often used to indulge in fantasies and as an escape.

The answer is the oneness shift that happened when this human self was sixteen. In spite of labeling himself an atheist, and having little more than disdain for spirituality and religions, there was a oneness shift.

The oneness I am noticed itself, and that all content of experience to me happens within and as the oneness I am. That turned everything upside down and inside out, and thoroughly changed not only perception but the life of this human self in the world.

The answer to why I am interested in the topic is that I had to learn to navigate this terrain. I had to learn to clarify, deepen, invite and allow my human self to realign within it, and so on. That’s an infinitely long process, and even some decades later, I am still at the very beginning of it.

For years, I explored it on my own since I lived in a small town in Norway before internet and couldn’t find anyone who talked about this terrain in books or in person. That was a blessing, although also lonely at a human level.

Later, I found others who did talk about it, although often through layers of culture and sometimes assumptions. (Mystics from different traditions, Zen.) And later again, in my thirties, I finally found someone who talked about it more directly and clearly – especially Adyashanti, Douglas Harding, and Byron Katie. (These are contemporaries to me, and from a similar cultural background, so to me, they speak clearly and directly.)

HEALING

Why am I interested in healing? It’s because I need it.

I have trauma and wounds I wish to find healing for.

I have a chronic illness I wish to learn to live better with, and – if possible – also invite in healing for.

SOCIAL CHANGE

Why am I interested in social change, in creating a more life-centered civilization?

It’s because I wish it for myself.

I wish to live in a more life-centered and regenerative inner society, and that’s reflected in a wish for an outer society like that.

I wish to live in a society that is more life-centered because it’s more comfortable for me.

THE FAR FUTURE

Why am I interested in imagining possible futures?

More specifically, why did I start the Long Journey Home project?

It’s because imagining a civilization I wish to see is easier when I imagine it in the far future. If I only focus on today, my mind limits itself with ideas of what’s realistic. In the far future, just about anything is imaginable.

The contrast between this imagined future and now helps me shed light on our culture and civilization and how it’s internalized in me.

Mainly, it helps me clarify what I wish to see in the world, find it in me and the world, and live some of it here and now. It helps me change the culture and civilization internalized in me and reflected in my life.

REGENERATION

Why am I passionate about regeneration? Why do I write about it, and why do I have my own regeneration project in the Andes?

It’s partly because *I* need to regenerate. I need to heal and come to life. I am harmed by this culture and civilization, just like most of us are, and this living planet is.

It’s also because I am part of this larger living system, what happens to this living system happens to me, it’s severely degraded, so it only makes sense to encourage and bring in regeneration of this living system.

THE ESSENCE

So what’s the shared essence in all of this?

The essence is that the topics are personal and intimate to me, and something I deeply wish.

I need to learn to navigate my nature recognizing itself.

I need healing at many levels.

I deeply wish to live in a different inner and outer society.

I need the perspective from an imagined far future to more clearly see what’s here.

I need regeneration – of me and the larger whole I am part of.

It’s not for any abstract or noble reason. It’s far more close to home and practical.

Flood prevention & win-win solutions

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In the news today is a flood story from Texas where a river went over its banks due to heavy rain, leading to loss of life and a great deal of damage.

The news reports mainly focus on the damage and the lack of warning, some on climate change, and less on other equally important underlying causes and solutions.

ECOSYSTEM DEGRADATION

Climate change does play a role in this, of course. Increased heat (energy) in the atmosphere leads to more extreme weather, including heavier rainfall.

Still, in many cases, the main cause of disastrous flooding is not climate change itself. It’s degraded ecosystems.

Degraded ecosystems are unable to effectively deal with the inevitable occasional heavy rainfall. They make heavy rain into a problem instead of a resource.

ECOSYSTEM REGENERATION

The solution is ecosystem regeneration. Restore rivers and creeks – through porous stone dams and native vegetation along the banks – so they don’t go dry. Restore the flood plains. Restore the native vegetation in the whole area, the natural layer of mulch, and the soil, so water can slow down and absorb into the ground.

Do this in all public spaces. Encourage it in private spaces, including gardens and farms. (Through training, making plants available, help with the work, subsidies, tax cuts, and so on.) Remove any unnecessary asphalt and replace with native vegetation, or at the very least porous paving.

Install food forests wherever possible, to provide food for animals and the community.

WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS

This helps prevent flooding, makes heavy rain into a resource instead of a problem, and it benefits us in innumerable other ways. It provides habitat and food for others in the web of life we are part of. It provides food for us. It enhances our well-being. It improves the quality of the community. It reduces our ecological footprint. (Which is crucial in our age of global ecological overshoot.)

Also, in terms of climate change, ecosystem regeneration and reducing our ecological footprint are essential parts of the solution.

It’s a win-win-win solution and it’s very doable.

WHAT’S REQUIRED

What’s required is collective will, and perhaps a shift out of a zero-sum to a win-win mindset, and a shift from a view of separation to a view of connection.

Our current modern communities are largely a result of a zero-sum mindset. We use solutions that harm the web of life we are part of. And this is also tied to a view of separation. We see ourselves separate from the web of life, so we don’t care much what happens to it.

The reality is that we are all part of the same seamless web of life and living planet. What happens to the wider web of life happens to us. Win-win solutions are the only ones that make sense in this reality, especially when it comes to how we collectively organize ourselves.

At the center of our civilization is an illusion, and reality reminds us – including through this kind of flooding.

Read More

Video: How an Abandoned Village was Reborn in the Spanish Desert

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“Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys to Southern Spain to visit the restored village of La Junquera and the world’s first Ecosystem Restoration Community, Camp Altiplano. We meet the movement’s founder, John D Liu, and examine the destructive effects of industrial monoculture Almond orchards and the innovative agroforestry systems being developed in this high arid plateau.”

The right side of history: What is it? What will future generations see as the right side of history?

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When I hear the phrase the right side of history, it brings up a few questions.

What we see as the right side of history obviously depends on who, where, and when we are.

We tend to use the phrase about anything that contributes to creating a world that works better for all of us. Anything that moves in the direction of widening circles of inclusivity, widening circle of “us”, and so on.

Why? Mainly, because it aligns with the values of the ones who tend to use the phrase – Western educated liberal people.

I see it that way too, so considering that inevitable bias…

What may future generations see as the right side of history when they look back to our time? And why?

GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT & CREATING A REGENERATIVE CIVILIZATION

I imagine they will see one issue – global ecological overshoot – as the primary one.

We live in a civilization with an assumption of separation at its center.

We assume that humans are separate from the web of life. That we can externalize cost to other people, the rest of the web of life, and future generations, and that it won’t come back to bite us. That Earth’s resources are infinite and has infinite capacity to regenerate. That humans somehow, intrinsically, are more valuable than the rest of the web of life. And so on.

This has led to a global human civilization that has an ecological footprint larger than Earth and lives in global ecological overshoot. This is similar to living on a savings account. It looks fine until we reach the bottom and our lifestyle comes crashing down. In our case, globally, we are in the bottom layer and it’s our civilization that will come crashing down.

Actions that (a) tries to stop the destruction, (b) works on creating and living from a more life-centered worldview, or (c) creates and lives life-centered alternatives tend to be on the right side of history.

Future generations will very likely see this as being on the right side of history. (Assuming there will be more future generations, which is not a given.)

The ones most clearly on the right side of history are the ones who (a) go to the essence of the problem which is a civilization and system built around the assumption of separation, (b) recognize that the remedy is a thorough and profound transformation of our civilization, and (c) actively work on this and live the alternatives.

Why will future generations likely see this as being on the right side of history? Because this is not only sane, it’s what creates a better life – or the possibility for life – for those future generations.

This is an example of an issue that most today will agree with in a general way, and yet few realize the gravity of the situation, how profound the changes need to be, and are actually doing it in their own life.

When later generations look back and sees something as on the “right side of history”, that’s how it often seems to be. A good number of people may have sympathized with it in a general way, and a much smaller number actively lived it and brought it into society.

OTHER EXAMPLES

What can be more important than preserving the web of life that we are part of and depend on for our life?

That said, I imagine future generations may see some of the following as being on the right side of history…

Rights of ecosystems, non-human beings, and future generations

Considering the interests of future generations, I imagine they will see any promotion of the rights of ecosystems, non-human beings, and future generations as being on the right side of history.

In our civilization, built on the idea of separation, the rights of individuals and corporations are at the center. Individuals are seen as the default legal unit, and corporations as almost sacred in an economy that assumes unlimited natural resources, the rights of humans to use everything in the commons of life for themselves, and that we can get away with destroying the web of life we are part of.

In reality, if we are to preserve what’s most precious to us – our lives, the lives of future generations, and what’s valuable in our civilization (science, art, etc.) – we need to give the rest of the web of life equal rights. We need to give legal rights to rivers, mountains, the ocean, ecosystems, species, and future generations.

That’s the only way we can protect what’s most valuable to us. That’s the only way we can protect the web of life we are part of, depend on, and that gives life to everyone and everything valuable to us.

Regeneration & growing non-toxic food

One of the things we can do to slow or reverse our global ecological overshoot is regeneration – of ecosystems, oceans, forests, meadows, agricultural fields, and our parks and gardens.

For this to happen at a global scale, we need a global and thorough transformation of our civilization and the basic assumptions of our civilization. That’s a tall order, and although it needs to happen soon if we are to avoid an even more massive ecological (and civilizational) crash than we already are in, it’s unlikely to happen. It’s not something we can wait for.

So what can we do – as individuals, families, communities, and organizations?

One of the most powerful and rewarding things we can do is regeneration. We can engage in regeneration of our veranda, garden, local parks, rural land, or whatever we have to work with.

If it’s our own land, we can do it on our own, and if it’s communal land, we’ll need to find partners. Coalition building is vital, and it’s also good to start small and do it in small steps – for learning, to create something of better quality, and to gain more support.

Staying close to science

Science is a method for learning about the world, and it is, in a very real way, organized common sense.

What’s produced by this method, the content of science, is always changing, up for revision, and reflects our civilization and general worldview.

The way science is used is yet another thing, and depends on our civilization and society. In our case, with our civilization built on the idea of separation, it’s often used in ways that harm society and life.

That’s not the fault of science, it’s the fault of our civilization.

I imagine future generations will see those who stay close to science, especially in their approach to learning about the world, as on the right side of history. They will likely also see those who criticize the way science is often used in our society as on the right side of history.

Not falling for conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories are sometimes, at least partially and indirectly, rooted in reality.

Whether they are or not, they are often a distraction from what we know is happening and what’s far more serious than the topic of the vast majority of conspiracy theories.

What we know is happening is global ecological overshoot. We live in a civilization organized around the idea of separation. This system externalizes cost to the wider web of life and future generations, creates vast inequality among humans, allows huge numbers of people to die from preventable and treatable diseases, and so on. And it’s far more serious – for us, the web of life, and future generations – than the topic of most if not nearly all conspiracy theories.

We know from history that conspiracy theories flourish in times of uncertainty, like today. They are a way for people to feel they understand what’s going on, to feel smart, to have a place to put their fear and anger, and so on.

I imagine future generations will see most if not all the conspiracy theories flourishing today as a distraction from far more serious and immediate issues.

Empires

The US, Russia, and China are all empires, and they all share many of the same (unsavory) characteristics and power-over dynamics that harm their own citizens, their neighbors and/or people in other places in the world, and the web of life.

The US has historically damaged both their own citizens (lack of social safety nets, huge wealth inequality, etc.) and people around the world (toppling democracies, wars). Russia has damaged their own citizens (repressive) and their neighbors, including through their invasion of Ukraine. China is damaging their own citizens (repressive), and especially ethnic minorities. One is not very much better than another. They are all empires – or want to be empires – and do what empires do.

I imagine future generations will see those who focus on the harmful characteristics of all empires as on the right side of history. (Not those who take sides, for one and against another.)

Israel & Palestine

It’s similar with Israel and Palestine. I imagine future generations won’t see those who automatically take sides as on the right side of history.

The situation is far more complex. Israel acts on trauma. Palestinians fight for their survival. And as the UN and innumerable aid and human rights organizations say, what has happened in Gaza for decades are systematic human rights violations. It has been a slow genocide for decades, and it has dramatically intensified over recent months.

Israel is doing to others what was previously done to them. They are acting on, continuing, and passing on the trauma to new generations. Hurt people hurt people.

I imagine future generations will understand both sides.

I imagine they will also find it baffling that the international society didn’t take a stance against Israel in their human rights violations and genocide. How could they witness perpetuation of pain, suffering, and trauma without doing anything?

What happens to the insects happens to us

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What happens to the web of life happens to us, and what we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves.

We are part of one seamless living system, so it’s inevitable.

INSECT COLLAPSE

I am in Norway these days, at my childhood home, and I am reminded of one aspect of this.

What happens to the insect world happens to us.

When I grew up here, the yard was full of insects of many different kinds. We had ladybugs, lacewings, all kinds of spiders, butterflies, ants, bumblebees, wasps, swarms of tiny flies, and so on. We had many kinds of birds, including large flocks of swallows.The yards in the neighborhood, and in Norway in general, were full of trees, bushes, flowers, and wild patches and edges.

These days, the yards are manicured lawns. Most of the trees, bushes, and flowers are gone. Almost all the insects are gone, apart from the occasional bumblebee or wasp. The only birds left are a few magpies and pigeons, and even those are almost gone. We have the doors and windows open during the summer, and no insects come inside because there are none outside.

This collapse has happened over the last few decades, with a marked drop even over the last ten years.

Most likely, this is happening through a combination of habitat loss (less nature, more houses, roads, and manicured lawns), pesticides used in agriculture and yards, and a few other factors.

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

What happens to the insects happens to us, so where is the outrage? Where is the urgency?

Why do people seem so complacent about it?

Why don’t people throw their robot lawn movers in the garbage, and create wild, alive, and beautiful natural gardens – full of trees, bushes, and wildflowers?

Why do they choose to buy and eat food grown with toxins and support that industry?

I am genuinely baffled by it.

COMPLACENCY AND THE BANALITY OF EVIL

Where is the outrage over this civilization that’s not only ecocidal, but suicidal?

How can people continue to live as if nothing is happening?

How can they continue to vote for the same old parties that don’t take this seriously?

How can they continue to focus on the next vacation, the next dinner with friends, the next movie to watch, when the world is collapsing around them?

How can they continue to buy food grown with toxins, maintain a green desert around their house, buy things they don’t need, and so on, when this is how the web of life collapses?

This is the banality of evil in our age. This is good people and good citizens doing what’s expected of them, and doing what they expect of themselves, and actively being part of the collapse of life.

SOME ANSWERS

I have explored this in other articles, and really since my teens in the ’80s, and I am still baffled.

At the same time, there are some answers.

It has to do with…

Shifting baselines, and getting used to the gradually eroded web of life.

Social expectations, norms, how we think we should live, and what we imagine the neighbors think.

Seeing others appearing to not take it seriously, so we think we don’t need to take it seriously.

Politicians thinking in four-year time spans and the next election.

Assuming others will take care of it, now or later.

Assuming it’s happening “out there” separate from us, and won’t impact us too much.

Identity and not wanting to become like those green party folks, lefties, hippies, or tree huggers. Not wanting to admit they may have been onto something. (Is pride or survival more important?)

A system and civilization set up this way, which means that doing it differently takes effort, and changing the system takes numbers, effort, a sense of urgency, and maybe an even more obvious collapse.

A civilization with an assumption of separation at its center. We are separate from nature and the web of life. Nature is here as a resource for us. We can export the consequences of our behavior and civilization, and it’s gone. We are inherently more important than the rest of the web of life. If we win, the rest of life loses.

A civilization and system where what’s easy and attractive to do, as organizations and individuals, is often inherently destructive to the web of life.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can create a system that comes from an understanding of the web of life and seeks partnership and win-win solutions. The unfortunate news is that changing requires a collective will to change it, as well as diagnosing the problem correctly.

WHAT CAN I DO?

So what can we do?

Here is some of what I am doing.

I recognize that the problem is systemic, it’s a civilizational problem. It’s not (primarily) about corporations, greed, or any one particular group. It’s about all of us.

It’s about our fundamental mindset and assumptions of separation.

I buy organic as much as I can, even if it’s more expensive (another sign of the fundamentally flawed priorities in our society). I eat low on the food chain. If I can, I buy from local farmers.

I have educated myself on the ecological footprint, global ecological overshoot, and our idea of separation and its history (going back to the agricultural revolution).

I have educated myself on a simple and powerful framework to understand what’s happening: domination vs partnership orientation, power-over vs power-with, and the consequences of each for us, society, and the web of life.

I connect with like-minded people in real life and online.

I vote for political parties that take this seriously. In my case, I vote for and am a member of the Green Party in Norway.

We have 15 hectares in the Andes that we are regenerating, rewilding, and protecting, and we are developing a food forest around the houses.

Here in Norway, during our short stay, we are letting the lawn grow wild in May to encourage the wildflowers so they can feed the few insects left.

If I lived in Norway with a garden, I would do something similar to what we are doing the in the Andes. I would create a food forest – with native flowering trees and bushes, fruit trees and berry bushes, wildflowers and more – to feed wildlife and us.

The photo is from our garden / food forest in the Andes.

Dream: Giving some of my tools as prizes to raise money for regeneration

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I give some of my new and high-quality gardening tools as prizes to raise money for regeneration, partly because I don’t need them so much. I have more of the same.

WAKING LIFE

I spent some time the day before communicating with someone who has a nursery near our place in the Andes, to see what she has and what’s suitable for Finca Milagros. It was a bit of a process to identify the most suitable plants for the food forest and the general regeneration project1. I absolutely love this process of planning and selecting plants.

I also ordered some Fiskars tools for the Finca. I love those tools. At the same time, I am aware I now have a few duplicates of the most useful ones, which seems both slightly extravagant and also prudent since it’s always good to have a few extra of the most used tools.

In the dream, I gave away some duplicate tools to raise money for regeneration. I am aware that I am spending quite a few of my resources – time, energy, money – for that food forest and regeneration project.

Seeing it like this, it seems that the dream just reflects a few things in my life the day before – the food forest and regeneration focus, the extra tools, and giving a good amount of resources to the project.

IN ME

At the same time, the dream elements and dynamics are also all in me.

I am, metaphorically, converting human-made tools (thoughts) into a more thriving and abundant living system. For me, that’s a good use of thoughts. They are in service of life.

In this case, they are in service of regeneration – of the process of regenerating myself, this particular living bodymind system that’s part of the larger web of life.

Tools (thoughts) are converted to money (energy) which are converted to life (aliveness, richness).

How is that happening? By recognizing thoughts as questions, pointers, and guides. By exploring the Long Journey Home Project, which helps me imagine – and find in my own life – a more deeply regenerative culture and orientation. By guiding me to do Qigong, breath explorations, energy healing, noticing my nature, and so on. By reminding me to connect with my inner grown-up in interactions with my wife. By allowing spontaneous therapeutic tremoring. By engaging in tonglen, ho’o, and other explorations. In each of these ways, thoughts are in service of the regeneration of this living system (this bodymind) that’s part of this larger living system (Earth, Existence).

The dream comes from a quiet sense of abundance, and that’s something I notice right now in my inner life.

NOTES

1) I ended up with a few of each of these: Marañón/Cashew, Higo/Fig, Uva/Grape, Samán/Rain Tree, Mermelada/Native fruit shrub, Cayeno/Hibiscus, Neem, Nogal Cafetero/Lowland Walnut, Chicalá/Yellow Elder, Pomaroso nativo/Native Rose Apple, Guamo Cuper/Ice Cream Bean.

The photo is the view from the big house on our regeneration project in the Andes. It’s a view that’s always, moment to moment, different from how it was and how it will be.

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Regenerating the land and people

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I saw this article in the New York Times – At This Clinic in Hawaii, Nature Is the Medicine.

It’s on a topic I have been passionate for a while: Regeneration of the land and people in the same process.

We are all damaged by a particular version of domination culture, one that has its roots in the agricultural revolution, and one that assumes separation, unlimited Earth, and so on.

We as individuals and humans are damaged by it, and the web of life we are part of is damaged by it.

So it only makes sense that the healing involves all of us.

We are still in the very early phase of regenerating Finca Milagros. Our focus is still on developing the basic infrastructure (solar, rainwater collection etc.), we need to rebuild the first small house, we are feeding the soil and developing the food forest around the houses, an organization planted 2000 native trees (20 different types) in the “wilderness” zone last year, we are developing connections with neighbors and other regenerators in the area, and so on.

Already, it’s very clear that the regeneration of Finca Milagros is also a regeneration of us. We feel deeply nourished by being there, being part of that recovering ecosystem, and doing what we can to help it recover. We are all recovering from this civilization and its separation mindset.

As the basics are in place, and things settle bit (if they ever will!), we are hoping to develop a community area. We already have a place set aside for it. It may include a large caney (tall with roof and no or one or two partial walls) for workshops, guests, a small kitchen, and so on, and also a camping area for visitors.

It may be a space for trainings, education, workshops, healing, and so on. And the focus will likely be on regeneration of the land, ourselves, or both.

For instance, we could combine Breema bodywork classes (simple, deeply nurturing), group healings (Vortex Healing), regeneration education, hands-on work on the land, and so on.

Even without that space, we can still organize different events – group healings, Breema workshops, hands-on regeneration work, regeneration education, and so on.

These are just some visions at this point, so we’ll see how it all unfolds.

Update: The day after writing this, I saw another mainstream newspaper article – in The Guardian – on the same topic. It seems to be in the zeitgeist, which is understandable. Nature nurture: the Devon estate where rewilding and mental health go hand in hand. It happens to be from Totnes which I love, and where I lived for six months some years back.

A dream for another time & dreams for this time

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A friend of mine (JH) talked about her past vision for her life. She said it was a dream for another time.

PERSONAL DREAMS FOR ANOTHER TIME & DREAMS FOR THIS TIME

It’s a good phrase. Some of my dreams were dreams for another time as well – of having children, doing a PhD, studying at CIIS, and so on. They are no longer my active dreams or the ones I engage with. They were for another time, another set of circumstances, and another person.

For this time, this set of circumstances, and this person, I have other dreams – of regeneration, community, developing a food forest, and so on.

These dreams are not new. Since my teens, I have been passionate about sustainability, community living, permaculture, a more life-centered way of life, and more. Because of my life now, these particular ones have come into the foreground and other dreams have faded into the background.

COLLECTIVE DREAMS FOR ANOTHER TIME & DREAMS FOR THIS TIME

It’s similar for us collectively. To me, so many of our collective dreams seems to be for another time and another set of circumstances.

The dreams tied to the domination and separation aspects of our civilization are, really, for another time.

These are dreams telling us that business as usual is OK. We can live as if our impact on the web of life has no consequences for ourselves. We find security through accumulation. Meaning comes primarily through career, family, or recreational activities. Success is having a house with a lawn. And so on.

In an age of global ecological overshoot and collapse, these are dreams for another time.

What are the dreams for this time?

Obviously, this will say as much or more about me as they do about our collective situation, but here are some of what comes up for me:

Dreams of community, strong community bonds, and mutual support. Dreams of regeneration of ecosystems – of lawns, parks, farmland, ocean ecosystems, plantation forests, deserts, and so on. Dreams of finding meaning through engagement in creating a regenerative civilization. Dreams of regeneration of ourselves and our communities. Dreams of creating a civilization – in ourselves, our life, and our network – that takes the best from domination and partnership cultures and orientations.

These are hopeful dreams that show us the way out of our situation. These are dreams we can engage with and bring into life, in whatever way is suitable to our situation. These are dreams that are profoundly meaningful, enriching, and nourishing, independent of whether they are implemented collectively or at a large scale.

Photo from Finca Milagros, the land we are stewards of / participants in / “owners” of in the Andes.

“I wonder if the fall of the Roman Empire was this stupid?”

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I have seen this quote on social media recently – and it applies to what’s happening in the US and to our civilization as a whole.

THE STUPIDITY OF WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE US

What’s happening in the US is clearly stupid. The majority of voters voted for a billionaire who is only interested in funnelling money and resources to himself and his wealthy friends at the expense of everyone else. They voted for someone who clearly stated he would transform the US into an authoritarian and fascist regime. They voted for someone whose buddies developed Project 2025 which would remove social safety nets, erode democracy, and in general make life worse for ordinary people.

They voted for who promised he would go after his perceived enemies, isolate the US from former allies, erode education and research (allowing other countries to take the lead), sell off public land to private companies so they can make profit out of it, and so on.

People voted for someone they knew would make life worse for them. At least, they could easily have known if they had taken five minutes to look into it. (As many point out, the MAGA movement has the characteristics of a cult, and cult followers are not known for critical and rational analysis.)

THE STUPIDITY OF WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD

What’s happening in the world is equally stupid. We are in global ecological overshoot. We are spending far more resources than Earth can replenish, and we are eroding the capacity of Earth to replenish.

We have a civilization that assumes infinite resources on a finite planet, and it assumes separation while we know that what happens to the web of life happens to us. We have a civilization that’s out of alignment with reality in obvious and fundamental ways.

Not only that, most of us seem oblivious to this – at least in our actions. We still vote for the same politicians. We still live as if nothing is happening. We still have monoculture gardens instead of nature gardens or food forests. We still eat food grown with poison.

This is ecocidal and suicidal.

And that’s clearly stupid, especially as there are workable alternatives.

There are ways where we can take ecological realities into account in our worldview, economics, and all other aspects of our civilization. We know how to develop a regenerative civilization where what’s easy and attractive in the short term helps Earth replenish itself and provide an abundance for us, wildlife, and future generations. We know how, we just need the collective will to make the changes.

Or, maybe, and maybe more likely, we need to live through the increasingly dramatic consequences of our current civilization, and nature will take care of the situation by reducing our numbers drastically. Will the ones who survive learn? And if they do, for how long? That’s the question.

THE GREAT FILTER

Why haven’t we found commonly accepted evidence for life other places in the universe? With so many solar systems, wouldn’t there be at least some civilizations we would recognize?

It may be that we are among the first. It may be that they are too far away. It may be that they have learned to not leak much energy out into the universe (radio signals etc.) so we haven’t detected them. It may be that we have just started to explore, so we’ll find them in the future. It may be that the timing is off – on a timeline that’s billion of years long. It may be that they don’t want us to find them.

Another possibility is the Great Filter. It may be that technologically advanced civilizations are inherently ecocidal and suicidal. Maybe advanced technology appears in separation and domination cultures that don’t have much ecological wisdom.

Or maybe, as I suspect, that’s mostly about us. It may or may not be something that typically happens to technologically civilizations in general, and it certainly is a big risk for our current human civilization.

Image created by me and Midjourney, inspired by Turner.

I asked AI about a deeply life-centered vision of the future

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I asked ChatGPT 4o about a deeply life-centered vision of the future, how we can live that in our lives now, an even more visionary vision of our more distant future, and a possibly more realistic shorter-term scenario for humanity.

  1. A Deeply Life-Centered Human Civilization: A Vision of Regenerative Partnership Society
  2. How We Can Live This in Our Own Life Now
  3. A Vision of Humanity 2-300 Years in the Future: A Conscious Civilization in a Living Cosmos
  4. A Future 50 Years from Now: A Fractured World in the Wake of Collapse

A Deeply Life-Centered Human Civilization: A Vision of Regenerative Partnership Society

Core Principles

  • Interconnectedness: Every aspect of society recognizes the deep interdependence of all life, from individuals to ecosystems to planetary systems.
  • Regeneration Over Extraction: All human activity contributes to the regeneration of ecosystems, soil, water cycles, and biodiversity rather than depleting them.
  • Partnership Culture: Social structures are built on mutual care, deep democracy, and shared power, integrating the best from both partnership- and domination-based societies.
  • Deep Time Thinking: Every decision is made with the long-term health of future generations and the planet in mind.
  • Diversity and Resilience: Biocultural diversity is valued, ensuring that human cultures, languages, and ecosystems thrive in their uniqueness and interdependence.

Ecological and Technological Foundations

Regenerative Food Systems

  • Food forests, agroecology, and polycultures replace industrial agriculture.
  • Wild areas are integrated into human settlements, supporting biodiversity.
  • Every community has localized food production, eliminating food deserts.
  • Soil is seen as a sacred commons, enriched through composting, cover cropping, and holistic grazing.
  • Oceans and waterways are restored through regenerative aquaculture and strict conservation policies.

Energy and Material Systems

  • Energy is sourced from decentralized, renewable systems (solar, wind, geothermal, micro-hydro).
  • Circular economies eliminate waste—products are designed to be repaired, repurposed, or biodegraded.
  • Biomimicry informs design, creating structures and tools that work with nature rather than against it.
  • Low-impact, locally sourced building materials (e.g., hempcrete, bamboo, mycelium-based structures) are standard.

Transportation and Infrastructure

  • Walkable, bike-friendly cities are the norm, minimizing reliance on cars.
  • Efficient public transportation (hyperloops, electric rail, shared autonomous vehicles) replaces private car ownership.
  • Natural corridors link human settlements, allowing wildlife to migrate freely.
  • Air travel is rare, reserved for critical travel, and powered by green hydrogen or advanced electric systems.

Social and Political Structures

Governance and Decision-Making

  • Deep democracy ensures all beings (human and non-human) have a voice through representative councils.
  • Participatory decision-making happens at local, bioregional, and global levels, blending direct democracy with wisdom councils.
  • Indigenous governance models are integrated, recognizing long-tested frameworks for land and social stewardship.
  • Restorative justice replaces punitive systems, focusing on healing and reintegration.
  • Political power is distributed rather than centralized, preventing corruption and authoritarianism.

Economy and Livelihoods

  • The economy is regenerative, measuring success through well-being indices rather than GDP.
  • Localized, cooperative economies prioritize community sufficiency over globalized profit motives.
  • Universal basic security (food, water, shelter, healthcare, education) ensures no one is left behind.
  • Lifelong education and apprenticeships replace rigid degrees, emphasizing holistic skills and adaptability.
  • Work is optional—people contribute based on passion, necessity, and community needs rather than economic coercion.

Health and Well-Being

  • Healthcare is holistic, integrating modern medicine with traditional healing practices.
  • Mental health is prioritized, with widespread access to community support, nature therapy, and contemplative practices.
  • Physical activity is woven into daily life—people walk, bike, garden, and engage in playful movement.
  • Death is integrated into life, with natural burial practices and cultural rituals that honor ancestors and cycles of renewal.

Cultural and Psychological Foundations

Education and Knowledge Sharing

  • Education is lifelong, curiosity-driven, and interdisciplinary.
  • Schools are replaced by learning hubs connected to nature and local crafts.
  • Deep history, planetary evolution, and ecological literacy are core curricula.
  • Storytelling, arts, and oral traditions thrive, transmitting wisdom across generations.

Spirituality and Meaning

  • No single religion dominates—spirituality is seen as personal, evolving, and diverse.
  • Practices like deep ecology, meditation, and animism are widespread, fostering reverence for life.
  • Rituals honor the turning of seasons, cycles of life and death, and the mysteries of existence.
  • Awe and wonder are cultivated through direct engagement with nature and the cosmos.

Media and Communication

  • News focuses on solutions, depth, and perspectives from multiple cultures and beings.
  • Social media fosters meaningful connection rather than addiction or manipulation.
  • Open-source information and radical transparency ensure access to knowledge for all.
  • Digital spaces emphasize slow, thoughtful engagement rather than rapid-fire consumption.

Global and Planetary Stewardship

Rewilding and Earth Healing

  • Large-scale ecological restoration projects revive degraded lands, bringing back forests, rivers, and wildlife corridors.
  • Humans live in bioregional harmony, each community adapted to their local ecosystem.
  • Cities are green, integrated with food forests, wetlands, and wild spaces.
  • Ocean sanctuaries allow marine ecosystems to recover, with minimal human interference.

Interplanetary Exploration

  • Space exploration follows ethical principles, ensuring that no new worlds are exploited.
  • The primary focus is on understanding, protecting, and learning from other planetary systems.
  • Energy and materials for off-world projects come from truly sustainable sources rather than extractive industries.

Relations with Non-Human Life

  • Legal personhood is granted to key ecosystems, ensuring protection under law.
  • Humans form partnerships with animals rather than exploiting them.
  • AI and technology serve as tools for life-centered goals rather than extractive profit motives.
  • Domesticated animals are treated as partners and family members, with no factory farming or exploitation.

Conclusion: The Evolution of Humanity
This civilization is not utopian in the traditional sense—it still has challenges, conflicts, and struggles. However, it is a society that actively works toward balance, adaptability, and deep care for life. It integrates the best of past cultures—both partnership and domination—while shedding what no longer serves. It embraces the unknown with curiosity rather than fear, evolving as an active participant in Earth’s ongoing story.

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When it comes to regeneration, a “more is better” mindset is not necessarily a bad thing

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A growth and “more is better” mindset has a bad reputation among many and for good reasons.

In our current system – a system that assumes a limitless Earth – growth and “more is better” are often destructive to the web of life we are part of.

And yet, growth and “more is better” is not inherently misguided, wrong, or destructive. In some contexts, it can be beneficial. It can support life.

I notice that with our young food forest, and my vision for regenerating the 15 hectares of Milagros, I definitely have a growth and “more is better” mindset. I even have a slight obsession with it.

I envision the land as a mature ecosystem full of life. I envision all the layers filled in – small and tall trees, bushes, shrubs, roots, vines, and so on. I envision it bringing an abundance of food for wildlife and humans. I envision healthy soil. I envision the rainwater draining into the soil, giving life to the whole ecosystem, and recharging the groundwater. I envision it creating a different microclimate, one that’s cooler and more humid. I envision it as a home for innumerable beings of all kinds from insects to reptiles to birds to possums to mammals.

I am always looking for more and different food-producing plants for our food forest close to the houses. I am thinking of ways to generate income so we can continue the process of regeneration, reforestation, and creating a food forest.

I definitely have a growth mindset when it comes to Milagros, and I definitely have a “more is better” view on it. Of course, the growth and the “more is better” orientation has to be ecologically sound and informed, and I think it largely is, although we still have a lot to learn.

The focus on growth and “more is better” will look different as the project evolves. Right now, we have a focus on basic reforestation in the “wilderness zone” of Milagros, and on building soil and creating diversity in the food forest close to the houses. We are finding sources for different plants. We plant and see how the different ones are doing. We are learning a lot. We are exploring different visions for the future.

As it all matures, the focus will likely be more on what’s missing and filling in the gaps. What natives don’t we have in the wilderness zone? What native food-producing trees and bushes can we encourage and include more of? What other food-producing plants, from anywhere in the world, can we include in the food forest? What new plants will do well now that it’s more mature, and the microclimate is different?

So is growth and “more is better” inherently bad or wrong? Not at all. We may think it is because we typically see it play itself out in our current system. Since this system is out of alignment with ecological realities, it very often is.

In another context, in a system or project that’s more ecologically sound, growth and “more is better” can be very valuable. It helps us regenerate and support nature in producing abundance for the benefit of all life – including us.

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The ancient roots and vital future of food forests

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When I am working with the food forest here on Milagros, I am aware of the connection with past and future generations.

WHAT IS A FOOD FOREST?

First, what is a food forest?

It’s a forest that produces food for wildlife and humans, and have some degree of human intervention.

That intervention can be minimal or extensive.

In some cases, we have an existing mature forest and we just encouarge certain types of plants, for instance by planting seeds or taking cuttings. This is what most of our ancestors did, to different extents.

In other cases, we have severely degraded land and create a food forest nearly from scratch, as we are doing in some areas here in Finca Milagros. Around the first house, the ground was barren apart from some trees. We left the trees and have improved the soil and planted in the barren areas.

Mostly, there is a combination of existing vegetation and intentional planting with the intention of mimicking – and creating – a healthy multi-layered forest ecosystem.

THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF FOOD FORESTS

It’s a good guess that our ancestors around the world often supported and encouraged forest plants that provided benfit for them, including food. If they found fruits, berries, and edible roots in the forest, why not plant the seeds and get more of them? Why not take some cuttings and plant them nearby?

Many if not most of the forests in the Americas were food forests, intentionally enhanced by humans encouraging the growth and spread of especially useful plants. It’s possible, or likely, that much of the biodiversity of the Amazon was encouraged and supported by humans.

In Europe, people planted fruit and nut trees and berry bushes in the forests and the edges of forests. (There are still examples of this in the forest I grew up next to in Norway, even if it’s largely a plantation forest now.)

In Asia and Africa, they have traditional multi-layered gardens and groves producing food for the community.

It makes sense to work in partnership with nature in this way. It’s relatively low effort and can yield an abundance of food. So it’s not surprising if it’s what people have been doing for thousands of years around the world.

DOMINATION & PARTNERSHIP CULTURES

With the agricultural revolution came the ability to own land, animals, things, money, and even people.

This needed to be justified and some developed a worldview and set of assumptions to do just that. This created a domination culture. Here are some of the essential assumptions: We are separate from nature. Nature is here for our use. Nature is inifinite. We are more important than other species and ecosystems.The sacred is “out there” in a sky god or the afterlife. Nature is “out there” and an appendix and source of resources.

One expression of domination culture is modern agriculture. It’s typically a monoculture which creates an ecological desert. It’s highly resource intensive and requires input of chemical fertilizers, toxins, gasoline, and so on. It depletes and destroys the soil. It causes erosion and loss of soil. It takes away habitt for wildlife. It poisons the soil, water, air, and the bodies of all living beings.

Before the agricultural revolution, we were all indigenous and we had more of a partnership orientation: We are nature. Everyone and everything is sacred. We are part of the web of life. We share the resources of life with all life. What happens with the web of life happens to us.

One expression of a partnership orientation is food forests. In a food forest, we work in partnership with nature. We mimick, create, and support a healthy multi-layered forest ecosystem. It provides an abundance of food for us and the wildlife. It creates habitat for wildlife. We use organic compost and manure. The diversity and health of the ecosystem limits insect and disease problems.

This is a obviously a simplification but there is something to it.

ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT

Through the last few centuries of Western domination culture, we have been very successful in taking natural resources from the commons of life and using them for our own benefit. We have developed science and technology, and refined our worldviews and assumptions to do just that.

This has led to global ecological overshoot. We are collectively using far more resources than Earth can replenish. That’s similar to living off a savings account that goes in minus every day. Eventually, it all comes crashing down, and we are seeing the signs of that all around us these days.

To deal with this, we need a profound transformation of our civilization. We need an economic system that takes ecological realitites into account. We need systems of production, transportation, and so on that do the same. We need a shift in focus for our public discourse, media, education, and more. We need a shift in our worldview from domination and in the direction of partnership.

That’s a tall order and there is no guarantee that we collectively will make this shift.

What we can do is to support and emobody aspects of this shift in our own life and in our communities.

A PARTNERSHIP APPROACH

There is a deep partnership orientation behind developing a food forest.

It’s a partnership with nature. We mimic healthy forest ecosystems and work in partnership with the processes and ecological wisdom of nature.

It’s a partnership with the community here and around the world. Locally, we are inspired by what others do, learn from them, and even receive seeds and seedlings from them. Globally, I am learning a lot from the experiences of others shared in videos, podcasts, and books. I hope we can give back in time, as this food forest matures and we learn more.

It’s a partnership with modern science and knowledge. We take whatever knowledge, insights, methods, and practices from modern science and agricultural practices that makes sense.

More to the point in this context…

It’s a partnership with our ancestors from around the world who developed and benefited from food forests. Their knowledge is passed on and helps our project, and they are with me, at the very least in my imagination and in my inner community, and I feel inspired and supported by them.

It’s a partnership with future generations of humans, non-humans, and ecosystems. I hope that this food forest can benefit this community and the local wildlife for generations to come. I hope that it can, in its own small way, inspire others to do the same. I hope it can be a small part of creating a more life-centered civilization for future generations.

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Food forests have ancient roots, and they also show the way to an abundant and life-centered future.

I have a vision of a future that’s more partnership oriented and that has a focus on regeneration, polycultures, and food forests.

In this world…

Our systems take ecological realities into account. They are set up so what’s easy and attractive to do also supports regeneration. This goes for all our systems, including economy, production, transportation, food, energy, water, and so on.

There is a focus on regeneration everywhere – in gardens, parks, forests, agriculture, oceans.

We mostly use a partnership orientation – a partnership with nature, our community, science, technology, indigenous perspectives, and, in its own way, with ancestors and future generations.

Food is produced in ecosystems that support life, in polycultures, food forests, and similar.

There is a much stronger focus on bioregions, the bioregion we live within, and largely living within our bioregion in terms of travel, food, and products.

We are aware that what’s produced by life is for life. It’s all part of a commons we share with all life.

Ecosystems are becoming more lush, diverse and full of life. Some areas are set aside as wilderness areas with limited human presence and intervention. Other areas are used for food production, in a way that supports wildlife.

Houses are built with natural, local or other ecologically sound materials. There is an emphasis on quality of life, walkable communities, shared spaces, tools and vehicles, and public transporation. Food, energy, and much of what’s needed for daily living is produced locally and in the bioregion.

There is an awareness that our population needs to be small enough to be easily sustained by Earth alongside all other life.

Ecology is the context for everything – education, media, economy, business, and so on. We understand that we are all part of a much larger web of life, and what happens with this web of life happens to us.

Education has a stronger emphasis on ecological literacy, hands-on experience and learning, and so on.

Spirituality is more ecologically informed. Ecospirituality has become a far more important and prominent strain within the different religions, and spirituality informed by ecology and science outside of religions is also more common, along with earth- and life-centered rituals.

It’s important to have these kinds of visions to remind ourselves of what’s possible, what direction we want to move in, and what we want to live in our own life. We can all bring some of this into our own life and live some of the solutions.

THE ACTUAL FUTURE?

That’s one of many possible visions, and a very general one at that.

When it comes to the actual future, we know that we cannot know for certain and that we will be surprised.

Judging from the inaction we see today, it’s very likely that our ecological crisis will become far more severe and acute and will strongly impact just about everyone. It’s likely that many will die as a consequence drought, floods, wildfire, hunger, lack of clean water, resource-related wars, and so on. It’s also likely that the polarization we see in the world today will continue or worsen.

No matter what happens, it makes sense for us as individuals and communities to live the solutions to the extent we are able. It’s the only sane way to live.

WHAT WE CAN DO

So what can we do? What am I doing?

I am educating myself, seek out solutions, and I am in the fortunate situation where we are developing a food forest on our land in the Andes.

If we don’t have a large piece of land, there is still a lot we can do. We can develop our own small food forest in our garden, maybe starting with one small section. We can grow food on our balcony and plant flowers for insects and birds. We can join regeneration or food forest community projects. We can join political parties working for this, which in most places would be the Green Party. We can join online communities. We can educate ourselves.

All of this makes us part of the solution.

By doing this, we are changing a small part of the world and we never know the ripple effects. Without knowing it, we may inspire someone who inspires someone… and that’s how the world changes. (I know I have been profoundly inspired by people who never knew.)

As an individual, we may not significantly change the world, but we can change our world, and that makes it more than worth it.

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How we deal with grass in the Milagros regeneration, and how we make use of it

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On Milagros, we have grass on maybe two or three hectares out of fifteen. At both entrances, there is quite a lot of grass, in both cases because the owners used the areas for grazing cows.

The rest is mostly trees, cactus, bushes, and pioneers.

So how do we deal with grass in our regeneration, reforestation, and food forest project?

MAIN APPROACH

We use it as mulch for the plants in the food forest. We cut it into small pieces to allow sprouts to easily grow through the mulch. The mulch provides cover to keep the moisture, some nutrients for the plants, and organic material for the soil. We keep on adding new layers as the older layers decompose.

Grass keeps the soil in place and prevents erosion. It’s better than nothing, and there are some areas where there is bare soil and few plants.

When we cut the grass for mulch, we use pruning shears (hedge shears, hedge scissors). This makes it possible to cut only the grass and leave any natives growing there. This allows the native bushes and trees to grow, become stronger, and better compete with the grass.

As the trees grow and provide more shade, they will eventually shade out the grass. The forest will take the place of the fields of grass.

THE DOWNSIDES OF GRASS

Grass has several downsides.

It can easily become a monoculture. It can take over large areas, especially if the land is degraded, and it won’t allow natives to grow very well.

During the dry season, dry grass is a wildfire hazard.

Grass is the perfect habitat for ticks.

A LESSON

Before we moved here, we asked some workers to cut a narrow footpath through a very beautiful area. Instead, it turned out that two people spent two or three days cutting down everything apart from the large trees.

This happened because we trusted they understood (we had emphasized several times that we just wanted a narrow footpath, just wide enough for one person to walk), and we did not check on them since we did not live here at that point.

Cutting down all the pioneers and small trees led to an almost immediate invasion of grass, and the area is now completely overgrown with tall grass.

I am hoping that revisiting this area relatively frequently to cut grass for mulch and leaving everything that’s native, will help the bushes and trees to gain a foothold.

For me, there are a few lessons here: (a) Local workers will typically default to what they know. These workers are used to people asking them to clear a whole area so that’s what they did, even if we thought the instructions were clear. (b) It’s important to ask them how they understand the task. (c) I need to follow up and check how it’s done. And (d) it is possible to get rid of the grass, it may just take time.

GRASS AS A TRANSITION SPECIES

So we can make use of the grass for erosion control, as a pioneer species, and for green mulch.

At the same time, the plan is to eventually shade out the grass with a multi-layered forest so there will be little or nothing left. This will take several years if not decades.

Some wildlife like or even depend on grassland. I am keeping that in mind, and I also know that the neighbors here have grassland so it’s not exactly a lack of it.

The series of six images above are from the two areas of our land with grass. At the distant entrance to Milagros, where there likely was most heavy grazing, bare soil is colonized by grass which prevents erosion. The image directly above is from the Camino Real that goes by Finca Milagros. This is a path that has been used by people here for generations.

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Tick reduction in a healthy ecosystem

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On Finca Milagros, we have neighbors whose families have lived here for generations. They have cows and grassland, a few trees, and not much else.

THE IDEAL TICK-PRODUCING CONDITIONS

In its own way, it’s a beautiful landscape.

At the same time, it’s very different from the diverse and mature tropical dry forest that used to be everywhere here. It’s a monoculture and a kind of desert. It has led to dried-up springs, rivers, and creeks. It causes erosion and loss of soil. It creates a hotter and drier landscape. It lacks life and diversity.

It’s also a landscape that creates ideal conditions for ticks to flourish. The cows are perfect hosts. The grass is a perfect environment. The lack of life and diversity makes it safe for them since they don’t have many predators.

A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM REDUCES THE TICK POPULATION

We are doing the reverse here on Milagros. We are regenerating the ecosystem, to the best of our ability. We are planting native trees, bushes, and flowers. We are creating a diverse food forest. We are creating habitats for a diversity of wildlife.

This helps reduce the tick population.

Although there are more animals here, many of them are less than ideal hosts for the ticks.

Similarly, the density of animals that are good hosts for ticks is less. They have fewer opportunities to spread.

There is a diversity of natural predators of ticks here – possums, ground-dwelling birds, lizards, frogs, spiders, and so on.

There is far less grass here, creating less-than-ideal conditions for ticks.

There is more diversity and competition in the ecosystem in general, reducing the number of any one species, including ticks.

THE MANY BENEFITS OF A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM

A healthy ecosystem has many benefits.

In our case, it produces food for us and the wildlife. We are doing regeneration and reforestation with an emphasis on native food-producing plants in the wilderness zone, and a food forest closer to the houses with a mix of natives and non-natives that do well in this climate.

It creates a diversity of microclimates and, in general, reduces the temperature creating a much more comfortable environment.

It provides habitat for wildlife which is crucial in our time of ecological crisis and dramatic loss of habitat and species.

It can bring the water back to the springs and rivers here, especially if neighbors upstream are also doing some regeneration work along the river beds and creeks. (A healthy forest allows the rainwater to be absorbed into the ground, feeding springs and rivers.)

It reduces erosion and the risk of flooding. The roots hold the soil in place, the mulch cover, roots, and healthy soil allow the water to be absorbed, and so on.

It reduces the risk of wildfire because of the cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and moisture-holding plants.

It builds healthy soil which is crucial for a healthy ecosystem and for growing food.

It creates diversity which prevents any one species from dominating, including mosquitos and ticks.

If regeneration happens over larger areas, it moderates the local climate. The temperatures will be more comfortable and there will be more consistent rainfall.

It can give a diversity of incomes – food, food products, seeds, seedlings from the nursery, compost, knowledge (workshops, training), ecotourism, and more.

It’s beautiful and it feels good to be in a healthy ecosystem. (Or even one that’s recovering.) It’s the type of ecosystem we are meant to live in. It’s the type of ecosystem the vast majority of our ancestors lived in and we – in body and mind – evolved to live in. It’s where we belong and we know it viscerally.

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A deep partnership approach: Valuing partnership and domination cultures and making use of what works

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I have written about the partnership versus the domination approach, and there is a deeper form of partnership orientation that I thought I would highlight here. I’ll do it in the context of growing food since we are developing our own food forest these days and it helps ground the abstractions in something practical.

A PARTNERSHIP APPROACH TO FOOD GROWING

A partnership approach seeks to work in partnership with nature.

We recognize ourselves as nature, and that what happens with nature happens to us.

We use methods informed by ecology and science. We mimic natural ecosystems.

We create polycultures and rely more on perennials. We seek to build healthy soil. We don’t rely on toxins or chemical fertilizers. We find a variety of income sources from our land.

We create a system that self-maintains and, over time, requires less input of resources and work. We work with systems that create more abundance over time. We work intentionally with the inherent intelligence , wisdom, and dynamics of ecosystems built into it through evolution.

We seek win-win solutions that benefit us, ecosystems, wildlife, and future generations.

If we have animals, we seek to give them a good and natural life as much as possible.

A DOMINATION APPROACH TO FOOD GROWING

A domination approach comes from a view of separation.

We see ourselves as separate from nature. We see nature primarily as a resource for us. We see nature as infinite in resources and capacity to absorb civilization’s waste. We emphasize a narrow view of productivity.

We use monocultures. We use toxins and chemical fertilizers. We see soil as primarily for holding the plants up. We emphasize annuals.

We have a system that requires a steady high input of resources. We often rely on one source of income.

We work against many of the processes of nature, and try to compensate for it by using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and so on.

We use a zero-sum approach where what benefits us short term (food, money) is harmful for ecosystems, wildlife, and future generations.

If we have animals, they often live a life of suffering. They suffer for our narrow benefit.

ALWAYS SOME OF BOTH

There is always some of both.

Even if we generally use a partnership approach, there is some form of control and management. We plan, plant, regulate, manage, make interventions, harvest, and so on.

Even if we generally use a domination approach, we inevitably have to work in partnership with nature. Otherwise, it won’t work. We rely on and have to take into minimal consideration the dynamics of plants and nature.

A DEEPER FORM OF PARTNERSHIP

If our view of partnership is superficial and one-sided, we miss out on something essential. We are missing out on the partnership with the rest of our world, including the gold found in domination cultures.

In this case, we are missing out on the practices, technology, and insights that come from agricultural practices in our Western domination culture.

There is a deeper partnership approach. That is to find value in the whole spectrum and make pragmatic use of whatever works whether it comes from a domination culture or not.

This, of course, require discernment. Although it requires a bit more work than excluding it all, it works better, is more aligned with reality, and the rewards can be high.

VALUING THE POLARITY AND THE DYNAMICS WITHIN IT

It’s also worth noticing that putting different value judgments on each end of a polarity is common in domination cultures. It’s a way to create the appearances of separation and justify domination: Humans are better than animals. Men are better than women. Whites are better than others. Heterosexuals are better than LGBT+.

If we exclude the value of the domination culture and what comes out of it, we are doing the same. We are joining in with one of the less savory features of domination culture.

A deeper partnership approach is to find value in the polarity as a whole, the dynamics within in, and the roles it seems to play in the larger system.

That doesn’t mean to wholesale adopt what comes from domination culture. It just means to see the value in it, and make use of some of it whenever it makes sense.

VALUING DOMINATION CULTURE

With agriculture came an emphasis on domination culture, and with the domination culture came social hierarchies, kingdoms, elaborate religions, art, science, technology, and everything else that’s part of our civilization.

It’s easy for me to find value in this. I love much of the art, music, architecture, science, and technology that has come with this domination culture – the idea of separation and domination.

I love many of the insights that come with it – the Universe Story, the Epic of Evolution, systems views, integral models.

I love the struggle and dynamic between domination and partnership orientations. It’s a good story that goes as a thread through the recent millennia of human history.

I love identifying and finding alternatives to some of the more detrimental aspects of domination culture. There is an enjoyment there, even if I sometimes also feel frustrated, scared, angry, hopeless, and so on.

MAKING USE OF ELEMENTS FROM DOMINATION CULTURE

We can make use of elements from our modern domination culture within a partnership context.

What are some examples when it comes to growing food?

We can clearly benefit from the science and knowledge that comes out of our Western domination culture. We can benefit from the science of ecosystems, climate, water cycles, plant growth, interactions between plants, soil health and microbiome, and so on.

We can make use of modern testing of water quality, soil health, and so on.

We can use elements from modern agriculture, including drip irrigation, shade cloths (for instance, if the food forest is young), and more.

We can use plants developed for specific purposes, including vetiver which is a hardy non-invasive grass that helps prevent erosion (until other plants are better established).

We can make use of all the approaches developed within and as a response to modern agriculture, including regenerative agriculture, permaculture, syntropic, and agroforestry.

We live in a world created by our domination culture and make use of the internet for connection and information, shipping and transportation, cars, municipal water and electricity, and an endless amount of other things that makes our lives easier and more convenient. This makes it much easier to develop a food forest or other partnership oriented systems for growing food. (While also often being destructive to nature since it’s all part of a system that assumes infinite nature.)

We can make use of frameworks like systems views, integral models, and similar.

We can be inspired by the Universe Story and the Epic of Evolution which comes out of modern science.

EVOLUTION OF THIS LIVING PLANET AND UNIVERSE

This is all part of the evolution of this living planet and universe, and we are temporary and local expressions of this seamless system. Domination and partnership orientations are just two of the many ways that Earth, the Universe, and existence expresses, explores, and experiences itself.

Everything is fleeting so let’s make the most out of what’s here now. And what’s here now is the opportunity – for those of us so inclined – to be consciously aware of ourselves as expressions of these larger systems and a part of the larger creativity of these systems.

Our creativity is a local and temporary expression of the creativity of these larger systems – this living planet, this universe, existence.

We can chose to become conscious participants in this creativity, in the self-exploration of existence, and in working towards a future with an ecologically sound civilization.

If we are able to create that, it will be a stepping stone to things we can’t even imagine.

NOTES

I am aware of the Spiral Dynamics model as I write this, and often like to start at lower levels and move up. In this case, I ended with a bigger-picture view of it all. See below for an AI analysis of the different parts of this text in a Spiral Dynamics context.

The photo is a view from Finca Milagros where we have our regeneration and food forest project.

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Aldo Leopold: One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds

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One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.

– Aldo Leopold

He wrote this decades ago, and it’s more true today than ever.

There is very little true wilderness left, and very few examples of untouched nature like old-growth forests.

What people take for nature and wilderness is typically heavily impacted by human behavior and civilization. It’s degraded, tamed, and a shadow of its former self.

I am not an ecologist, but I know enough to see this everywhere. Yes, it may still be beautiful in its own way since nature is beautiful. And I always bring with me an image of how it could be if it was allowed to be more diverse, vibrant, and mature.

Knowing a bit of ecology means seeing with deep time eyes, with an overlay of how nature used to be here before human civilization. It means having a mental overlay that shows us the contrast between how nature can be and is when it’s allowed to come to maturity, and how it is because of human intervention.

How would it be if this was one of the essential topics of any formal education? If all children learned to see with deep time and ecological eyes? I think it would change not only how many grow up to see the world, but how they live, at least to some extent.

The photo is one of the current views from Milagros. It’s amazingly beautiful. And when I look, I also see all the impacts on the other side of the canyon from human activity. I see the patches of land that suggest different ownership, or at least different use. I see land more heavily degraded from grazing. I see areas with a few more trees but still far from a mature forest. I see erosion. I imagine how it may be in a few years or decades. Will some areas be more developed? Will some areas be actively supported to become more diverse, mature, and vibrant?

The remedy to what Aldo Leopold writes about is to find, develop, and nourish communities of like-minded people. Globally, there are many of us. (And, in my case, many who know far more about this than me.)

Another remedy is to actively support nature – wherever we are, and in whatever ways we can – in regenerating. How can I, in my own small ways, help restore ecosystems to a more diverse, vibrant, and mature state? How can I do it in my own garden? In my own community?

We are doing it here on Finca Milagros, through the reforestation with native trees and through developing a food forest closer to the houses.

How a food forest manages water as it matures: less need for watering, improved drought tolerance, making good use of heavy rainfall

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As our food forest matures, it will become increasingly resilient and self-reliant.

A food forest tends to need more inputs and management at first and then becomes more self-reliant as it matures.

A MATURE FOOD FOREST NEEDS LESS WATER

The need for water is no exception.

We have needed to water our plants quite a bit, especially during the dry season at the beginning of this year. They are young. Many are still seeds and seedlings. We are still working on the mulch cover. We are still creating swales and terraces to retain the rainwater. Many areas are still quite open so there is more wind, sun, and faster evaporation. Also, we are young in this project, just likely the food forest is young, so we may have watered more than we needed.

What are some reasons why the food forest will need less water as matures?

A thicker layer of mulch retains moisture better. It also helps slow down and absorb rainwater.

More vegetation in more layers creates more shade which reduces evaporation.

As trees and plants grow, their root system is more developed, goes deeper, and can better access water and moisture in the soil.

Healthier soil can absorb and retain more rainwater. It has a better structure and more organic matter.

More swales and terraces help retain and slow down the rainwater, allowing more of it to be absorbed into the ground.

For many reasons, including all of the above, a food forest creates a microclimate that’s cooler and more humid.

In general, we are focusing on natives since they are adapted to this climate, and also drought-tolerant species from similar climate zones that do well here. We have some that require more water close to the houses, although these also will need less watering as they mature.

In our case, we are also developing our rainwater catchment systems so we’ll be less dependent on the water from the municipality.

A MATURE FOOD FOREST DEALS BETTER WITH HEAVY RAIN

A more mature food forest not only deals better with heavy rain but also makes use of it for many of the reasons mentioned above.

Several layers of leaves and branches help slow down the drops as they fall, reducing the impact on the ground.

Swales, terraces, and thick mulch slow down the water, reducing or eliminating erosion.

Healthier soil absorbs the rainwater more effectively. It’s more porous and has more organic matter.

The roots hold the soil in place. In a food forest, there is a high density and diversity of plants with different root structures. Combined, they stabilize the soil to a remarkable degree.

We are developing a system of channels to channel rainwater into the terraces. This catches the rainwater, slows it down, and allows it to be absorbed instead of running down the hill.

THE DROUGHT TOLERANCE OF A MATURE FOOD FOREST

A more mature food forest is more drought-tolerant for the same reasons as mentioned above.

Rainwater is better absorbed into the ground, which even recharges the groundwater and benefits the larger trees.

The soil and ecosystem are better able to retain moisture.

The roots go deeper allowing them to access deeper layers of water and moisture.

More mature plants are better able to deal with droughts in general.

In our case, we are working on our rainwater catchment systems – in tanks and ponds – and this will help us during the dry seasons and drought.

THE RESILIENCY & WATER MANAGEMENT OF A MATURE FOOD FOREST

A mature food forest is amazing at regulating water, whether it’s rain or drought. After all, it mimics a natural forest ecosystem, and these evolved to do just that, among many other things.

In general, mature food forests are resilient when faced with extremes of weather and changing climate, at least more than mainstream systems of growing food and up to a point. They deal better with water and drought. They create their own microclimate. They are diverse so a higher number of plants are likely to do well as the climate changes.

PHOTOS

These photos are from our very young food forest. They show… A pond near the house. A carved stone that receives rainwater from the roof and channels it underground to storage tanks. A series of small terraces that receive the overflow from the stone. A rainwater channel that goes along and under a path and leads the water into a terrace. (It was just created so nothing grows there yet.) Terraces and swales. Rocks and wood used to create edges to retain the soil and rainwater. A retaining wall made of naturally rot-resistant branches used to retain soil and rainwater along the road.

We are just getting started so this will all continue to be developed as the food forest changes and we learn more.

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Food forest videos

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I thought I would share a few videos on food forests and regeneration that I find especially interesting.

The video above is from Andrew Millison and is about the green belt developed along the southern edge of the Sahara desert. It’s obviously from an extreme environment, and they use the half-moon swale approach which he has presented in other videos.

A diverse food forest in a subtropical zone developed using syntropic principles.

A more mature food forest in a subtropical zone. Definitely worth a watch.

An introduction to food forest from Permaculture legend Geoff Lawton.

A brief National Geographic intro to food forests / forest gardens.

Food forests can be created in most (nearly all) climate zones. Here is one from a temperate zone.

Andrew Millison’s garden in Oregon is an example of an urban food forest and that you don’t need a large space to do it.

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A world of ecological limits & abundance

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This living planet is a world of limits and of abundance.

That’s perhaps obvious, but the implications of this seem not so obvious to us collectively.

A WORLD OF ECOLOGICAL LIMITS

This planet is finite, and it has finite resources and a finite capacity to replenish what we take from it.

Our collective ecological footprint is larger than Earth. That means that we are in global ecological overshoot. We are using more resources than Earth can replenish, and we are putting more toxins into these living systems than they know how to handle.

This is similar to living off a savings account and spending more than what’s coming in. At some point, we reach the bottom of the account and our lifestyle comes crashing down.

We are now getting closer to the bottom of our ecological savings account, and we see the signs everywhere: ecosystem loss, climate instability, possible changing ocean currents, ocean acidification and warming, toxins and plastics in all living systems, loss of insects, loss of species, and so on.

There is no hard or clear bottom to our ecological savings account, as there is in a bank account. What happens when we get closer to the bottom is the destabilization and unraveling of most or all the systems of this living planet. That includes us since we are local and temporary expressions of these systems.

A WORLD OF ECOLOGICAL ABUNDANCE

This living system is also a world of abundance.

We are developing a food forest, and although it requires resources and effort at first, it will in time give a significant and increasing return on that investment. The return on investment is almost infinite because we are working with the systems and inherent productivity of nature.

A food forest produces healthy soil, an abundance and variety of foods for humans and wildlife, seeds, seedlings, natural mulch, experience and knowledge that can be shared, and it becomes more abundant and self-reliant as it matures. It’s an immensely valuable gift for future generations.

If we work with the living systems of nature and the inherent productivity of these systems, this is a world of abundance.

DOMINATION VS PARTNERSHIP ORIENTATION

This ties into a domination vs partnership culture, and a zero-sum vs win-win mindset.

Modern agriculture is an expression of a domination and zero-sum mindset. It’s a way of growing food that relies on monocultures and chemical inputs which reflects a domination mindset. It produces food while damaging the soil and ecosystems, which reflects a zero-sum mindset. There is a win on one side of the equation and a loss on the other.

Food forests are an example of a partnership and and win-win orientation. We mimic natural forests, we improve the soil, we put in a lot of effort in the beginning, and then let nature do most of the work. It’s a win-win solution since it provides food for humans and wildlife while improving the soil, regenerating the land, and creating habitat for wildlife. There is a win on both – or all – sides of the equation.

SCARCITY AND ABUNDANCE

It may seem that our world is one of scarcity, and yet we have more than enough for all humans. It’s a problem of distribution, not scarcity.

Yes, this planet has current limits for how much it can produce and keep up with, and these limits become tighter as ecosystems degrade. As we keep consuming more, and doing so in ecologically unsound ways, this living system we call Earth becomes less able to produce.

At the same time, nature is abundant. If we work with nature, we can support it in becoming wildly abundant. In such a world, our natural living systems will produce more than enough for a large population of wildlife and all humans.

WE ARE LOCAL AND TEMPORARY EXPRESSIONS OF THIS LIVING PLANET

We are local and temporary expressions of the living system of this planet and this universe, whether it’s us as individuals or humanity as a whole.

As Carl Sagan said, we are the universe bringing itself into consciousness. We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe.

When we develop and participate in ecologically unsound systems, we are the Earth destroying itself. When we develop and participate in more life-centered systems, we are the Earth healing itself and coming into more abundance.

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How we stay cool in the tropics

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We live in the Andes, 6 degrees north of the equator, 1000 meters above sea level, in a dry tropical forest ecosystem, and the climate has wet and dry seasons.

The daytime temperature here is from low 20s to low 30s Celcius, with cooler days during the wet season and hotter days during the dry season. Since we are in the tropics, the sun feels especially hot.

So how do we deal with the heat? How do we stay cool?

LOCATION

We found a location for our house that benefits from the afternoon breeze coming up from the canyon. We avoided the peak since the wind can be very strong there, and we also avoided locations that were too sheltered with not much breeze.

We built between relatively large existing trees with good shade coverage. We went out of our way to find a location where we could keep the trees already here, and the builders were instructed to be careful to not harm them during construction.

HOUSE DESIGN

We have a small initial house and a recent larger house here1.

We designed both using software that models the sun and shade at different times of day and year. (SketchUp has a free version that does it.)

We are building with traditional local methods and materials.

The walls are rammed earth (tapia pisada), 50cm thick, and they function as a heat sink and moderate the temperature through the day and night. The walls are white to reflect light.

The ceilings are tall for good air circulation, space between the warmer ceiling and our heads, and the roof is insulated (in the traditional way) to prevent hot ceilings.

We have large doors and several windows. This allows for cross ventilation and good air flow through the houses.

The large house is just one big open space to allow for unhindered air flow. The small house is similar. (We are planning to make it completely open.)

We have a wide covered veranda around the big house, to provide outdoor shaded space and shade for the indoor space. We will do the same for the small house.

We will install large curtains (made of natural materials) at the edge of the south and/or west sides of the verandas. This will block the sun on warm afternoons.

We have large ceiling fans to provide air flow when the air is still.

GARDEN & FOOD FOREST

We are creating a food forest around the houses. This is already cooling down the temperatures, and will do so even more as the forest grows. Vegetation reduces the temperature significantly through shade and evaporative cooling. A thick layer of mulch retains moisture and also helps create a cooler microclimate. (This changing microclimate also allows different plants to thrive here.)

I have seen people talk about a cooling of 5-10 degrees Celcius although I am sure that varies a lot.

We are planting with shade for the houses in mind, and we are planning ahead so new trees will be ready to take the place for older ones when they die. A high canopy allows the breeze to come through, and opens up the view, while also providing shade.

WATER

We have an outdoor shower which we use to cool down on hot days.

We may create a small natural pool, although that’s in the future.

Personally, I am interested in building a small Japanese tub for two people for cooling down on hot dry-season days.

SLEEP

We sleep with cross ventilation and the fan on if the night is warm.

During the last dry season, I slept outside in a hamock now and then which was a delight.

REFORESTATION

We are reforesting the 15 hectares we have here, although we just started this year and it’s a long process. This will help change the microclimate of the whole area, which we also will benefit from.

Most of the land has vegetation, although most is in an early stage of regrowth. Some areas are more eroded and dry and hot.

NOTES

(1) For the small house, I had a design I would be much more happy with than the design we ended up with. At the time, other people were involved in the project and we were not sure what this house would be used for. (We thought possibly rental.) I was able to design the big house a little up the hill.

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Healthy ecosystems reduce the impact of extreme weather

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Over the last few months, we have seen a series of extreme weather events. The most recent is severe flooding in parts of Spain.

What the news rarely mentions is that degraded ecosystems often play a major part in the damage caused by extreme weather.

For instance, the damage from Hurricane Milton in Florida would likely have been far less if the mangroves on the coast had been intact. They serve as a buffer zone.

Without knowing the details, it’s a good guess that the flooding in Spain had a bigger impact because of degraded nature – deforestation, compacted soil, tamed rivers without a natural flood plain, monocultures, large areas covered by houses and asphalt, and so on. Healthy native nature and healthy soil help absorb the rainwater where it falls, reducing or preventing runoff and erosion. Flood plains serve as a buffer zone when the rivers overflow, as they naturally do now and then.

In general, healthy ecosystems buffer, make use of, and sometimes even benefit from extreme weather, and they reduce or prevent damage to human areas.

What are some of the things we can do to support more healthy ecosystems and reduce the damage from extreme weather? There is no lack of opportunities.

Around our homes… We can have more diverse and natural gardens, maybe even forest gardens, to help the soil absorb rainwater. We can use more terraces and swales to reduce rainwater runoff. Lush vegetation, and ideally a forest garden, will create a buffer around the houses in case of fire.

In the community… We can include more green spaces with lush native vegetation and ideally small forests. On hillsides, we can plant natives with extensive root systems to keep the soil in place. We can restore natural floodplains next to rivers and waterways.

At regional and national levels… We can protect and restore natural ecosystems like mangroves and forests. We can institute laws and regulations to reduce the impact of development and encourage ecologically sound regeneration projects. We can encourage polycultures and growing food in a more ecologically sound manner.

Here at Milagros, we are helping the ecosystem regenerate. We are improving the soil around the houses to better absorb and retain the rainwater. We create terraces and swales to keep the rainwater from running off. We are reforesting in the wilderness zones. (This will take time, of course). We are planting densely and a wide variety of native and appropriate non-natives in the food forest near the houses. We collect rainwater for use later. And so on. All of this reduces and prevents erosion, flooding, impact from dry periods, and so on.

Healthy ecosystems just work better, including for us humans.

If I were a reporter, I would include at least a mention of this in every news story about the impacts of extreme weather. It cannot be emphasized enough.

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Ecosystem diversity on Milagros

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We aim for as much diversity as possible on Milagros.

We aim for as much native plant diversity of Milagros as possible, and as much diversity – native and non-native – as possible in the food forest near the houses. With plant diversity, we hope to encourage habitat and food for a greater diversity of wildlife.

There is another form of diversity that’s as important, and that’s the diversity of ecosystems.

DIVERSITY OF ECOSYSTEMS

We already have a diversity of ecosystems here. In the area of the big pond, we have a relatively mature forest with tall trees. We have a semi-riparian (?) zone where the creek (small river) goes, although this seems only to have water when it rains. (From what neighbors say, it used to flow year-round.) We have grassland with some trees of different sizes. (Used for grazing.) We have many areas of brushland with some trees, pioneer species, and more. We have dense young forests with pioneer species. We have a growing food forest with native bushes and trees mixed in.

WHAT WE WILL DO

As we support the ecosystems here to be more diverse, healthy, and vibrant, we want to keep this in mind.

Some of this seems relatively straightforward – we want to support the riparian zone, we want to support reforestation in many areas, and we will continue with the food forest near the houses.

I am not so sure about the savannah or grassland. Maintaining that will require grazing animals, and we may include that in some zones in the future. In any case, the neighbors have plenty of grassland and savannah since they graze cows.

What about the brushland? This will naturally evolve into a forest given time and opportunity. Should we try to maintain some areas as brushland?

We will continue to prune in the food forest to provide mulch and nutrients for the soil and to open it up for air and sunlight. We may also prune some in the wilderness areas, although only if specialists recommend it and under their guidance.

All of this will depend on learning more, what specialists recommend, how many resources we have, and how it all evolves in general.

THE DIVERSITY OF EDGES

Each of these ecosystems will tend to have and attract unique species, and there is something special that happens at the edges: They have species from the two ecosystems and also some that especially thrive at the edge.

That’s another reason for having a diversity of ecosystems: It creates more edges and invites even more diversity at those edges.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY

Why do we want as much diversity as possible?

The short answer is that healthy ecosystems are wildly diverse. In most cases, you cannot have one without the other.

Diversity creates healthy soil, and healthy soil supports diversity. Diversity allows some to thrive where others do less well. Diversity ensures all the nooks and crannies are filled in. Diversity allows the system as a whole to better adapt to changing conditions. (Including changing climate.) Diversity of plants supports a diversity of wildlife. Diversity of plants, wildlife, and ecosystems prevents one species from taking over and becoming a problem. Diversity produces a wide range of food for wildlife and us.

It offers far more opportunities for income: Fruits, berries, seeds, saplings, education, workshops, eco-tourism, mulch, compost, and so on.

We evolved with diversity. It helps us come alive. For us, diversity in nature is fun, exciting, fascinating, and beautiful. (Not for all of us, which I suspect has to do with disconnect and possibly trauma, and that disconnect is a form of trauma.)

I love living in a wildly diverse food forest, and it will only become more diverse.

A NOTE ON SOCIETY

Nature shows the way, and these are some of the same reasons why a diverse society – if that society is actively inclusive – is a more healthy, vibrant, and resilient society. (Of course, if significant segments of society are actively working against diversity and inclusivity, it’s less healthy.)

See below for more info on these topics.

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Plants for the Milagros food forest: How we select and a provisional plant list

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We are developing a food forest at Finca Milagros outside of Barichara. This is a dry tropical forest zone in the Andes mountains at 1000-1100 meters above sea level.

TWO GENERAL ZONES

We plan a food forest for almost all of Milagros, with two general zones.

The largest is a near-wilderness zone with natives that includes food-producing trees, bushes, vines, and so on. These will produce food mainly for the wildlife, although I suspect we will gather some too. Two thousand native trees of twenty different kinds were planted there a few months ago, and we plan on more. As a forest, it will all natives as far as that is possible, most plants will produce some kind of food for the wildlife, and some – maybe 10% (?) – will produce food for humans as well.

The other is around the houses. Here, we will have a range of natives and include food-producing plants from anywhere worldwide as long as they are non-invasive and well-suited to this climate. A good portion of these will produce food for humans, maybe half (?).

It’s difficult to know the exact proportions since this is all in an early phase. I suspect we will continue to interplant for as long as we are here with natives to increase the diversity, and with food-producing plants to produce more food for the wildlife and us.

HOW WE FIND PLANTS

How do we select and find plants for this project?

We use what’s here. We already have a wide variety of natives, including food-producing plants.

We get some seeds and seedlings from friends and neighbors. (We will get Maya Nut seeds and some native Agraz and Suriname Cherries from a friend in the area within a couple of days.)

We get some seedlings from local nurseries. The selection of any one nursery is quite limited, especially when it comes to natives, but combined – by searching and going to several – we find a wider variety.

We plant seeds in our own nursery which has a few hundred plants so far. These go into the ground when they are ready and we have a good place for them.

We may eventually get seeds and seedlings from non-local nurseries for useful plants we cannot find here.

We aim for as much diversity as possible for several reasons: It creates more resilience and better habitat for wildlife. It improves soil health. It makes a better use of the 3D space. It shows us which ones do especially well here, and which ones may need a different microclimate. (The microclimates here will change as the food forest develops.) It produces a wider variety of food for wildlife, us, and possibly sale.

Also, with a changing climate, some will do better in the future than others and we don’t know which ones yet. That’s something we’ll have to observe and learn as the climate changes.

I know that some tropical or sub-tropical food forests have 200-300+ types of food-producing plants. I am honestly not sure how many we have so far but it’s likely still in the double digits.

PLANT DATABASE FOR MILAGROS

I have developed a plant database with 250 entries so far. These are all plants that are suited to this climate. The list includes plants recommended to us by locals and that we know do well in this area.

I am also using AI (ChatGPT 4o) for some aspects of this database. I use it to identify additional candidates for the food forest. It helps me fill in the info for each plant. It also helps me rank the plants according to different criteria: Nativeness, drought tolerance, nutritional value, sun/shade requirement, and so on. I always check with local experts before making any decisions based on this info.

The photos are from the last couple of weeks on Milagros, most around the house and a few of the newly planted trees in the wilderness zone.

See below for a list of plants and more info.

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A day on Milagros

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How does a day on Finca Milagros look for me these days? It’s always quite different but I’ll use the last 24 hours as an example.

THIS MORNING

This morning, I woke up at 4 am and went outside to enjoy the full moon and the landscape bathed in the moonlight. Some birds were already singing and I could hear several roosters crowing in the distance.

I then had some water with lemon and wrote a few things here.

My wife woke up at about 5 am. We spent some time together in bed with Mila the dog. She is only about four months old and although she is generally not allowed in the bed, we are taking time with her in the morning. It’s likely very good for her, and we enjoy it too.

We got up some minutes before 6 am, as the sun was beginning to come up. I watered the plants in the nursery, some plants we planted yesterday, and a few that seemed to need it otherwise. It rained a bit two nights ago, it rained a lot some days before then, and we are using a lot of mulch, so most plants don’t need water now.

Daniel and José Luis came around 7 am. I gave them each a couple of the many oranges we got from a neighbor earlier this week. They will work on the area between the two houses today, and also the garden around the big house. Daniel has helped us since April with the garden and food forest, and his help has been invaluable.

I am not able to do much physical work because of my chronic illness, and although I have been passionate about Permaculture and more for decades, I also don’t have expertise with this tropical ecosystem.

Diana came closer to 8 am to help get the big house ready. Roberto, my wife’s father, is coming later today. While they were talking and making breakfast, I went outside on the terrace facing the canyon to do qigong.

We then had breakfast – oatmeal porridge with papaya, sunflower seeds, bits of dates, some coconut oil, and more.

Just now, a few minutes after 8 am, my wife and Diana went to the big house to get it ready. I am staying back here to rest and do a few things, including in the house. As I write this, I listen to Mop Mop.

After Roberto arrives, we will go for lunch at Ángel in the town of Barichara.

Since it’s not even 9 am yet, I’ll write a bit about what we did yesterday.

YESTERDAY

Yesterday, Daniel and José Luis came at 7 am. I talked with Daniel about some of the plans for the terraces between the houses.

We had maybe 20 soursop seeds so Daniel and I mixed soil – 1/3 local soil, 1/3 compost, 1/3 rice husk, and a cup of microbe water. I and José Luis put the soil in bags and planted the seeds while chatting with my imperfect Spanish and his slightly better English. The soursops will grow for a while in these relatively large bags until they are ready to be transplanted.

I also looked at the progress with the vermicompost flush toilet system, and especially the area where the water flows into the ground. We want to make sure there is little to no chance of contamination. The location is made so any overflow is unlikely to create problems, and we are using a deep mulch bed (1-1.5 meters deep).

We did some other things in the garden and my wife cooked a delicious lunch for all of us – a soup/stew with beets, beans, squash, and much more.

After, we did several practical things and I watered some newly planted plants. If we need to water, we do it in the early morning just after sunrise, although in this case, I wanted to water them since they were just planted. I did it when the sun was close to the horizon.

I also looked at examples of the Japanese torii gates since I imagine one of those – a simple and rustic one – could look good at the entrance to the garden and house from the small road going here.

In the late afternoon, we walked up to the big house to look at the sunset from there. At the small house, where we are, we have the same view but we are in the middle of a forest so it’s less visible.

We then had a simple delicious meal with Felipe’s toasted bread, olive oil, avocado, and – for me – locally made goat cheese which is amazing and has a rich and complex taste. We had a good conversation.

We went to bed between 8 and 9 pm and fell asleep relatively quickly.

I realize all this sounds idyllic, and it is, although there are also plenty of challenges on some days.

All photos are from yesterday apart from the before-dawn moon photos from this morning.

All the beings on Milagros

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In my teens, I envisioned myself in the future writing books, giving talks, holding workshops, working with people individually and maybe in groups, teaching meditation, perhaps having an academic career related to psychology or spirituality (ideally doing research on a topic related to awakening), and so on. It didn’t seem all that far-fetched. I had familiarity with the terrain, the passion and drive, a good enough brain, and I relatively easily got top grades.

A SHIFT IN COURSE

None of that happened, likely due to a combination of trauma (social anxiety, wanting to stay hidden as a trauma response) and my chronic illness.

Instead, I find myself now putting all of that into the reforestation and food forest project here on Finca Milagros. It’s deeply rewarding, I notice how I am transformed by it along with the land, and it doesn’t have some of the annoying downsides (!) of working with humans. (Of course, it instead has its own challenges.)

If I had followed the path I envisioned, and which seemed realistic in one form or another, I could perhaps help a few dozen people, maybe somewhere in the three digits. Instead, through where life put me, I can help millions if not billions of beings. Of course, it’s not all about numbers, but in a sense, it is all about numbers.

RESCUING THIS LAND

I find it immensely rewarding to know that millions and possibly billions of beings will live out their life fully or partially on this land.

If we hadn’t bought it, someone else would and they would likely have developed it into dozens of plots with houses or a big hotel. Both is happening right down the hill from us, in two different projects, and we know that an architect in town had similar plans for this land.

LOVE SPICED WITH DISAPPOINTMENT

As I sometimes tell friends, I channel my disappointment into this regeneration project. It’s said as a joke, but there is a grain of truth in it.

What’s more real, of course, is that it comes from love – love for nature, life, this amazing living planet we are all expressions of and how it appears locally here.

AN ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER OF BEINGS ON MILAGROS

How many beings live here now? Maybe low three digits of birds, a half to a few million insects, some dozen mammals, three digits of reptiles and amphibians (maybe more), trillions of microbes, and hundreds of thousands if not millions of plants of a few hundred different types.

How many beings may live here at any one time in the future, when the ecosystems is more mature, rich, and vibrant? Maybe a thousand birds, billions of insects, three digits of mammals, several hundred reptiles and amphibians, trillions of microbes, and millions of plants of several hundred different types.

Of course, this depends on what’s happening in the larger local, regional, and global ecosystem, but this will be a sanctuary for millions if not trillions of beings.

It will be a sanctuary for millions and perhaps trillions of consciousnesses just like me and you and all of us, all living through and as different bodies.

WE ARE ALL ESSENTIALLY THE SAME

Some will say that it’s more important to help humans but I don’t see it that way. Of course, I value and love my human connections, but we are all consciousnesses no matter what type of body we live through and as. We are all essentially the same, it’s just the expression that varies.

Similarly, we are all local and temporary expressions of this living system we call Earth. We are all the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe. We are the universe bringing itself into consciousness.

LIVING THE ESSENCE OF MY CHILDHOOD DREAM

As a child, I loved nature. I loved being in nature with my parents. I loved nature programs on TV (especially Richard Attenborough and Sverre M. Fjelstad.) I wanted to become a biologist, although what I meant was ecologist. Now, I live my childhood dream in many ways.

Read on for more info.

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An update on our food forest and reforestation project

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I thought I would give a brief overview and update on our food forest and reforestation project near Barichara, with a few dates so we can more easily keep track of the progress. Hopefully, this will be the first of many updates.

FINCA MILAGROS 2022

We bought the land in early 2022, started building the first small house, and moved in on Winter Solstice 2022. During this time, we didn’t do anything with the land apart from letting it start to recover after decades and maybe centuries of grazing.

FINCA MILAGROS 2023

We didn’t do very much with the garden or food forest the first year were here. There were too many other things to do: repair 1,500 meters of stone fence, get basic water and electricity, clean up barbed wire fence throughout the finca, set up a good fence towards a neighbor with cows, get familiar with the land and climate, and so on. Since we came here, we have been away for long periods as well.

We also had challenges finding someone to advise us on the regeneration and food forest and also help us with the work. (Most of the local workers only know grazing farming, see pioneers as “bad plants” to be removed, don’t know much if anything about mulch and building soil, and so on.)

We did connect with Fundación Guayacanal in the second half of 2023 and had conversations, a survey of the finca, and made a plan for reforesting Milagros. They use a mix of native trees, including food-producing trees, and seem to have a generally good understanding and approach. They sell the carbon credits and make money that way.

FINCA MILAGROS 2024

In May this year, Daniel started coming every week to advise and help us with the work. He is very knowledgeable and completely aligned with what we wish to do here, so it’s been a blessing. That’s really when the garden and food forest started, so it’s only been about five months of focused work.

In April, Fundación Guayacanal came and planted close to 2000 native trees of twenty different varieties in the more arid and degraded areas of the land. This is also a blessing and the first part of hopefully several more phases of plantings.

More recently, we installed a rainwater catchment system for the small house, and the big house is almost ready and will have its own rainwater catchment system.

THE NEAR FUTURE

As for the rest of the year, we plan on continuing to develop the food forest around the houses. We have a nursery with maybe a few hundred saplings ready to go out.

I assume Fundación Guayacanal will continue planting when the rain returns in April or May next year, and we will hopefully also have a variety of native food-producing saplings ready to go out further away from the houses, close enough so it’s easy to harvest and far enough away so we won’t water them.

PERMACULTURE ZONES

Here is how it looks in terms of Permaculture zones:

Zone 0: House. We may move the toilet and shower away from the house and install a dry toilet.

Zone 1: Kitchen garden. We have herbs interplanted with other plants and may dedicate one area for herbs.

Zone 2: Larger plants and orchards. This is where the main focus has been so far in developing the food forest around and between the houses.

Zone 3: Main crops that require less attention. We are moving into this zone and I suspect this will be a focus for the rest of the year and next year.

Zone 4: Semi-wild areas. I want to plant more native food-producing trees in this area. That may happen to some extent next year, but I suspect the focus here will happen in a couple of years.

Zone 5: This is where Fundación Guayacanal is planting their mix of natives, including food-producing trees.

A FEW PHOTOS

This is the area around the house in December 2022, just after the house was finished. There are some native trees here (acacia) and a few other pioneers (uña de gato) but mostly bare and compacted soil with almost no organic content.

The photos at the beginning of this article are from these days, October 2024, almost two years later. As mentioned above, we did some of the work in 2023 although the vast majority is from the last six or so months.

A few photos from our nursery and our most recent plant delivery (108 trees from Santi and his family). The nursery has a few hundred plants right now, some grown by us from seeds and some from other growers in the area. It’s a mix of native and non-native food-producing plants. The non-natives are non-invasive and generally well-suited to this climate.

When we came, the soil around the house was too barren and dry for mushrooms. These days, we find mushrooms everywhere in the garden/food forest. It’s a sign that the microclimate is changing with the soil building, mulching, and wide diversity of young plant life. (The last one is from the main path and close to the big house.)

We found nopal (prickly pear) in town, close to Casa Común, and brought a couple (?) of pads here. Now, we have maybe 30 or 40 nopals growing here. As they grow more pads, we take them and plant them in more areas of the food forest. They are a good food source and also help the soil and ecosystem. This is very likely a Mexican variety used for food.

We have planted a few moringa trees, and I want to plant more. They are nutritious and medicinal.

We save seeds from the food we are eating and plant them in the food forest. If we want to give them a good chance of survival, we plant them in the nursery first and then in the ground. If it’s a plant we already have several of, we may plant the seeds directly in the ground.

Some photos from January 2024 from the more arid and eroded area of Milagros. This is along the ridge and close to the peak. Other areas of the land have more vegetation, although often mostly pioneers.

A crew working with Fundación Guayacanal dig holes for later planting, on January 16, 2024.

Some of the two thousand trees planted by Fundación Guayacanal in April 2024. The photos are from early October. I went to the areas with the most difficult conditions and got the very unscientific impression that about a third didn’t make it, a third were alive and small, and a third were larger and thriving. It is to be expected that some don’t make it, especially in these conditions, and we also had a few weeks without rain between April and now.

The photos were taken after a night of rain. Poor soil like this, with mostly sand, silt, and clay, is difficult for the plants in several ways. It lacks nutrients. It lacks a mulch layer to keep the moisture in the ground. Because of the compacted and hard soil, rainwater runs off and causes erosion instead of draining into the ground, and the roots have trouble penetrating the hard soil.

A few more photos from the arid and eroded zone. It has its own fleeting beauty. If all goes well, this will again be a forested area.

These are from along the main path through Milagros. The path largely follows the ridge so it is along the more eroded areas, although it’s not as arid and eroded as the peak area in the other photos. The photos are from earlier this month after a night of rain. The second photo is what’s left of the fruits from the mamón (Spanish Lime), which is one of the native fruit trees here.

Where does the new organic matter in our food forest come from?

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Where does the new organic matter in our young food forest come from?

THE FOOD FOREST ON MILAGROS

As I have written about in other articles, we are growing a food forest on our land in the Andes.

It’s in two distinct sections, although I suspect the distinction will get more blurred over time. One is the wilderness area where an organization is planting a diversity of natives that include some food-producing plants. The other is around the houses with an emphasis on native and non-native food-producing plants, with other natives mixed in.

WHERE DOES THE ORGANIC MATTER COME FROM?

The soil around the houses was very poor, mostly sand and clay with little to no organic content. It still is this way in the areas we have not planted yet.

So where does the new organic matter come from?

Imported from neighbors and the region: very little in terms of mass

Some are imported from neighbors close by and in the region. We get organic goat manure from Paul down the road. We get worm compost from Marlon a little ways away. Earlier, we collected leaves along the road and brought them here and used them as mulch. We are buying microorganisms from people in the area. We have also bought rice husk, which I assume comes from further away. All of this is vital for improving soil health.

Most of the plants in the food forest are imported as well, as seeds or small and smallish saplings. This is obviously essential for creating the food forest.

As important as this is, in terms of mass or volume, it’s not much.

Pruned material: recycling what’s already here

We regularly prune some pioneers already growing here and use the pruned material as mulch. In terms of mass, this is a little more substantial although it’s a recycling of the organic material already here. As the food forest grows, we will prune a greater diversity of plants and this pruning will help improve the soil health and create a thicker layer of mulch.

Air, soil, and water

The vast majority of the new organic matter here comes from the air. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen collected from the air make up roughly 96% of a plant’s dry weight.

Soil nutrients are important although make up just 3-5% of the dry weight.

Of the wet weight, about 70-90% is water.

THE MIRACLE OF LIFE

This is one aspect of the miracle of life.

We start with severely degraded land and soil. The soil is mostly inorganic matter – sand, silt, and clay.

There are some hardy pioneers here and they do the vital work of beginning to improve the soil. When we prune these plants and give them back to the soil, that process is sped up slightly.

We have imported some manure, compost, and mulch, although not much in terms of mass.

We are importing seeds and saplings to start the food forest, and this is obviously essential for creating this food forest. This too is not much in terms of mass.

From this humble beginning, nature takes over. The plants create organic matter mostly from the air, and it’s an exponential process. As there are more plants growing, the soil health improves, and the plants grow better and create the conditions for new plants.

Over time, the forest becomes more and more diverse, healthy, and self-sustaining.

It never needed us, of course, to evolve into a more diverse and healthy ecosystem. It just needed humans to stop interfering. Since we are here too and we wish to have food and perhaps income from the forest, we steered the regrowth in the direction of becoming a food forest.

The images are from the area around the first small house. We started last year so it’s all new still, and we started with very poor soil so a lot of the emphasis so far has been on building soil and improving soil health. That is, literally, the foundation of healthy plants and a healthy forest ecosystem. The second image is a section of our nursery. The last shows that the microclimate has already improved so we are having a lot of fungi here now – where we used to have barren and dry soil.

Read on for more info on these topics.

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Wildfire prevention on Milagros

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There are occasional wildfires in our area, especially during the dry season. Many of our neighbors grow tall grass which becomes flammable when dry, and they are generally using practices that degrade and dry out the soil, plants, and landscape. This all increases the risk of fire.

Wildfires are part of the natural cycles and ecosystems have evolved to deal with occasional fires. They sometimes even depend on them, it helps them stay healthy. At the same time, this landscape is severely degraded and unable to hold much moisture, which increases the risk of more frequent and stronger wildfires. I assume the mature forest that once was here was inherently less flammable.

What are we doing to reduce the risk of wildfire on Milagros and close to the houses?

Mainly, we support reforestation and regeneration of the land. As the ecosystem evolves and becomes more healthy, several things happen that reduce the chances of fire: We get a cooler and more humid microclimate. The vegetation is more hydrated. With better soil, natural mulch, and more shade, the ground retains moisture for longer. As the forest comes back, the grass is shaded out. In time, water may return to creeks and springs.

In general, there is more water and humidity throughout the whole system – in the soil, in the mulch layer, in the vegetation – which reduces the risk of wildfire.

Around the houses, we have developed terraces and swales to slow down rainwater so it’s absorbed into the ground. We are improving the soil so it has more organic matter which makes it more porous and able to absorb rainwater. We are adding a relatively thick layer of mulch which slows down and absorbs rainwater and retains moisture. We water now and then during the dry periods so the vegetation is hydrated and the mulch is moist. We are planting water-rich succulents (agave, cactus). We avoid especially flammable vegetation like eucalyptus and pines. We plant in layers – small and large trees, bushes, herbs, groundcover, and vines – so there will be a lot of greenery throughout the vertical space. There is no grass here, apart from some vetiver.

We have water tanks with water from the town and our own rainwater. I plan to look into attaching a thicker hose combined with a pump. There is a small pond close to the small house. If we have a small swimming pool, it will be slightly up from the big house so we can find a way to use that water if necessary, likely with a large hose and pump.

As for the rest of Milagros, we are engaged in a reforestation project which will help create a more healthy ecosystem. It will take some time, but it’s already a good start.

I am sure there is more we are doing, and there is a lot more we can be doing, although this is what comes to mind for now.

As usual, the answer to almost any question is to support the regeneration of a healthy and diverse ecosystem, one with an abundance of water and healthy water cycles. This helps with growing an abundance of food, pest control, reducing the impact of storms, preventing and reducing the impact of fires and floods, preventing erosion, and so on.

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Reforestation practices on Milagros

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About three months ago, we had close to two thousand trees planted on Milagros. It was done by Fundación Guayacanal, an organization that specializes in reforestation in this region. We plan in cooperation, and the trees and work are at no cost to us. In exchange, we give them the right to sell carbon credits to multinational corporations.

It’s a win-win-win situation. The land and wildlife benefits. We receive invaluable help to reforest and regenerate the land. They make a living and likely a profit. The corporations get to offset their ecological footprint.

The images above are from a walk I made a couple of days ago to the first reforestation zone. This is the most degraded part of Milagros. It has been heavily impacted by grazing and erosion and only a few trees are left in that area.

Some saplings are doing very well, some are alive although quite small, and about a third (?) died. That some die is to be expected. They grow in challenging conditions (poor soil, strong sun, and wind exposure) and we had some short periods of drought since they were planted.

GOOD REFORESTATION PRACTICES

What are some good practices when it comes to reforestation?

Use native trees, bushes, herbs, and vines. They are adapted to the climate and they are of most benefit to the wildlife since they have co-evolved.

Plant a wide diversity, as many different natives as possible.

If the climate has distinct wet and dry seasons, like here, plant at the beginning of the wet season so the saplings are better established before the dry season.

BETTER REFORESTATION PRACTICES

There are also some better reforestation practices, according to what I know from Permaculture and what I hear from people more knowledgable than me.

On slopes, create swales and terraces to retain rainwater and reduce erosion.

Use more mature saplings since they are stronger.

Start at the edges of the existing forest and gradually move into the more degraded areas.

Keep natural succession in mind. If the land is degraded, start with the hardiest pioneers and early-stage plants. Later, include the ones that require a slightly more mature ecosystem.

Plant for all layers of the forest: Tall trees (canopy layer), smaller trees (sub-canopy layer), woody plants and bushes (shrub layer), non-woody plants (herbaceous layer), low-growing plants (ground cover layer), underground plants (root layer), vines and climbers (climbers layer).

Include native food plants that will feed the wildlife and humans. Create a food forest with natives.

Use companion planting. Plant fique (native agave), cactus, and more close to the trees. These help with soil retention, supporting microbial life, absorption of excess water, and more.

Make wide and deep holes for the plants and use good soil. This is especially important where the soil is degraded. Larger holes and good soil absorb the rainwater, hold the moisture longer, allow excessive water to drain, and allow the roots to spread out more easily.

Use biodegradable containers to grow the saplings, and then place them in the ground. This is efficient and it doesn’t disturb the roots when planting.

Use compost, manure, and microbes. This enriches the soil and gives the plants the best possible start.

Use a good layer of mulch and refill now and then. This helps absorb the rainwater and retain moisture, and it also provides nutrients and a good environment for microbes and fungi.

MIMIC A HEALTHY FOREST

In general, these practices mimic the conditions in a healthy forest and ecosystem.

The soil is nutrient-rich and porous enough to absorb and retain rainwater and allow the excess to drain deeper into the soil. There is a natural layer of mulch on the ground. The soil has plenty of nutrients and microbial life. Plants grow with a great deal of diversity and close together. The roots have space to spread out and go deep. The seeds tend to germinate at the beginning of or during the wet season.

THE MILAGROS REFORESTATION PROJECT

We have two distinct efforts on Finca Milagros: Reforestation in the wilderness zone and a food forest close to the houses.

One is the reforestation project by the organization mentioned above. They use a variety of native trees including food-producing natives, and they will replace the saplings that died. This will jumpstart the reforestation. The idea is that these trees will provide the foundation for regrowing the forest and nature – the wind, water, birds, and animals – will bring in a variety of other trees, bushes, vines, and flowers. I suspect we will interplant with a variety of natives to create more diversity.

This is already the beginning of a food forest since it will include native food-producing trees. We will likely keep adding more native food-producing trees and bushes in this area, especially along the main path.

Their approach is simple. They make small holes for the saplings, don’t amend the soil, don’t mulch, and start in the most degraded areas. Since natives are hardy, many seem to survive anyway.

As mentioned above, there are better practices, although these are also more resource intensive: Use larger and deeper holes, fill in with good soil, use biodegradable containers, start at the edges of the existing forest, and mulch. That would likely allow more plants to survive and thrive, the trees would grow maybe 2-3 times faster, and it would require less follow-up and replacement of dead saplings. This would require more work up-front but less follow-up and the forest would grow faster.

THE MILAGROS FOOD FOREST

The other is the food forest around and between the houses.

Here, we are focused on building soil since we are still early in the process, and we (aim to) use the best practices mentioned above since it’s a smaller area and we can put more energy into it.

We use whatever food-producing plants that work well in this climate and ecosystem, whether they are native or non-native.

Our aim is to make this food forest as rich and diverse as possible with at least a few hundred varieties.

A DIVERSITY OF ECOSYSTEMS AND PLANTS

It’s important to have a diversity of ecosystems, so this is not only about reforestation.

There is a creek / small river that goes through Milagros. It’s mostly dry although it fills up after rain. With reforestation, it may be possible to bring back water for more of the year, and with the water comes a different ecosystem with different plants and wildlife.

There will be some open areas, for instance on steep hillsides, where there are a lot of rocks, over a pond, in some areas closer to the houses, and where large trees fall. We may also keep other areas in the wilderness zone more open, depending on what we are advised by people who know more than us.

In general, we are going to encourage and plant a wide variety of native bushes, flowers, and vines, within the forest and on the edges. The trees will create the conditions for a wider range of natives to come in, and we can help it along a bit, especially by increasing the diversity.

A NOTE ON CARBON CREDITS

Carbon credits are not a long-term solution since they don’t address the root causes of our current ecological crisis. To address the root causes, we need profound and thorough systemic changes.

That said, it is a good transitional solution. It’s a step in the right direction. It brings awareness to the topic, and it allows corporations to do something to offset their ecological footprint. They have taken the first step which makes it easier for them to continue to make changes.

If the carbon credit project is done right, as it is here, it helps with the reforestation and regeneration of the native forest and that’s a blessing.

NOTES

The first set of images is of the natives planted in the arid areas of the land, without anything done to improve the soil or to mulch. The soil is poor (sand and clay) so I suspect some of the plants died because rainwater is not absorbed into the soil, and perhaps some also drowned since excess water is unable to drain away. This is zone 5, the wilderness zone, in Permaculture.

The second set of images is what we are doing closer to the houses, with improved soil, mulch, dense planting, terracing, swales, and more. This is zones 1-3 in Permaculture, the areas closer to the houses that receive more attention and input.

Read on for more info.

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Can we bring the river back on Milagros?

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There is a dry river going through Milagros, within an area that’s not easily accessible. This morning, on a walk after a night of rain, I heard water in the river in the distance.

We have been told it used to have water year-round until about twenty years ago, and also that there was a spring in the same area used by the neighborhood (on the border of Milagros and Francisco’s land).

Why did the water go away? Likely because of deforestation. A healthy ecosystem – with trees, mulch, humus, and so on – slows down the rainwater and allows it to be absorbed into the ground to give water to rivers and springs and recharge the groundwater. In a degraded ecosystem – with fewer plants, more shallow root systems, and poorer soil –  the rainwater typically runs off and is not so easily absorbed into the ground.

How can we get it back? Through reforestation and by supporting the regeneration of the ecosystem. A healthier ecosystem will have more plants with deeper root systems, a thicker layer of natural mulch, more organic matter in the soil, and so on. We can support the process by making swales and creating ponds. This will help slow down the rainwater and absorb it into the ground.

We will do what we can here, and we will likely need to talk with the upstream neighbors to see if they want to join this project.

We are reforesting Milagros with the help of a regional organization. They planted close to 2000 native trees on Milagros a few months ago, as the first phase in a process that will hopefully continue for years. They have not planted in the river area yet, but it’s part of the plan. Right now, our priority is the food forest around the houses and basics like housing, solar, rainwater collection, wastewater use, and so on. If we are to put more effort into bringing the river back, it will have to be after we have the basics in place.

The photos are from a walk in January this year. The river is ready to receive water although it’s beginning to grow over with vines and more.

Read on for more info.

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How we are creating a food forest on Milagros

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We are creating a food forest on Finca Milagros. I have mentioned it in other articles and thought I would devote an article specifically to the food forest.

BACKGROUND

We moved in on Winter Solstice 2022 which is a little over 1 1/2 years ago. In the beginning, we did very little planting apart from a few fruit trees and flowering plants around the house. We wanted to get to know the place first, and also make connections for finding appropriate plants and local guidance. We also had a lot of other things to get in place, including basics like the road up the hill to the house. (We still don’t have the solar panels up or the main water filtration system.) About half a year ago, we partnered with Daniel P. who comes once a week to help us with the design, planning, and work, to share his experience and knowledge with us, and it’s also invaluable to have a knowledgeable conversation partner to find good solutions and paths forward.

FOOD FOREST AREAS

We are developing a food forest around our first small house, and are slowly expanding the area down and up the hill. We have also started to plant in a small forest made up of pioneer species close to the house. There is a main path going through Milagros, with a couple of connecting paths, and we plan to plant a food forest along that path as well.

As I have mentioned in other articles, we are partnering with an organization that will plant a variety of native trees on the land, in consultation with us. It’s free to us, and they sell carbon credits to corporations. It’s a win-win-win project, as far as we can tell now. They planted close to 2000 trees two or three months ago and will plant more in the coming years. They include some native food-producing trees, which are important to feed the wildlife.

We will very likely interplant trees on our own, especially native food-producing trees.

HOW WE DEVELOP THE FOOD FOREST

We leave the existing native trees and incorporate them into the growing food forest.

Otherwise, we aim for as much diversity as possible. We use native trees, bushes, and flowers since these help the wildlife. We include non-invasive non-native trees, bushes, and flowers if they work well in this climate and ecosystem, and if they serve an important function, either as food producer, for pollinators, or to improve the soil.

We focus on building healthy soil through a diversity of plants, thick layers of mulch and using compost, green mulch from pruning, organic goat manure, and microbes.

We use mulch, plants, swales, rock edges, and terracing to slow down the rain water and allow it to absorb into the ground.

We started close to the house and are slowly expanding outward as we learn more and have capacity.

Our goal is for the food forest to become increasingly self-sustaining as the soil improves, there is a thicker layer of mulch to retain moisture, and the plants become more established and able to survive better in this dry tropical forest with distinct wet and dry seasons.

PLANT SOURCES

It’s been a challenge to find good sources for native trees, bushes, and flowers. Local nurseries mostly have exotic non-native plants and not many natives.

Most who work on similar projects here collect and grow from seeds, which has several benefits. They are available if you know where to find them, they are free apart from the time, and they are likely well adapted to this climate. We are also doing this, although want to do it more systematically. We have our own small nursery with 50+ plants right now.

Through connections, we are also discovering smaller nurseries and individuals who grow and sell natives. For instance, we are buying several native saplings from one of the people who have helped us develop our food forest.

PLANNING AHEAD

One of the things we have needed help with is planning and thinking ahead.

Which plants need direct sunlight? Where should we plant them so they will continue to have access to direct sun five, ten, or twenty years in the future?

Which ones like shade? Which areas are and will continue to be shaded?

Which plants can be sacrificed in a few months and years to provide mulch and give space for other plants?

We are already seeing changing microclimates from the early phase of the food forest. It’s cooler and more humid allowing fungus to grow here which it didn’t before we started. It’s possible that this will allow us to grow coffee and caco here in the future as the microclimate continues to cool and become more humid. (We are in a dry tropical forest ecosystem and the ecosystem is degraded which has made it hotter and drier, so a cooler and more humid microclimate is very welcome.)

LAYERS

We are also planning for using vertical space as fully as possible. We have shrubs, herbs, bushes, small trees, large trees, and wines. At some point, we were short on bushes and wines so that’s one focus right now.

THE PLANTS

The types of plants appropriate for a food forest obviously depends on the climate and other conditions.

Natives are a safe bet, as is plants others in the neighborhood are growing successfully. It’s also good to try any food producing plants from regions in the world with a similar climate.

AI ASSISTANT

I am using an AI assistant to help me with information about creating food forests, suggestions for which plants to include, specific information about the different plants, and more. If it’s something we’ll put into practice, I always check the info with local experts.

Read on for more info.

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Building soil on Milagros

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Milagros – the land we are stewards of in the Andes – has been used for grazing and small-scale food growing for generations. Around the big pond, we have a relatively healthy and mature ecosystem, and the rest is in various recovery stages. Some areas, especially along the ridge and the peak, are heavily eroded with just a few pioneer species.

We are in an early phase of the regeneration of Milagros, so we mostly focus on the area around the two houses. And since the soil is degraded, we are focusing on building soil.

The topsoil is mostly gone here and the soil is compacted. When it’s dry it’s like concrete. Rainwater runs off without being absorbed, and only the native pioneers thrive in this soil as it is.

HOW WE BUILD SOIL

How do we build soil? We are using a combination of approaches.

We plant as wide a diversity of plants as possible, mostly natives and food plants that work well in this climate.

When we plant, we use deep holes and add compost and some goat manure to improve the soil. This helps absorb the water, prevents water logging, and gives nutrients to the plants.

We plant densely, in as many layers as possible: ground cover, herbs, shrubs, bushes, small trees, and big trees.

We use a thick layer of mulch around the plants. This helps retain moisture, gives nutrients to the soil and plants, and improves microbial life. Most of this compost comes from pruning, and we buy some wood chips from local carpenters.

We make our own compost and we are also buying vermicompost from a friend with a permaculture farm in the area.

We add Korean microbes to the soil. This is on the recommendation of others doing similar work here, although I am a little hesitant to add foreign microbes. I would prefer native ones.

We build swales to help the rainwater drain into the soil.

We work on preventing erosion by planting plants with extensive root systems (agave, vetiver, etc.), slowing down the flow of water (stones, swales, mulch), and terracing in some areas.

We use green mulch from the existing trees and some of what we have planted.

We add ashes to the soil for some plants to provide certain nutrients and improve soil structure.

We avoid compacting the soil around the plants. We have paths and will install stepping stones in areas where there won’t be a regular path.

We may include animals in the future, perhaps starting with chickens. They will help provide fertilizer to the soil.

We use only organic materials and methods and avoid chemicals and pesticides. (Chemicals and pesticides harm soil health and the ecosystem in general.)


WHERE DOES THE MASS COME FROM?

When we build soil, the mass has to come from somewhere. About 90% of the dry mass of plants comes from CO2 in the air which is converted to carbon, with oxygen as a byproduct. Only 10% comes from nutrients in the soil. Of the wet mass, 70-95% is water.

Shade combined with water evaporation is a big reason why a forest is much cooler than bare ground.

REFORESTATION

As I have mentioned in other articles, we have partnered with an organization that helps us reforest the land. They plant a diversity of native trees without any cost to us and sell the carbon credits to multinational corporations. It benefits the land (reforestation), us (helps our project), them (make money), and the corporations (improve their image).

They are not doing anything to improve the soil while planting, but the growing forest will naturally improve the soil through increasing biomass, creating a mulch layer, and so on. It will also attract birds and wildlife which will help spread seeds and improve the soil.

EARLY DAYS

These are just a few of the things we are doing so far. We are still early in the process, and we are still – and will always be – learning. We are receiving immensely valuable advice and help from others doing the same in this area, especially Daniel P. who comes weekly.

These are all things we do because the land is degraded. By planting natives and a selection of non-invasive useful plants, we are giving the natural regeneration process a boost. We are doing our small part in helping this ecosystem again grow into a healthy, diverse, and vibrant ecosystem. Soil health is, quite literally, the foundation.

As the native forest regrows, and as the food forest grows near the houses and along the paths, the soil will naturally improve. Conversely, our efforts to improve the soil will help the food forest grow.

Soil health and ecosystem health are two sides of the health of the system as a whole.

The images are from this morning from around the house. We have a very simple compost pile right now, but will build compost bins and start vermicomposting. We use stones to hold the soil in place and slow down rainwater. We use a thick layer of mulch and see that we need to replenish the mulch in several places. We buy wood chips from local carpenters and organic goat manure from a neighbor.

Read on for more info.

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