Regenerative Agroforestry Aotearoa

Regenerative Agroforestry Aotearoa

Project 2023-05-05 08:20:02 +1200

This fundraising campaign is published to enable regenerative agroforestry in the temperate climate, in New Zealand.

The fruits of our work will be healthy woodland & savanna ecosystems, that are a hotspots for biodiversity, sequester carbon and restore water cycles- while providing all our organic resources (such as food and wood).

Young system under management at Marc Leiber's farm in Portugal.

Young system under management at Marc Leiber's farm in Portugal.

We are much influenced by the work of Ernst Götsch and with this project attempt to adopt it to the temperate climate. In parallel with our peers in Europe & North America, we plan to execute pioneer research & development (R&D), run our systems commercially and begin to scale together with other land managers.

This year, 2023, we plan to implement 0.5 hectare of a R&D planting, with a focus on Hazelnuts. On a very simple conceptual level, this system is portrayed in the picture below.

Hazelnuts under Poplar, with Currants under Apples.

Ecological Context:

The ecological context of this project is the degradation of practically all Earth systems and the resulting severe stress on our civilization. Clearly as little else, our land management is of paramount importance in the current state and trajectory of Earth; underlying all 10 planetary boundaries.
If we don’t significantly change our way of interbeing & -acting with our land and water, we run the real risk of the collapse of numerous ecosystems and our societies.

Intact forests create their own rain, by means of evapotranspiration- like the Amazon rainforest does.
If the Amazon is cleared for farmland & mining, North America would lose between 30% - 50% of its rainfall. The kind of consequences of this are probably evident. On the other side, we can create 'an Amazon' from heavily degraded farmland in less than a human lifetime.

Ernst Götsch's cocoa plantation generating its own & others' rain.

Economic Context:
Our international supply networks are inherently and increasingly fragile and unsustainable.
This suggests regionalizing as much of our production as possible.
Regenerative agroforestry can be realized without many to any external inputs and can rely primarily on human management, knowledge and tools.

Mother and Cocoa trees on Ernst Götsch's farm in Brazil.

Agroforestry:
As mentioned, we are strongly influenced by Ernst Götsch. A member of our team is a student of his and with this project attempts to adopt syntropic agroforestry to the temperate climate.

Next to the contexts above- the truth, goodness and beauty of this way of interbeing and -acting with Life is reason enough for us to pursue this work:
We can be beneficial participants in the Earth System, creating fertile forests that host myriads of species and contribute to planetary health- while providing all our organic resources (ie. resources of organic origin).
All this is possible in much less than a human lifetime, via careful selection of functional species, their appropriate arrangement and intensive management- all towards ecological prosperity.

As a part of what we plan in Southland, we will cultivate Hazelnuts under Manatu (/ Poplar) and Cabbage Tree, next to Aronia under Apples and , with wild leeks underneath and Rimu above- all on the same piece of land. These are the main constituents, but we will integrate a much wider diversity of species.
The Manatu, Cabbage Tree, Karaka and Southern Rata are heavily pruned once a year, with the cut biomass being fed to the soil- bringing about dark, fertile & deep soils. Instead of Manatu Europeans might use Poplars and instead of Karaka & Southern Rata, Ash & Maple.

We plan to begin this year on our 1000 acre farm 'Montana Flat' in Southland with groundwork R&D ranging from species composition, direct-seeding of trees to mulch arrangements and tree row spacing. While we have years of exciting R&D ahead of us, we plan to begin our production systems starting in 2024.
Next to plants native to Aotearoa , we will always work with species native to Europe and North America- in order to keep our work theoretically transferable to these regions and offer more functional diversity to New Zealand's agro-ecosystems.

Our insights we will publish on YouTube and our blog, both to be found under Future Whenua Agroforestry and Simon Heyn. 

Young agroforestry system at Gut & Boesel in Germany.

Funding Investments:
The funding we're requesting here is to be spent on the following:
   Nursery plants: $1000
  Seeds: $2000
  Cuttings: $500
  Logistics: $4000
  Mulch: 3000$
Accumulation of minor costs: $4500

 
Regenerated, fertile & generously mulched plantation soil in Brazil.

Future Whenua:
Our agroforestry is nested into the wider context of our Future Whenua Initiative.
Here we work to cooperate with diverse stakeholders in our bioregion (the South Island, New Zealand) to achieve ecological regeneration, economic autonomy, social cohesion and cultural prosperity on a societal scale. We plan to cooperate in this regard with other initiatives across the globe, in order to boost social learning and manage inter-regional organization.
For any of this, we understand regenerative agroforestry to be of essential importance.

Typical Southland scenery, soon blessed with woodlands & savannas

The Montana Flat
This project will be instigated on an active family sheep farm in Northern Southland. The stewards at The Monana Flat have been pioneering regenerative change with a number of aligned projects already in action. For more information on the property, check www.themontanaflat.co.nz or take a virtual farm tour https://youtu.be/BppCQ7yxhL4

Any contribution would be much appreciated.

Peace, Love & Life,
Simon


disclaimer:
the linked video 'Life in Syntropy' is not our own- it lays out well what kind of land management we're pursuing.

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