And then it was five!

A special occasion for the EarthCollective Network today as it celebrates its 5th Anniversary!  We are definitely proud to have reached this milestone… and something worth reflecting upon.

So that is what we have done. In this post we have asked the individuals who were first involved in giving birth to the EarthCollective ‘idea’ in 2006 to share their reflections about the journey travelled or whatever else they felt they wanted to express at this time.

Not all of these individuals are actively involved with EarthCollective activities these days but we certainly remain connected and their enthusiasm and support at various points along the way helped the network to find its growing legs.

The images accompanying this post are from the early days of EarthCollective activity in 2006 and 2007.

A new-look website accompanies the EarthCollective birthday. It will be continually improved in the coming weeks.

Silvia:

Reflecting, reacting, discussing, envisioning, planning and building. This is how I see how EarthCollective has been created: inner reflection about the world and how to make a difference, reacting on the lack of opportunities in the “market”, discussing with friends the feeling, envisioning an opening, planning how to make it and finally, putting it in place through building a collective.

Creation has been the strongest aspect involved, brains and hearts put together in the elaboration of a new way of doing things. Complete freedom at the beginning, with all its “naiveness”, made the collective take flight to the unknown. Participation in a few events in The Netherlands allowed experimenting and evaluating our capabilities as a group to take that dream for real. The path has taken us to various places and initiatives, each one to a different location but common ideal. We are doing it still, spread over the globe.

Now, when I look back, I have goose bumps to remember all the energy that was floating among us, so tangible! We trusted in ourselves and in each other, we constructed a common idea through different cultures, gender and experiences. This is not happening every day, but it did happen to me and my friends; and now we can celebrate it, even if just to remember that we believed!

Silvia Weel (Ecologist with Living Lands, South Africa)

Sancho:

Hey collective!

Lucky me to have been part of the start of earth collective. Aaay this valuable remembrance! Thank you all! Silvia, you expressed it so good. EarthCollective, that collective who were eager to Do, to Change, to Improve, to Learn. That collective who did not want to just follow a path but create one and scream it to the world. Oh EarthCollective what a positive Energy!

Thank you.
Sander ter Meulen (Program Manager with South Sea Exclusive, Philippines)

Phil:

Happy birthday EarthCollective,

For a 5 year old you are very much grown up. Your birth was a day with many emotions, dreams and illusions and every single parent is proud to have given a small part of his ideas. I have very nice memories and want to thank you all to allow me be part of the story.

Hug

Philipp Gärtner (Scientific Staff with Technical University of Berlin, Germany)

Maria:

When I think on EarthCollective I think of ACTION, of activity, of movement, of inspiration and strong self-confidence to reach ideals and implement values. The last year and a half I have been disconnected from the main scene as all my energy has been focused into welcoming a new life into this world.

When I see what EarthCollective has achieved from its early beginnings I amconfident to believe that my daughter will have some opportunities in the future to be inspired by the work other people has made possible, to realize that sometimes you can really make a difference if you try from your heart and inner strength and that friendship is one of the most valuable things in this world for moving dreams.

Hugs from my heart.
Maria Piquer-Rodriguez (Research Assistant with Humbold University of Berlin, Germany).

Matt:

The main thing that comes to mind and heart when I reflect on five years of EarthCollective is gratitude. Though I don’t wish to start sounding like a wound-up Grammy Award Winner and spend the next five minutes thanking everyone from the costume designer to the ‘Grand Designer’. Nevertheless, I feel my reflection would be incomplete without this appreciation.

It is with a humble sense of wonder of how things have come together since sitting around the table one evening in Droef 99 in Wageningen in 2006. We sat there filled with hope, naivety, passion, endless ideas, positive intent and I guess a sense of “we can do this…but differently.” And, yeah, in some way or another, a lot of that potential has eventually converted itself into a manifestation of these dreams. It is easy to get caught up nowadays in that feeling of complacency and forget what was, overlook what now is…and becoming continually preoccupied with what must still be.

So I’ll always feel incredibly indebted to the core of the EarthCollective network who have rarely waivered from their commitment to fulfilling ambitions and providing personal and professional support in all forms all the way along. Even if their career paths have subsequently taken them in different directions, their enthusiastic feedback and willingness to lend a hand has been ever-present.

I’m thankful that EarthCollective had its roots in the fertile and creative ground of Wageningen University (WUR) and drew inspiration from the Droevendaal community. The seeds were planted there and were helped along with the never-ending and patient support of the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) along with random acts of kindness from fellow (alumni) students and WUR staff. In recent years, that support has been also granted though Living Lands.

Naturally, things evolved exponentially from then through our collective efforts in South Africa – first through PRESENCE and then Living Lands. And that would never have been possible without the dedication of countless individuals – students, staff, scientists and ‘stakeholders’. Awesome.

eyes4earth and CVNI have taken their own interlinking trajectories over the years and their meandering paths now seem to be broadening and converging with new partners, prospects and potential. It is exciting stuff.

EarthCollective has made plenty of ‘mistakes’, continues to do so and will probably make plenty more. But as a founder, it has caused me to reflect on the nature of ‘mistakes’ – what are they, in whose eyes, for what purpose…and how long is their shelf-life? I’ve now learnt a lot about the art of making mistakes along with the ‘ups’, ‘downs’, frustration and elation of living such a process. It’s strengthens the soul!

But if there’s one thing that I felt occasionally before but ‘know’ now, it’s the profound sense of gratitude for that unseen ‘force’ which vibrates behind the veil of visible reality, randomly makes itself manifest through synchronicities and ‘windows of opportunity’ and continues to provide the sustenance for getting positive ideas happening.

Thanks.

Matthew Zylstra (PhD Researcher with Stellenbosch University, South Africa)

Dieter:

Hey all,

Writing is never my strength.

Inspiration, sharing ideas, support, cultivation, platform, collective…

5 years. We started with a great energy, a lot of ideas and initiatives. During the last five years, we climbed mountains and we walked together though valleys. With different initiatives running and different ideas realized.

I would like to thank you all for being a part of this collective and I hope we can work in the future more together.

Thanks.

Dieter Van den Broeck (Director & Enabler with Living Lands, South Africa)

Bas:

I was working at the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) after having presented my Masters’ research at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Bangkok Thailand in 2004. The WCC was a way to get in touch with the real conservationists out there and I was stoked that FSD wanted to support me. After all I had just returned from three years of living in Iceland and I was ready to show the world I could make a difference. An MSc was my chance to do this but then I would still have to create some opportunities and find synergies between what I wanted to do and what was happening in the real world out there.

FSD chairman, Dolf de Groot was also my thesis supervisor and keen enough to make me earn back my WCC expenses by doing work which he had miraculously saved up for students at his FSD office. Because there was no end to the work Dolf decided to hire me, a decision which worked out favourably both ways. In fact, there was so much work that half a year later, when my friend and thesis partner finished his second thesis, he also joined the ranks of FSD.

At the Dreijenborch [at Wageningen University], me and Matt shared an office, we reflected on or thesis work and imagined how our reports where shelved at the institutes we visited, probably for the purpose of collecting dust rather than anything else. Of course, there were other small annoyances that we could not stop wondering about such as the lack feeding information back to stakeholders, probably the only ones who would be interested in our work, or the time it would take to have our research published, five years we calculated (in fact, it did take five years, the publication finally came out in 2010). Those days we started doing “important” consultancies and valued nature’s services for IUCN, Wetlands International and the Dutch ministry. Meanwhile we watched the rabbits working out on field outside the office. It was an inspiring environment and we managed to get many superb ideas on track.

Perhaps, CVNI was born as the result of me filing applications with the Christensen Fund. There where all sort of questions such as; “What is the purpose of you programme?” That was easy; “To investigate the tangible and intangible linkages between biological and cultural diversity leading to socio-ecological resilience in times of environmental change”. Wow, easy indeed. The simpler ones turned out to be the most difficult to answer, such as; “What is the name of your programme”… This couldn’t be a simple one off programme. I was sure this bit of funding was going to be enough to create a whole new organisation of community networks around the world that would eventually create a whole new ecologically sound and spiritually enlightened model for new generations… Ok, the Cultural Values and Nature Initiative was born. However, the funding never came…

Sitting there at Dreijenborch, we were finding synergies in the things we envisioned ourselves doing in the future and Matt started talking about how he and some friends at Droef were having evening sessions doing just that. These sessions would carry on deep into the night but were often fused with some very profound freethinking, home cooked meals and drinks. Ideas from a new generation ready to start rocking that big world out there. These were the first days of EarthCollective. In fact – as I don’t want to be committing any falsification of historic facts – they started earlier. I recall Matt showing me some of the earlier web designs he did with his brother whilst he was still selling mobile phones in London [editor: to avoid any falsifications, it was actually a ‘telecoms consultancy’ :) ... but Matt did sell phones in Harrogate to survive through Christmas one year] , sketches of a network for saving the world and greening the economy. Luckily for Matt his brother [Andy] knew what he was doing, his websites have been keeping the collective together for over the past 5 years.

Those early days when I was kick-starting CVNI I didn’t have a lot of time to join those evenings at Droef but it didn’t matter, Matt was sure to tell me all about it over a cup of coffee the next day! It was only after some time that I had started working on a fellowship with IUCN and CVNI was actually materialising that I figured it a good idea to hook up with EarthCollective and see if we could mutually support each other so CVNI became an EarthCollective supported programme and I was invited to come and join meetings, who doesn’t love meetings…

Meetings led to plans and some of these plans led to projects. Matt and I left for Northern Australia to work with Dhimurru just after Dieter had enthused everyone into creating PRESENCE. The man was on a mission so the whole bunch was easily persuaded to join in writing a proposal. I was involved towards the end where I found the whole design of it showed remarkable resemblance with the multidisciplinary approaches we were thought to develop at ESA. If I remember correctly, my most important contribution may have been to print the whole proposal bundle it, put it in an envelope and race it on my bike to Wageningen International just to get it on the solicitors desk before the deadline would pass at 3 o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon. It turned out to be success formula!

EarthCollective made a good start in Australia as well as in Africa. CVNI started growing, the first applied research experiences in the Northern Territory and several sustainability seminars at IUCN really helped confirming we were on the right way, although this was in many ways, the road less travelled. I was asked to help develop PRESENCE research assessment framework and come to do some of that “cultural stuff” in South Africa. Between Australia and Europe, Africa certainly proved a splendour of natural richness and inspiration.

I became quiet used to overstepping my abilities, a book chapter in two weeks time, “yes of course”, a UN consultancy in Cameroon “OK fine”, presenting a case study in Greece “well sure”. All of this during the course of working on other projects… an avatar would have come in handy from time to time. Having just graduated being full of inspiration every opportunity needed to be cashed in (and there is no reason why they shouldn’t). Having my friends and colleagues at EarthCollective really helped to find the balance to do all this. Although that balance remains a quest at least I am balancing in amore mindful manner, at least that’s what I’d like to think.

From those days on, most of the Collective crew was based at ‘The Dam’ [now the PRESENCE Learning Village] and that’s where batches of students found themselves having great experiences whilst positive things were happening. Many of them became EarthCollective members are still buzzing with that positive vibe taking it places, for work, pleasure and in many ways into a network which in the early days we had only dreamed or imagined.

Now, five years ahead I have accomplished a lot I had previously only dreamt of. I pulled together international working groups on conservation issues, organise sessions on conferences to get attention for issues that matter and need mainstreaming. I go to policy events and can actually talk to the policy makers about the issues and my ideas to help move them, I even made a book. All these things can only happen when people are confident in making them happen together.

Being part of EarthCollective, sharing a vision for change is also very stimulating. This drive really strengthens me to make more of my life through creating the same energetic synergies in many other places and with many more people.

Bas Verschuuren (Programme Support with ETC COMPAS, The Netherlands)