PERMACULTURE AND REWILDING

A rewilding movement is inspiring people everywhere and transforming landscapes, ecosystems and communities. Join us in exploring what rewilding means, how it works and what the connection is with permaculture.

A key part of permaculture that drew Morag to it decades ago was the core focus on wilding (or rewilding) - finding ways as humans we can live well with the smallest footprint so there is space for all life to thrive - protecting intact ecosystems - creating conditions for regeneration of damaged places - rehydrating - identifying the wild spaces where we are visitors, not managers - reconnecting wild spaces...

The new rewilding movement is inspired by the projects and recent writings of people like Isabella Tree (Wilding) and Derek Gow (Bringing Back the Beaver) and it's relevant from small courtyards to farms to public policy.

Rewilding calls for us to rethink how we inhabit the land and interact with natural spaces. Rewilders talk about how the land has become so much more alive and how this brings resilience in the face of climate change and restores biodiversity.

Essentially, rewilding is about enabling natural processes themselves (not us) bring ecosystems back to health and restore degraded landscapes. Through rewilding, wildlife's natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats.

Join me in conversation about permaculture rewilding with two amazing women - passionate Devon-based rewilders - Maddy Harland and Dorette Engi.

Masterclass Guests

Maddy Harland

Maddy Harland is the co-founder of Permaculture Magazine and Permanent Publications, a publishing company dedicated to practical and leading edge solutions to global problems. She lives in a woodland that is a designated nature reserve with many rare wild species like dormice, pied and spotted flycatchers, willow tits, and 12 species of bat. The primary focus of life is to preserve and enhance habitat for these wild companions and restore the old hazel coppice. She is the author of Fertile Edges - regenerating land, culture & hope and The Biotime Log.

Dorette Engi

Dorette's rewilding journey started with Isabella Tree’s renowned book “Wilding", which was published in 2018. Having returned to London in 2011 after a few years working as a psychotherapist in a Buddhist retreat in rural France, she felt it was impossible to ignore the ecological issues and the intense degradation in the UK but also the ecological crisis our whole planet is suffering from. She was determined that something needed to be done!

So, in 2019 she bought a farm in Devon with her two children as partners and with the sole aim of rewilding it. After initially disrupting what had been an overgrown forest belt, many traditionally fields that were grazed by sheep and clipped hedges, they allowed the land to recover with the help of a family of beavers, two Tamworth sows and four Exmoor ponies plus many more 'blown ins'. She also reached out for advice from rewilders such as Derek Gow

With human interference kept at a minimum, many creatures - like barn owls, kestrels, voles and many more - return and the land recovers some of the complexity and abundance it naturally possesses. The speed and beauty of the land recovering, the diversity of plants and animals coming home is truly and magical.

When Dorette is not looking after the land, she still works part-time as a psychotherapist and is fascinated how the principles of observation, creating a thinking space and empathy apply to the healing of both the human mind and damaged land.

Read more here: Rewilding Britain article

Masterclass Host

Morag Gamble

Morag Gamble, is an award-winning permaculture ambassador, educator, speaker, writer, podcaster, youtuber, designer, ecovillager, forest gardener, and founder of the Permaculture Education Institute - dedicated to teaching permaculture teachers and designers around the world - for rewilding and one-planet living.

ABOUT THE PERMACULTURE EDUCATION INSTITUTE

The Permaculture Education Institute, offers world-class permaculture teacher education online, sponsors the global Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast, hosts regular international conversations through the permaculture film club, permaculture masterclasses series, and programs such as Permayouth and Ethos Fellowship. The Institute collaborates widely with many thought-leaders and organisations contributing collectively to a re-imagining and activation of possible futures.

BECOME A PERMACULTURE TEACHER

The Permaculture Educators Program combines globally recognised permaculture design (PDC) and permaculture teaching certificates, connects you in a global learning community, offers more than 80 drop-in sessions each year, and permaculture enterprise support to create a permaculture life and alivelihood. Lifetime access, start anytime.

THIS IS A ‘PAY WHAT YOU CAN’ EVENT

While Morag's Masterclasses are free events, we do warmly welcome your generous donation. We always send 100% of all donations received via our registered charity, Ethos Foundation. Any donation received from this event will go towards youth-led permaculture projects in refugee and village communities on the front-lines of the climate and ecological crises.

MORAG'S PERMACULTURE MASTERCLASS SERIES

Throughout the year, Morag hosts many permaculture masterclasses on a wide range of themes relating to permaculture education and design, and how to craft an ethical livelihood in permaculture education. You can catch up on some previous masterclasses here.