 Hello everybody, my name is Ashley and I am here today to give you an update on what is happening at ecosystem restoration camps. This is a new idea that we've had to create these videos that will explain to you what's been happening with the foundation each month so that you have a better idea because so much is happening and quite often not communicated straight away. So this is January's update. The first thing that's happened is Camp Artiplano has reopened. It is being run now by an Italian dryland specialist called Sylvia and she is running the first Camp Artiplano experience right now with a group of campers that are taking place, taking part in a two-week experience where they're learning how to restore the natural zones around the land where the camp is located. They are doing a lot of tree and shrub planting in a way that has been proven to be successful after previous trials and that involves digging large deep holes with an excavator, filling them with water, planting the tree and pulling a cardboard mulch pad around the tree and then topping that with compost and that has proven to have a high survival rate which is fantastic. The campers are also learning other skills like how to stop erosion, how to create water retention landscapes, all that's another thing they're doing with the trees. They're also digging half a swale around them so that when it rains water gets caught there and absorbs into the ground and they're learning about regenerative business models with someone from the Regeneration Academy. They are going to visit other farms to see how regenerative agriculture is happening in the region. They're learning about how to keep bees regeneratively and they are doing lots of lovely socializing with each other and experiencing the culture in the south of Spain. There'll be other experiences coming up soon throughout the year so keep an eye on the website for those. The next piece of news is we now have 12 camps around the world. We've had one last year at this time and now we have 12 and they are based in Spain, Mexico, the USA, Bolivia, Thailand, South Africa, Egypt, Portugal, France, Brazil, Guatemala and Colombia and if you go onto our website and look at our camp map you will see where all of these camps are and you can interact with them and attend one of the camps there. That would be fantastic if you're interested. The next thing I wanted to talk about was the next camp experience coming up which is in Mexico. It's called Camp Vir Organica and it's the second one we did one last year and it welcomes 25 people to come and stay at beautiful Vir Organica Ranch near San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and there you'll get to learn the restoration techniques used in this also very arid dry degraded area and that involves planting out of pioneer species such as mesquite and agave. That involves removing invasive species from the trees there, feeding them to the goats. That involves learning how to retain water, how to create organic fertilizers and soil amendments to rebuild the soil and introduction to the regenerative business models that they have on their farm, visiting other ecosystem restoration projects in the area, learning how they do it. So much to learn so check that one out. That takes place on February 21st. The next thing to tell you about is a project called Mundo Nuevo which is a new camp in Colombia. They are located in a really unbelievably stunning location in the biosphere reserve in the Santa Marta Mountains range and they are looking for a group of people to go and help them restore land that has been used for cattle grazing and is now degraded to return it to native rainforest and that project takes place again at the end of February. Check out the website for the exact dates and to find out how to apply. Then we have loads of camps in the pipeline. I've been talking to 12 possible camp projects this month alone and there's some really exciting ones. I won't go through all of them because of time but the most exciting ones I think are Australia seeing as the camp, the fires in Australia have been really devastating as we've all been watching with horror on the news. So we've found a partner called Reforest Now that is restoring degraded rainforest habitats in New South Wales and connecting them to other pieces of rainforest as well as planting species that are needed in those degraded patches. They have a nursery that can currently grow 100,000 trees a year and they are going to be exploring and setting up a camp model for people to go and learn how to restore that piece of land, those pieces of land there and that's going to be happening throughout this year so keep an eye out for that one. There's also a potential camp in Kenya in Mombasa and they are planting out thousands of mine grows every month and we'd like to explore the idea of training the local people there in how to farm the oceans regeneratively. So also known as marine permaculture growing things like seaweed and that has a really massive impact on deacidifying the oceans and removing the carbon dioxide from them so that would be really really cool. We also have other projects emerging, a rewilding project in Devon, UK, some forest management camps in Oregon and in South Carolina and the list goes on so keep an eye out for the website to see those new camps emerging. So exciting how fast it's all going. Other really great things that have happened this month are we have formed a partnership with Sekim in Egypt which is one of the pioneering land reclamation projects in the world they've been going for 40 years they hire 1,500 people and they have their own university, their own hospital it's really amazing and they have just come up with a new project which is happening in Egypt in an area six hours away from their mother farm and it's really large piece of land that they want to turn into an ecosystem restoration camp and there's also going to be some job pay jobs involved in running that camp so again keep your eye out on those appearing that's really exciting and the publication business insider has just been to visit them to do a short documentary about their work and about the camp's movement in general so fingers crossed that that brings in loads of attention for us so that we can scale up even faster and we also had an art school published a new ecologist yesterday which is really great and we've been working on some other business ideas as well such as an online course that teaches you about all of the different types of ecosystem restoration that are happening around the world and by the end of it you will be empowered and knowledgeable enough to create a restoration plan and a business plan for a degraded piece of land close to your heart and the other business we've been coming up with or dreaming of is something called the mind, body and soil retreat which is a yoga retreat where you can reconnect to the land to your body and to your mind and it will help you stimulate your mental, physical and ecological health the health of the land and we're going to be trialing that at our new camp in France soon so yeah that's what's been happening in January lots and lots of stuff and I hope you've enjoyed this video update I it will be going out in the newsletter or it is now in the newsletter when you watch it and also on our social media channels so if you ever want to get in touch with me with any questions here's my email below and look forward to interacting with you and yes oh one last thing become a member of ecosystem restoration camps because it's an absolutely incredible community we've got hundreds of members and members get special discounts on our restoration experiences as well as access to restoration academic journal articles and infographics on restoration techniques that we are creating that's all for now thanks for listening bye