 We are alive. Great. Hello everybody. My name is Ashley Brown and we want to welcome you to this call today which is talking about the ecosystem restoration design course which has been created in collaboration with ecosystem restoration camps and gyro education. This is the second round of the course now we started it for the first time in May last year. And this is a chance for you to ask your questions to some of the course teachers who are here with us today. The course runs through five modules. The first module focuses on natural ecosystems so ecosystems that are not used for agriculture. The second looks at agricultural land and restoring and regenerating agricultural land. The third module looks at land restoration in urban areas. The fourth is about business models for restoration and the fifth module is a practical module where students get into groups and create a restoration plan, a restoration design, and a business plan for putting the restoration into action. We have a wonderful group of people here today who each are playing their own roles in the course. We have Alan Featherston, Alan Watson Featherston who is teaching about his work in restoring the Caledonian Forest in Scotland. We have Rishi Kumar who is doing great work in Los Angeles restoring urban land there and creating healing gardens and urban farms. We have Nuva who is working with Geir Education and he is a communications coordinator there. Precious Piri who's teaching on holistic management and holistic grazing with her experience coming from sub-Saharan Africa. We have Dan Blycroft, let's say that right, kind of good enough. And he is teaching on tiny forests in urban areas with his experience coming from all over the place really but his lesson focuses on a case study of creating a tiny native forest in, was it Utrecht? Utrecht. Yeah. Saskia is here from Geir Education. She's the one that responds to all of the registrations. She keeps our registration lists up to date so any questions about registration can go to her. We have Ben who is working with the ERC as our video editor and he, amongst other things, and he also is a facilitator on their course. We have Ramisse who is one of the, I say co-founders of the ERC. He's been on supervisory board since the beginning four years ago and he's also a teacher teaching about permaculture in arid areas with a case study from the Dead Sea Valley in Jordan. So, an amazing bunch of people and we're happy that you're here with us today. Before we're going to, I'm going to hand you over to each speaker and they're going to give an introduction to themselves and talk about their particular lesson and what their lesson is about for you, for all of you who'd like to know more about what the actual lessons content is and what you'll be learning and who from. So let's start with Alan. Alan, would you like to introduce yourself and talk about your lesson. Thanks Ashley and hi everybody who's out there listening to this. So my name is Alan Watson Featherstone. I live at Findhorn in the northeast of Scotland. And my module I think is the first one restoring temperate forests. And it's based on the work that I started in the 1980s. When I became aware that the native forest in the highlands of Scotland the Caledonian forest was dying on its feet. There was only 1% of it left at the time. And that forest consisted of scattered remnants over a big geographic area isolated from each other and almost exclusively old trees 200 years or more. And no young trees have been able to grow for at least two centuries because of the intense grazing pressure from deer and sheep. And the old trees were at the end of their lives and were dying. And I saw this and I felt I needed to do something about it. So I found you the charity called Trees for Life in 1986, which now has planted over 2 million trees and has been involved in practical work to restore the forest and has had quite a major influence. So my module is based on that work starting with some principles of ecological restoration looking at what do you need to do to help get an ecosystem back on its feet again after it's been so heavily depleted. In Scotland we've lost all our predators. They're all been exterminated and the forest has been reduced to this tiny percentage and we have far too many large herbivores. So the first part of my module looks at the problem going into in some detail why it's in that state and why the forest cannot recover by itself. The second part then looks at the techniques that we've developed and worked with since the late 1980s to help the forest recover through achieving natural regeneration by reducing or eliminating grazing pressure by planting trees in selected areas by helping species that need assistance to recover. And also looking at the three key steps for restoring a natural ecosystem in this type of habitat. Returning healthy vegetation communities because that's the foundation of all ecosystems, reestablishing key ecological processes, everything from nutrient cycling to natural succession to natural disturbance predator prey dynamics, all those sorts of things. And then the third element is the reintroduction of missing species and unlike parts of mainland Europe where species such as the wolf have been spreading naturally because we're part of an island here in Scotland, part of Britain, species like that cannot return of their own accord. So it's looking at the conscious reintroduction of species we've now got beavers back in Scotland, various birds of prey. We have not yet got wolf so that's something we still got to aim towards. The last two parts of my module then look at some of the issues and challenges that came up during the course of this work, which range from ecological things like limited gene pool of some species to more social things like how do you get access to land in the islands where most of the land is owned by absentee landowners who don't have much interest in ecological restoration. And then finally looking at how did we work to overcome those problems. And we've got some good examples there of that. And although it's site specific to Scotland, a lot of what I talk about as general principles can be applied to any ecosystem, any forest ecosystem on the planet, because many of them are suffering from the same issues. So I think that's a quick resume for me. I've got lots of practical experience. And I started with nothing I think that's really important for people who are thinking about this course because you're maybe thinking well, these people in this course the teachers are all experts well I started with no knowledge, no experience, and I learned along the way and I think that's also an important part of what we can offer to. So, I probably used up my time, I'll pass on to the next person. Thank you Alan and hopefully the people that sign up to this course and the ones who've already taken it will go ahead and do as much for the world as you've done. Very happy to have you here with us. Now we're going to go to remise. Could you introduce yourself for me some what your lesson is about. Sure. First of all, greetings everybody. Please forgive me for my moving. And my, my module is covering an application of permaculture design principles within a design context that's placed in in the Middle East and Jordan in the Dead Sea Valley. And this is project work that I had a chance to become involved in really it through my, my, my contact with Jeff and Nadia Lawton. Who are my, my mentors, they, they at the time were the people behind the permaculture research Institute, and Nadia being Jordanian was kind of the gateway to being able to start and they started. I did the form a couple of projects called greeting the desert. Sort of one in two. The second project started about 10, roughly 10 years ago at 10 or 12 years ago. And in an area called jewelry. And this is in sort of a general portion of the world that's considered to be the low at the lowest point on earth, which is roughly about 400 meters below sea level. So it's a it's a very, it's a very challenging context that calls for design work to be done in a very particular manner, if it's to be successful. It's to be functional and viable in the long term. So the, the project is actually worth it we've done for a couple of Jordanian government agencies, one of them being the National Agricultural Research Center, another one being the department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Planning. And the, the, the hope was that we could provide a means by which to demonstrate a method of producing food stuffs in a way that doesn't require as much water as they're presently using. In addition to being able to withstand a climate and conditions that are becoming increasingly more and more difficult. So, this was a brief that, interestingly enough, an Italian student of mine brought to my attention, and it actually was in part shaped with the help of Jeff Lawton based on the work that he had done at his greening the desert to site. So on the basis of the work that was done there, and an opportunity to speak to some farm owners by way of the Jordan Valley Valley Water Authority back in the fall of 2015. This this basically built up to the creation of a brief that then was given some funding and and had an opportunity to begin to be established. We're still in the midst of talking about, again, some of the practical implementation of the design, but the design work itself is is is firmly in place and only enough just this past week we just received a bit more work from those government partners. So what what I took what I cover in the, in the class is not only some of the technical aspects of how do you design within in our context, but there's also this this, how do you navigate the human landscape, as well, that that that's needed in order to actually be implemented. And, and, and hopefully it'll bear some some some some fruit and benefit for the community at large that that will be interacting with it. Thanks for me. Yeah, being able to recreate a functional ecosystem like the one that you've been working on in Jordan in such a place where there's so little organic matter and rain and all of the things that you would hope there would be is a real testament to your skill and yeah I'm sure there are some students out there or some potential students people considering it who would like to know how to rehabilitate such a degraded piece of land. So yeah, happy to have you very happy indeed. And we'll go to precious now. Hi everyone, my name is precious period and based in Zimbabwe way I am practicing and so an accredited professional training and educating and facilitating holistic management with communal groups and sometimes NGO partners and also working with partners who have communities that they are assisting along the national parks, who are communities really in mostly conflicted areas. And then I have experience of working with pastoral groups, especially from Kenya. And so I have a bit of experience in those areas just using holistic management and the tools of holistic grazing. I'm also in an African coordinator for regeneration international where I also use the skills of holistic management to continuously educate and spread the message of regeneration even at policy level here in Africa. Okay, so I'm just going to talk a bit about my course, which is restoration or regeneration of range lens using holistic plant grazing. So that's just basically a tool which is in the holistic management framework. So the structure of my course is, first of all, introduces the broader aspect of range lens desertification, how much we've been losing soil and fertility of soil, and obviously impacting on our big landscapes which are range lens and most of those kinds of range lens they're about 70% of the world's lands. They are being affected by loss of soils and natural resources due to how we manage or run our livestock or agriculture. So if you check the UNFA or report say 65% of soil loss is due to agriculture. And so agriculture is growth of food and fiber from the world's land and waters. So I think holistic management really cuts across all disciplines that are to do with production of these things. So the first one looks at the broader sense of the problem. What causes land degradation and what are the impacts. So I'll be sharing from my experience, which is about 15 years of my journey in holistic management, having been engaged with the savory center here where I work for nine or 10 years as an as a training coordinator. And then now I've grown to really affect the broader landscape of regeneration. So when we, so with my experience in the sub Saharan Africa and the pastoral lens, how this has caused lots of insecurities so we share all that in the first module. And then the second one is our biggest and main content, which is the juicy pot if you want me to use that word where we look at the framework and the actual practice of holistic plant grazing and animal impact and like how it really works with animals and the land and how do you get to a decision of what tools to use. So just to, I think to demystify some fears, most people say, Oh, but I live in a space that doesn't have livestock. Or that doesn't need kettle, for example, because most people feel like holistic management advocates for kettle only. No, it is a decision making framework. So you can use it even to implement permaculture or any agricultural process, but then it helps you make those decisions to have a practice that is suitable to your own environment, which is why I find it very important to start from the framework before we go to the actual tools. Because most instances if you can access, for example, resources of holistic management, I'll show you like just this one book, it's easy for you to just go step by step in actually implementing but then there are lots of fundamental truths that we have to unearth together as a class while you keep referring to your own context of work. That that piece is sharing on the results of holistic management and holistic grazing from what I've learned and from my experiences. So you share those results really with an intention. I share those results with an intention to also show the potential that holistic management has to resolve in one of the world's most pressing problems. We are in the midst of climate extremes. And I think it's very important for us to be talking about issues such as these. And the reason why it's really, I find this platform really amazing is because to implement issues like holistic management frameworks. It takes lots of transformative development. And so I get to share all the experiences of some of the challenges that we face in this work. So when we've shared the results and the potential, then we go to the last segment which really dives into why, what have I learned is causing lack or barriers of implementation to the holistic management tools or tools of land regeneration and restoring range lens. So this is both from my own experiences and other farmers experiences and I usually like taking on the Q&A last time that I came in because people then share what they think is their own barriers as well. And that helps you to kickstart how you can resolve or start working into the barriers for true transformation to actually take place. So I hope that you will find it useful and helpful. It keeps challenging the way we think and we look at our world. And that's what I have learned and drawn from. So I look forward to learning to get out with you. Thank you. Thank you, Precious. Okay, now let's go to Rishi. Farmer Rishi. Hi, everyone. I'm Farmer Rishi. Like Ashley mentioned, I'm based in Los Angeles. I'm an urban farmer and educator. I do a lot of teaching now. And this is one of the courses that I'm involved in. This is a little background about myself. I've been in the urban farming world, urban gardening world here in Los Angeles for the last 10 years. I'm the executive director of a nonprofit organization here called Servodia Institute. And we manage several urban gardens and urban farm and a nursery. And we helping people get involved in gardens in urban spaces. But more than that, really to start to see the urban world as a garden, to see the urban world as nature. And realize that, you know, the same healing and regeneration that we see as possible, you know, in our rural landscapes and our agricultural landscapes is possible in our urban landscapes. My work also focuses on kind of this personal healing process that we all I feel are going through and need to go through, which is can be actually significantly more difficult than restoring gardens. That doesn't play too much into what I've provided in this course, but that's more of my personal work. I'm also the co-founder of a new company called Healing Gardens Community, what we're doing there, which is really related to what I speak about in my session for this course, is seeing urban gardens as spaces for healing and therapy and as necessary spaces for helping people find their connection to themselves in urban spaces where we are often asked to constantly be on the go and kind of ignore our own needs. So we are creating a platform that is helping urban gardeners share their spaces, make money by sharing their spaces and creating access to, you know, really beautiful, you know, gardens that when you walk in, they kind of stop your heart and give you that chance to breathe. My session for this ecosystem restoration course, my session really is maybe quite different than what you would expect for an urban gardening course. I do give you some of the practical tools that you need to restore soil health to create gardens. Really, what I focus on more in my session is what urban gardens mean and what they really provide in this urban fabric in our urban communities. Like I've mentioned, I've been doing this for so many years and I think what I've really found over the past 10 years is that I've tried so many different ways to share our urban gardens with people, mostly focused on teaching them or like trying to get them started composting or trying to get them started growing vegetables. And what I found is that most people, you know, people, you have to understand where people are at, especially in, you know, living in an urban area, having a job, having kids. People are really busy, stressed and asking them to take on, you know, additional work, you know, to save the earth. Usually it doesn't help that much. And so what I found is that actually people are the way to bring people into this work, the way to bring people to once again see the value of land, to see the value of gardens, to see the necessity of humans taking up our role again as caregivers and weavers of ecosystems and gardens. The best way to do that is to just bring them into gardens where they can really feel the importance of, you know, this kind of work that we do as gardeners, as farmers, as people who care for land. You know, people when they can sit in these spaces, when they can, you know, maybe sit and meditate when they can sit and just be with themselves, when they can be with family, when they can bring their kids and they can find play and enjoyment, especially in, you know, difficult times such as these, the value of those spaces hits them much harder than if I were to invite them to the garden for a composting workshop or, you know, a tree pruning workshop. Those are kind of, for me, becoming secondary to the experience of being in a garden that's really been, that's had a lot of love poured into her. So, yeah, my module focuses on this finding what the actual value of gardens are in urban spaces, how to express that value, and also how to make a living from urban gardening, or at least maybe not make a living but make a reasonable income from urban gardening to so that it doesn't become an additional burden on you. As I've seen, you know, so many, so many people burnout doing this work, especially in urban spaces so trying to create, and that's what we're trying to do with healing gardens is really create a create a model system where people can can create urban gardens create really beautiful bountiful urban gardens and be supported in the work that they do, and really make an impact on their communities, especially, you know, in urban areas where we have so many communities of color who have experienced, you know, historic trauma who have been dispossessed of land who have had, you know, ancestors killed or, you know, there's just so much trauma pain, and suffering that is held in the bodies of a lot of urban populations. And so I'm a lot of my work is is working to create these gardens where people can can kind of settle and face some of these traumas and that pain and and hopefully find a way through it. So, yeah, that's what I'm offering. And I'm very glad to be part of this this course. Thank you. Yeah, what I really liked about your contribution to this course has been the multi dimensional element of your presentation and your work and the realism in it, and many people will probably realize now after having listened to you and when they take the module. Those already have taken your lesson that it's, you need to think creatively in order for ecosystem restoration to be financially viable. And so I thought it was a really great addition to the course, what you what you were teaching about what you just mentioned here. Last but not least, Dan. Go for it. Yes, so good evening everybody. I'm Dan from the Netherlands. I live in the city of Dendolder. Nobody will know it. It's a small village in a wooded area near the city of Utrecht. For the past five years, I've been working on a project called the tiny forest. Before that, I was triggered by what Alan said, I have a master degree in business administration so I didn't know anything about soil, anything about plant communities, nothing about trees. But I saw this TED talk on how to recreate tiny urban forests. And ever since then, I've been creating these forests everywhere in Holland, because we are one of the most densely populated countries in the world, heavily urbanized. And more and more people in the world grow up in cities nowadays and they're literally far away from nature. They don't have any space to connect. I really love the part about Rishi that says nature can be healing places within cities. So I've been working on restoring our natural habitat as human beings, but not in a very large-scale operation, but in very small tiny forests. So it's about a 200 square meter dense natural forest. It's as big as about 10 parking lots. And we've been working to convert schoolyards which are mostly made out of stone in the Netherlands and making in people's gardens and creating forests in just any type of urban area and moving to company grounds now. So in my module, I'll talk a bit about what the main causes for ecosystem degradation are in the cities. Then I'll move on to how to actually create a tiny forest, how to test the soil, how to improve it so that trees can grow there, how to identify the plant communities that would have grown there had we not intervened. And see how you can make a design that doesn't only invite nature but invites people. And I'll talk a lot because that's one of the main reasons I got into this project. I'll talk about how to connect urban kids growing up without nature, how to connect them to nature. So in the fourth module, I'll talk about, well, my lessons learned throughout all the projects of trying to restore nature in urban areas because there's a lot of hurdles. So I'll talk about how to find locations, which is always a big problem, how to arrange for your funding, how to deal with unexpected things that come your way. So I'll try to give you an overview and see if I can set you up to start a tiny forest yourself. Well, this week was really exciting because I actually talked to two or three participants from last course and they were actually creating a tiny forest in their yards in some place in Amsterdam. So I'm very excited that this course is running again because it works because people get started on restoring nature and restoring their bond with nature and how we connect to the natural world. Yes, so hopefully you'll enjoy my course and I've kept in touch with a couple of students. So I'm looking forward to meeting some of you guys during or after the course. So that's what I'll be teaching. Thank you. One of the things that I love most about this course is that you will get to learn as a student you get to learn directly from the experiences of 18 of 18 very impressive people who have really achieved a lot in the field of restoration and you get to learn directly from them. It adds to the tech, not only the techniques they use, but like the teachers just said, what were their challenges and how did they overcome them. And I personally feel that learning directly from experiences is one of the best ways to learn. That leads us nicely to the next point of discussion which is why is ecosystem restoration important especially right now at this time in human history and why should people take this course. So is there anyone feeling particularly called to answer this question first. Ramesh got his hand up first. Yeah, so I think the Jordanian example is is interesting because it's it's sort of in a region that is in the crosshairs of, you know, all all of the issues that converge. And, and very clearly make obvious why this is, this is an urgent matter that has to be dealt with because, you know, a lot of what's happening, a lot of what's happening in the, you know, in the Middle East is intimately tied to, you know, a number of issues that I'm going to that come out of this long historical arc of of environmental degradation. So for example, when I when I first, my first time in Jordan, which was in 2011. I was actually scheduled to go teach a design course in Palestine. And before going into the West Bank and before going into the West Bank I was supposed to go to Syria to the Northeast to an area called known as El Hasaka. And day at a slower. So this is up up in the Northeast of Syria, which actually is has quite a bit of agricultural land is agricultural area will write when I was about to make the plans to make the trip. That's, that's where the events. First started that led to the Civil War in Syria in the city of Dara. And actually it was, it was the events that started in Dara that prevented me from making the trip. Now, in looking at the history of the conflict, one of the reasons why the situation in Dara flared in the way that it did was because, for about five years prior, there had been a chronic drought in Syria that led to a very large migration of people from out of the rural areas into roughly about a million and a half people. And I think this this was, I think at the time is seen as being this was actually an unprecedented event in terms of the mass migration of people that was due to the fact that because of this long track of environmental degradation that has as precious had mentioned has agriculture as its primary mode of being brought into being that this, this is something that we're seeing take place in so many different parts of the world. And the reason why again the Middle East so a particular interest is because this is an area that is especially, it's especially difficult because the so many of the areas in the Middle East have not a lot of rainfall. Because of the long histories in a human presence, you have very long histories of agriculture and cultivated land that then results in these problems be being that much farther along in their in their progression. And so when we look at the situation in Syria, Iraq, you look at a place like Egypt, obviously Israel, Israel Palestine, all of those conflicts have as a backdrop, environmental degradation and desertification. So if you look at a lot of the latest numbers that have been published proper for the past 15 or 20 years, at least 10 to 15 years, we're losing roughly 10 to 12 million hectares of land a year. You know, we're looking at and again precious quoted some of the other fixtures that figures that are tied to what she was talking about holistic management. And those figures are going to continue to accelerate in terms of the amount of land that desertifies or degrades, which means that people are not going to be able to live in those regions because those landscapes can't they can't produce the things or provide the functioning that people need in order to live a life. And until, again, the problem of land degradation and desertification until that particular problem is focused on and then the things that are necessary to to stop it and then hopefully reverse it until those things are done. All of the different problems that we currently see in the world are just going to get worse and worse. Everything from armed conflict and food and water and security internally displaced peoples refugee populations. All of these things are going to continue to become more serious problems in addition to climate change. Indeed. So, it is essential that we restore the world's ecosystems as soon as possible, preferably within the next 10 years. So we have a lot of work to do. And everyone in this call is working towards that and hopefully all of you watching want to join in as well. Alan, you're next. Thanks. Yeah, just very briefly following on from what Ramey said very articulately the history of human cyber civilization on planet Earth has been the history of exploiting ecosystems to the point of destruction. If you look at the Middle East as an example where civilization Western civilization said to be gone in the fertile crescent. It's now present day Iraq and it's all desertified. And that has expanded out all over the world as humans have spread. And we're now destroying the last ecosystems on the planet in the Amazon in Borneo and in the deep oceans. So the future of human civilization on the planet depends on doing something that's never been attempted before. We've actually got to reverse the damage we've got to engage in restoration on a massive scale. And about 20 years ago, when I was working on restoring the Caledonian Forest in Scotland, I had this sense that that was not enough. We actually need to do it on a planetary scale. So my vision since then has been that the 21st century will become known as the century of restoring the earth. Where all peoples, all nations, all cultures come together behind the first shared task of all humanity. We've never had a goal that unites every before. Surely it has to be taken care of our home, the one thing we share planet Earth. And we need, you know, masses of people to take that on pioneering projects have sprung up in the past 10, 20, 30 years in various parts of the world, many of them represented on this course. And now it needs to be taken forward by a new generation of people because there's work to do everywhere. Most environmental campaigns in the world today, Greenpeace and all the rest of them, excellent work is damaged limitation, but it's no longer enough. If all the destruction is stopped tomorrow, we've still got a planet whose capacity to support life today is a fraction of what it was two, 300 years ago. So the future is restoration. And that has to be something that becomes an integral part of all cultures, all countries, all societies. And this course is essential as providing some of the training that will help set that in motion. So for people who are interested in this, you know, there's huge potential out there. I made it my life work to engage in restoring the forest in Scotland. We need tens of thousands of people to do the same thing all over the planet and the people who are signing up for this course I see as some of those who will step forward and do that in the future. Indeed. Dan. Yes, yes. Well, we're really well said by Alan and Ramees and what I would like to add because we tend to get a little really serious about about restoring the earth and maybe, and I think it's a serious business but the thing is, once you get started on this, you will have a lot of fun, you know, it's great to watch the forest grow or to see your garden flourish, to connect with people while meet people who actually care about this and to restore earth. So it will bring you hope because I remember Al Gore destroying my confidence that the earth could be healed again. I think it was when I saw the documentary of John Liu about restoring the last plateau in China that I thought, well, this is a story of hope. I want to get involved in this. And I got the chance to do that when when I started creating these tiny forests, but I went to a planting day in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Holland today and it's so much fun watching those kids sing little songs about pineapples and papayas. So I just want to say it is serious business, but once you get into this, it will lift your spirits and make you happy. So do it for yourself as well as well as yours. Indeed. Yeah, it is very transformational to have such purpose and meaning. And I can't think of anything more purposeful and meaningful than restoring the earth's ecosystems and having time of your life at the same time. So now we will move on to the questions from you all out there. Ben has been very effectively collating them and answering the ones that he knows the answers to so I'm just going to go through them. I'm going to answer the ones that are specifically about the course first. So Lotja, I hope I pronounced your name right. This is a question for Saskia and Nuva. Is it possible to book parts of the course and later add more modules later on? Yes. So you're definitely able to register for one module and then later on if you decide if you're, for example, not sure about taking another module can decide later on. Although we would recommend to register either for the full course or for a number of modules in advance because we had an issue in the first edition that a lot of places were sold out very quickly. So we encourage everyone to sign up to the modules that they want to do as early as possible. Yeah. And just to add to that, if you do decide, say you sign up for module one and you want to pay for module two but want to pay for it later. We recommend that you sign up with no less time than a week before the module starts and if you can, if you take a module one and you know you want to take module two but you just haven't paid for it yet, you know, three or four or five, just let us know so that we can reserve your space. Because yeah, last time the course sold out, we're hoping that it will again. So just giving us as much time as possible, but we can be flexible to accommodate you. Okay, so thank you. That one has been answered. And it says how is it similar slash different to a PDC. I have a PDC and trying to wrap my head around how the skillsets between this and a PDC are different. It has farmer Rishi here is answering that question. Was it a direct question to Rishi Janet, or was that your suggestion then I feel like I'm better placed to answer that question saying as I. Yeah, go for it. So this course gives you an array of ecosystem restoration rehabilitation and regeneration techniques and examples of projects from around the world that some of them are specifically permaculture projects such as remixes lesson and some of them use completely different methodologies. What is it grazing is its own methodology. Tiny forests and the Miyawaki method is its own methodology. And so, whereas permaculture talks about the design framework in this course permaculture is just one of the design frameworks rather than the only one. So you're learning about many different types of design and implementation strategies and techniques with permaculture being just one of them. So I hope that answers your question. If it doesn't feel free to write me an email I can talk to you about it in more detail I will ask Ben to put my email address in the chat. Does the course also address economic and political factors that inhibit restoration. In other words, as restorers we're going to run into all sorts of resistance how is it best to prepare for this. Yeah, so the course was designed specifically to focus on multiple dimensions of restoration, not just the ecological techniques and phenomena but also looking at what is the what are the social factors at play what are the economic factors what are the political factors and there's a specific video to each each lesson which last one week which is run by one teacher. Each lesson has between one and five videos and in each lesson the teacher focuses on what were the challenges that I came across what was the political context or social context cultural context that I'm working in. So yeah it's very multi multi dimensional and that respect. Did you want to say anything else on that. Yeah. I think, sorry. That's, I think, you know that that aspect is the one that's that that can often be overlooked. Sort of the, I mean, that would certainly be part of the sort of the human dynamics. I mean this is this is also you know an aspect of you know that's kind of the invisible structures portion of a permaculture design course at least one that that is. But you know well taught, because oftentimes many, many projects end up failing actually because of because of that factor. Yeah. And a lot of the and a lot of the, you know the technical nuts and bolts of the land stuff is is actually pretty straightforward. The curveballs come when you actually start dealing with people and you know and institutions and you have to navigate bureaucracies and all of these things. So there, you know there aspects of certainly aspects of that that I touch on in my module. Because those those were, and still are the biggest obstacles overcome. I mean, I mean, aside from the difficulties of, again, trying to create, you know, create a design or put together design that works. You know, in an in an arid environment, but you're also talking about dealing in a country that has massive refugee population, not a whole lot of money. Some problematic aspects to how again, the you know government bureaucracy works to the point that a lot of Jordanians don't really even understand how you know how how the government works. So, you know, this is something that certainly needs to be factored in and and I know that I believe I believe that a number of us actually discuss, you know, some of those some of those features. Yeah, I'm the only one that has seen all of the lessons, I think, apart from the students that have taken the course before and the facilitators but yeah, it is definitely a multi dimensional approach that the lessons take towards restoration in all of its elements, social, political, cultural and ecological and economic and the economic side of things has its own module all together. So you'll look at four different types of well for presenters that discuss multiple business businesses, business models that will that are being used right now to fund ecosystem restoration and then if you do do module five which is the practical module, you'll be creating a business plan and using something called a business model canvas so the economic side of things is definitely quite a large part for course as well. Bella says if we take the entire course at what point do we join with a group for a group project in module five. It's module on the course and the way that it works is the students can propose projects that they would like the group student groups to work on. So maybe Ben, you'd be best to describe how this bit works because Ben is a facilitator would you be happy to. Sorry, I must say I was answering a question on the live chat. The question was, what point do we join with a group for a group project I was wondering if you could explain a little bit more about how module five works. Yeah, so the final part of the course, which is six to eight weeks. It is all about group work so that is in the last two months of the course. And the students who have access to land, which this last round of the course there were 25 projects. And each projects got together with other students and they worked out how they were going to rehabilitate the ecosystem on that piece of land. So we have currently we're in the last module of the course, the previous round of the course. So there were 23 projects and each project now has a design and a lot of the projects are actually also continuing after the course. So the teams that were formed during the course are continuing after talking to local municipalities looking for funding and are moving into the implementation phase of the work so that did answer the question. So what it did for me, hopefully, she can follow up again. If she'd like any more information. But yeah the beautiful thing about this course is that it does create real restoration projects. One of the restoration projects is now an ecosystem restoration camp, and is being worked on physically by students from the course that met on the course. And we hope to see more of that in the future because it's really cool. Okay, please confirm that all class lectures will be recorded and we can do the class in our own time. Yes, so each lesson has pre recorded videos. And then once a week on a Monday, there would be an opportunity for you to have a live Q&A with the teacher for an hour, where you can ask them any questions that you have that arose from watching their videos. And then there's a written reflection at the end of each week which is like a short thought piece on a question about the topic that's covered in that lesson. And that's how the grading system works. How have previous student graduates found jobs afterwards? Well, it's hard to say right now because the course hasn't finished. People are still in process of finishing it. I think it might take a little bit longer to realize this and know for sure, but as soon as it does happen, we'll be very happy to talk about it because it's something we'll be very proud of. And maybe it has happened, but I'm not sure yet. Ben, do you know? Has anyone found a job yet? I mean, what's been interesting to see is that the students are often engaged with different organizations and projects and initiatives outside the course. And what we've seen is that through networking and getting to know each other through Q&As and through the projects in Module 5 is that some of their initiatives sort of get a boost in that way through networking and also through the things that they learn on the course and the contacts they get with the teachers and the facilitators. But we don't have any sort of data or what you would call it on how it has improved employment prospects. Someone else in the last Q&A asked a similar question to this and I think what we're trying to do with this course is to give you the skills, the contacts and the support to create your own job. Because the field of ecosystem restoration has been quite niche and academic up until now and now it's becoming more mainstream, but certainly not to the point where you can go onto a jobs website and there are loads of paid jobs available. Most of the people who are here and our teachers in the course have created their own projects and hence that's why we give you lessons on business modelling and fundraising. And you can have the option as well of your project becoming an ecosystem restoration camp. So is that support as well? Yeah, that's why the course was created to create more restoration jobs. Yeah, that's the answer to that one. Actually, just one thing to add, because I was just clarifying some things, but about watching the videos or the recordings, they will stay online, but once the course is finished, you will not be able or the content will not be available. So each module will open up and then you will still be able to watch recordings of the modules that have opened, but once the course has ended, the whole classroom basically closes as well. Yeah, but each of the lessons, each of the videos, the presentations, the PowerPoint presentations that the teachers use are available in PDF form after the course. Gerald says, is there a video that gives a sampling of info in the course? If you mean, is there an example of one of the lessons? Dan has kindly donated some of his material to show you an example of what the course lessons are like. So that will be available, yes. I hope that's what you meant, Gerald, if it's not, let me know. Just to mention, we also have the handbook that we can send out to people if people are interested. Yeah, the handbook has lots more information about the course than is currently on any of the websites. So if you send an email to Saskia or me, then we can send it to you. Can you, Ben, I'll just give you Saskia's email right now. And you can share it. Is people care at gyroeducation.org, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Then there's more of a political question for Ramees. How can one amplify this project? I think that means the project in Jordan and make it mandatory for all governments, especially the ones impacted by climate crisis. Who would that be possible and what would it take? It's a big question with one minute six. I guess give somewhat of an account of as to how things had gone down and said this was a project that was an outgrowth of Jeff and Nadia's work in Jordan. I mean really since 1999. And so, interestingly enough, the current project was actually born from the first project sort of failing, because it was a project that was done for a Japanese NGO that ended up pulling out of the project. And because there was no ownership over the site that actually the work was being done on, it's almost as if, not almost as if it didn't happen, but there was no opportunity to really be able to continue the project and then show how it develops over time. Because, you know, that there wasn't the ability to be able to manage it. So, the current project is the current project site is actually actually owned by the Lawtons underneath the auspices of a nonprofit. And, and then because of what they've been able to demonstrate over over the course of the last probably at no 11 or 12 years. There are people that came in from government ministries that took note of what was being accomplished and then actually over time they actually started to send people from those ministries to train at the site. And then this also kind of filtered down to, you know, some of the, the business community, as far as, you know, farm owners in the valley. And then this eventually led to the creation of an actual project that would be established at some of the agricultural research sites in the in the Jordan Valley. So, again, demonstrating ways in which they can produce their food stuffs but but again without as much water, because you know water is a really serious issue in in Jordan. I think I'd mentioned in the last time we had a Q&A. The threshold for water for severe water scarcity is about 500 cubic meters per capita per year, and Jordan has roughly 145 to 155 cubic meters of water available per capita per year. So that's about 30% of the 30% of the severe threshold for water scarcity so obviously, because of the rate of extraction of water. They have to do something. So this is like, they're being forced to actually, you know, start looking at considering ways to change policy. And you can see this happening in other places in the, you know, in the region. So there's there's that aspect of typically it's something that's brought about, you know, from what can be projected as being, you know, a potential disaster arising on the, you know, arising on the horizon. And hopefully, you know, hopefully things don't have to get super, super dire in order for for governments to take action because if it does get to that point that it's too late. So, typically it's a matter of, you know, hopefully people in government paying attention to some of these indicators and then realizing that they have to change course. And that has been at least my experience. You know, with that, you know, I have a chance to actually interact with some of those people that are curious about making some of those changes. It is happening, isn't it, Rumi? So there are governments now that are taking this into consideration and there have been in the past. John documented the Rwandan government taking ecosystems restoration very seriously. So yeah, fingers crossed that more and more realize I know the UK government is thinking about incentivizing more nature friendly farming probably isn't going far enough. And actually, if I can just add really quickly, I see that the I think the questioner was somewhere in Africa in Namibia. I believe that's what it said in the text. So there was another, there was an, there was another example, actually not far from where they are. And I was just speaking to Jeff about this the other day. He's the one that brought this to my attention. There is an example in from the 1950s where in Swaziland, there was actually something called the King's Order. That was declared which required farmers to lay their farms out on contour. So they would actually create these grass strips to prevent soil erosion, because again it was under it was seen that this was a serious problem. And in order to, in order to deal with that problem at a scale that would actually have some impact. There was a sort of, I guess a royal decree that was issued that actually required some of these measures to be put into place on a national scale. So, you know again that you know these these things have been known to happen periodically and we are actually seeing more changes as actually just said. I think the key is more public awareness and and desire for it. A lot of people don't even realize that the land that they're living on is degraded number one. And then when they do they're not really, they don't know that restoring is an option number two and it's not until you have a critical mass of the public who know about this and know that it's a solution that needs to be considered rapidly that government policy catches up quite often. Okay, we're going to move on now got a couple more last questions and we're going to close Catherine says if the courses online how do I visit the camp with many of us people around the world, I wish to do hands on learning. This course is online, but then the last module, like I said focuses on a practical project so some of the people that are taking the course are actually camp managers of existing restoration camps, and they are using the course to create their design for a new piece of land and it could be the camp land itself or land nearby. And so there are opportunities at the camps discretion for you to visit them and help them to create their design and implement it as part of the fifth module. So it's a blended course where it's both online and can be done practically through networking and collaboration with fellow students. There's a question about building methods. Yes, there is a lesson on regenerative housing developments from an example in Mexico, who there's a man called Daniel who's created a business called Navi Village, and he builds houses out of natural materials that use natural flows of energy to power them and also the land around the houses which is very desertified is restored through the presence of the house, which is really cool. So to answer your question. Yes, there is a focus on in there is a focus on alternative construction methods. It's very very diverse this course must say. So I think we have to close off now. Thank you so much everyone for being here for those of you in the call and those of you watching on YouTube. I'm really proud of this course and what everyone has created together. I think it is making a tangible difference and I'm really excited about welcoming 200 new students in January. If you have any more questions. Ben has put the emails of myself and Saskia. If if your questions related to content of the course and it's best to email me and if your questions will.