Restore Nature

Restoring native ecosystems in Southern Portugal by increasing biodiversity, improving soil conditions and restoring the watercycle. Join us!

Based in ecofarm Vinha Velha, but building a regional network. Account managed by our founder Matthijs (Mattie)

09/03/2025

Join Mattie and put your hands in the soil while learning how to plant the food for now and the forest of the future.Through a simple practical approach, you’ll explore how to plant in agroforestry style, mimicking the strategies of nature.

We will implement a diverse system with (fruit) trees, shrubs, herbs and vegetables and touch upon regenerative concepts of stratification, natural succession and biodiversity

There are 2 seperate workshops on the 14&15th of March, if you want to deepen the knowledge come and join both of the days. You can reserve lunch in Vinha Velha's café after (€20)

No experience needed- just a love for nature and enthousiasm about all that is alive!

04/10/2024

What a great evening!
We are grateful that so many of you showed up, more then we expected! During the movie we estimated more then 60 people present.
Thank you Ludwig Schramm and Tamera Healing Biotope I - Portugal for creating this great piece of art. And make regeneration accessible to many!
Thank you Natacha Momo for hosting in your beautiful shala. We hope many more screenings will follow where you get the community together.
Thank you Rui Faria , Walt Ludwick and everybody else for your valuable contributions to the discussion after. And of course thank you our core team Matthijs Wansink, Jeroen Boss and for the initiative and leading the discussion.
More events around regeneration will follow in the next months, stay tuned!
If you want to be informed, pm us to join our telegram group or mailinglist.

16/04/2024

Join our workshop this Thursday, 9:30-13:00 at Vinha Velha! Probably the last planting workshop of this season.
We will experiment with the regenerative principles of Agroforestry, imitating nature's processes to restore and thrive. Combining high production with ecosystem regeneration. Let's plant for now and for the future!

10/04/2024

Join our new events this Friday or next Thursday!
Let's plant food and forests experimenting with the principles of agroforestry. Planting for now and future generations. Mimicking natural processes, synchronizing with our planet's strategies.
Join us this Friday (12-04) or next Thursday !

16/01/2024

's latest spontaneous planting on a Sunday afternoon. Densely planted line with fruit trees, productive shrubs, aromatic herbs, vegetables and a lot of native support species. Loads of seeds, cuttings and small plants. Mimicking the forest local forest ecosystem in experimental way through high biodiversity, natural succession and stratification.

15/01/2024

Before and after gave this system a regenerative pruning.
The main objective for this system is to regenerate the natural forest ecosystem by mimicking nature's processes. I experimented with high density, high biodiversity, stratification (mimicking the layers of a forest) and natural succession (choosing plants that help the system getting through every phase of development)
I integrated species that grow fast, produce a lot of organic material (biomass) and love a good pruning.

The pruning invigorates the whole system by:
* Giving the plants in the whole system new growth impulses, as they are all connected through the roots.
* Using the biomass to cover the soil around the plants has many advantages for the the system;
- Protecting the plants and microbiological life against heath and cold.
- Holding moisture in the system much longer to feed the plants, reducing the irrigation needs.
- Feeding crucial micro organisms (fungi, bacteria) that turn the biomass into gold: future fertile topsoil
* Opening up the system so the plants underneath receive more sunlight, stimulating photosynthesis (= the engine of nature that harvests the energy of the sun)

Everyone can learn from our biggest teacher nature that is not separated from us, but lives in all of us. It is up to us to remember and reconnect to this wisdom and reestablish a nurturing relationship with it.

Stay in tune for upcoming regeneration workshops and informative videos!

07/12/2023

Yesterday we implemented a small system with the intention to produce fruits and vegetables and regenerate this patch of the world.
In the design and implementation we let natural processes guid us by experimenting with:
- Stratification: mimicking the layers of a forest based on the light needs of all the different plants and their occupation in space
- natural succession: integrating plants of the different phases of the development of a forest ecosystem (time dynamics)
- biodiversity: mimicking nature's resilience and support system by integrating a lot of (mostly native) diversity in plants (around 25-30 species)
- Adding micro bacterial life to the top layer of the soil.
- Biomass: we covered the planting grounds with a thick layer of biomass, mimicking the protective forest flour. Also, this interacts with the fungi in the soil that in their turns help turning it into the future topsoil.
- We intend to tune into the heartbeat of this system and manage this plot with well planned pruning interventions that will feed the system with biomass and create growth impulses.

Looking forward to connecting deeper with this patch and seeing it progress!

21/11/2023

Restore Nature Foundation's team doing one of their favourite things: planting resilient, alive, beautiful forest ecosystems that honour our planet! From left to right: Jeroen, Manuel, Matthijs.
Become part of our mission!

Thanks to for the pictures and .leiber for the warm welcome.

16/10/2023

Restore Nature Foundation's core team: Jeroen, Manuel and Mattie. In their element, planting trees to restore landscapes.

24/09/2023

Join this wonderful celebration with some of the most inspiring facilitators the Algarve has to offer. Right here at Vinha Velha on the 28th & 29th of October.
With the intention to explore new ways of relating to self, others and our natural surroundings.
Really looking forward to this and to lead a workshop, putting our hands in the soil!

For more info and tickets send an email to [email protected]

The Jewel of Yoga

Endereço

Barão De São Miguel
8600-028

Website

https://restorenaturefoundation.org/

Notificações

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