Learning and working together in and with nature.
Occasionally the entire OpenForests team gathers to work together, exchange, inspire, build strategy, and plan ahead.
This time all nine of us met for one week in a small wooden hut in the Austrian Alps.
Coming from the noisy and restless cities in which we often need to protect our senses from distraction and overload, in this very special place, surrounded by mountains, forests, and meadows, we could open our senses: looking into the horizon, hearing the wind and the birds, and smelling the alpine herbs.
Instead of hiding from our environment to be able to focus, this places invited us to open our senses and get connected without distraction.
Working almost always remotely, this gathering was the chance, to reconnect within the team and discuss our joint path ahead.
Why we liked this place and what we learned
The Alps impress by their monumental landscapes, formed not only by steep mountains, rocks, forests, but also by the man-made meadows, beautiful wooden huts, and the sound of cowbells. Even though the landscape is dominated by traditional pasture management, forestry, and holiday activities like skiing during the winter, it appears healthy and diverse.
Couldn’t this be an inspiration and model for managing landscapes for people and nature?
Reloaded with inspiration, we know better what will our work for the coming months be about, and furthermore, why we will do it.
We want to empower people to make forest landscape projects more biodiverse, social, resilient and transparent.
Our main focus of work during the coming months will be to create and develop explorer.land to a point where it inspires forest landscape projects to present, exchange and connect.
