With this article, we want to share our story. A story of struggles, mishaps, not so funny failures, and a lot of learning. A story where our common values unite us and propel us to build a real community that stands for sustainable forests. A story that shares our mission of building the support system that is needed to help regenerative projects scale up.
We all wanted to change the world, but usually, stop doing this the other morning
In moments of deep friendship, we sometimes develop ideas of changing the world for the better. And this is the story of OpenForests and how it all started. In a tiny kitchen, late at night, we – Stefan, Patrick, and Alexander – were discussing our concerns over the state of the world’s affairs: injustice, politics, ethics, and exploitation of nature.
The discussion amplified our perception to a stage, where we clearly visualized the unique and fragile ecosystem we are all depending on. We understood that it might fall apart if we as a society were not able to care more for it. At this moment we felt that we have to act urgently!
Mostly after such discussions the next morning you swallow down your idealism with a good cup of coffee and go back to business as usual.
This time was different!
We were not happy about the state of the world and how everyone was operating and searched for fields to improve
After this late-night kitchen gathering, the three of us felt the urge and inspiration to realign our personal lives and focus. But before continuing this story, we want to properly introduce ourselves and give a little bit of a context of what we did before and what motivated our decision.
Patrick holds a Ph.D. in Physics, however, could not see direct positive leverage in the scientific world and ended this career. Instead of fundamental research, he got all in and established 2009 in Dresden a festival for educating people about a more sustainable way of life. The festival is called Umundu, has become a success, and is still growing until today. Recently Patrick brought the Umundu concept also to Lisbon (Umundu Portugal). Soon as the festival was up and running, Patrick wanted to direct his enthusiasm and organizational skills to support vulnerable rural communities and grassroots initiatives. Yet he was missing the right idea of how to start.
Meanwhile, Stefan a geoecologist, and Alexander a forester with a social finance background were working for a German forest investment company in Panama and Vietnam. Their task was to conduct forest inventories, evaluate forest projects, and build forest information management systems. They started out, recently graduated from university, the pockets full of optimism, fascinated and very motivated by the idea of reforesting degraded lands such as cattle farms in Panama or converting existing Acacia monocultures in Vietnam into mixed-forest systems. This sounded like a great idea, and even better if investors could make a decent return on investment by doing good for the planet?
The simplicity of this idea, however, collided with the complex reality. Quickly they experienced what can all go wrong with foreign investments in unstable developing countries:
- “Green” Leakage: Cattle rangers who sell their property for reforestation often use the remuneration to clear-fell another piece of adjacent pristine rainforest. For the clear-felled land they register the land titles, and sell it again to “green investors”. Besides the ecosystem destruction, land speculation is kicking in. More native rainforest (cheap land) is cleared as an effect of well-intended reforestation efforts.
- Land grabbing: Subsistence farmers and indigenous communities, who often only have traditional land use rights but no official land titles registered, get chased out because another party officially registered the land titles and took over all tenure rights to sell the property again to “green” investors.
- Miss management and fraud: The pledged and financed tree planting is not taking place or poor management practice is leading to high tree mortality.
During this journey of unexpected realities, Alexander and Stefan came to the conclusion that the sole monetary focus and the pure goal to scale is not sufficient to deliver any good results for sustainable reforestation.
While Stefan and Alexander were frustrated with how investor financed reforestation can be mismanaged and produce negative social and environmental impacts in the countries of the global south, Patrick was already looking out for possibilities to have the impact he intended.
We came together to start on our own, united by friendship and a common vision for more transparency
The next morning after our late night gathering it turned out that none of us wanted to go back to his previous life. Patrick faded out of his engagement with the Umundu festival and Stefan and Alexander quitted their regular jobs.
We understood and agreed that forests are a key to a future worth living in. And we wanted this future for us, our friends, family, and for generations to come! We wanted to do it better and leverage our positive impact!
