The seed
The AOF has grown organically, founded on friendship and reciprocity.
For over a year, Celia Francis & Sarah Scott (original co-founders), Florent Kaiser, Bill Liao, Marie-Noelle Keijzer, Suzanne Holmberg, Andrew Kinzer, Patrick Worms, and many other passionate leaders of reforestation and ecosystem restoration organisations around the world, held regular and informal conversations to share and discuss the challenges they were facing.
Increasingly, the need for a global community of land stewards was emerging.
Friendship
The AOF has grown organically, founded on friendship and reciprocity.
For over a year, Celia Francis & Sarah Scott (co-founders), Florent Kaiser, Bill Liao, Marie-Noelle Keijzer, Suzanne Holmberg, Andrew Kinzer, Patrick Worms, and many other passionate leaders of reforestation and ecosystem restoration organisations around the world, held regular and informal conversations to share and discuss the challenges they were facing.
Increasingly, the need for a global community of land stewards was emerging.
COP 26
“The Art of Forests” was formally launched in November 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow at the occasion of a first blended public gathering with 60 in attendance either online or in-person
Word of mouth
Membership has since grown very rapidly and organically – upon current members’ referral mostly – and has reached 180 members within two years. In parallel, we started holding private space for an increasing number of collaborative workstreams, and organising online events, and in-person gatherings – with very limited resources and much volunteer goodwill.
Charity status
After 3 years of successful experimentations, supporting land stewards and the development of nature-based solution projects across the planet, the AOF is now officially recognised as a charity (UK registered, n.1210198) in November 2024.
We are guided by new a board of trustees. This comprises Andrew Heald, COO and Co-Founder of Inovaland, Andrew MacCormack, Trustee of Marr-Munning Trust, Bees Abroad and Enterprise For Development, Francesca Mahoney, Founder & Director of Wild Survivors, Fredric Fournier, CEO of Open Forest Protocol, and Thomas Skirrow, CEO of TreeAid.
The values we share
Integrity
Equality
Transparency
Trust
Co-creation
What sets us apart
Members
Focusing our efforts on the project operators and developers, whilst developing circles of support around them from those in finance, technology, research, academia or other specialist fields. By nurturing connections across disciplines, we can ensure that policy and regulations are better aligned with real-world contexts, expediting the design and implementation of nature-based solutions.
Projects
Directly supporting projects on the ground: all members are involved in, connected to or supporting Nature conservation and/or restoration forestry. By connecting land stewards, stronger local and regional alliances are built, critical knowledge can be shared, and project development and implementation become easier and more effective.
Community
We are a grassroots community of actors on the ground of all shapes and sizes, where every group has an equal voice. The community is rooted in friendship and reciprocity, and all community gatherings are run using dialogic processes, which encourages authentic sharing and a "generative togetherness". As a result, members no longer feel alone or isolated and do not have to “reinvent the wheel”.
What sets us apart
Members
Focusing our efforts on the project operators and developers, whilst developing circles of support around them from those in finance, technology, research, academia or other specialist fields. By nurturing connections across disciplines, we can ensure that policy and regulations are better aligned with real-world contexts, expediting the design and implementation of nature-based solutions.
Projects
Directly supporting projects on the ground: all members are involved in, connected to or supporting Nature conservation and/or restoration forestry. By connecting land stewards, stronger local and regional alliances are built, critical knowledge can be shared, and project development and implementation become easier and more effective.
Community
We are a grassroots community of actors on the ground of all shapes and sizes, where every group has an equal voice. The community is rooted in friendship and reciprocity, and all community gatherings are run using dialogic processes, which encourages authentic sharing and a "generative togetherness". As a result, members no longer feel alone or isolated and do not have to “reinvent the wheel”.
What sets us apart
Members
Focusing our efforts on the project operators and developers, whilst developing circles of support around them from those in finance, technology, research, academia or other specialist fields. By nurturing connections across disciplines, we can ensure that policy and regulations are better aligned with real-world contexts, expediting the design and implementation of nature-based solutions.
Projects
Directly supporting projects on the ground: all members are involved in, connected to or supporting Nature conservation and/or restoration forestry. By connecting land stewards, stronger local and regional alliances are built, critical knowledge can be shared, and project development and implementation become easier and more effective.
Community
We are a grassroots community of actors on the ground of all shapes and sizes, where every group has an equal voice. The community is rooted in friendship and reciprocity, and all community gatherings are run using dialogic processes, which encourages authentic sharing and a "generative togetherness". As a result, members no longer feel alone or isolated and do not have to “reinvent the wheel”.
Our shared belief that we need to be and relate in new ways together to achieve what has not been achieved so far
-
Our Charter - All members have signed a Charter committing to relating in ways that:
- are rooted in trust, friendship and reciprocity, and
- nurture deep listening, inclusivity, transparency and equality
- The Assembly Process - We use the“Assembly process” for all our meetings and gatherings. This process is dialogic - reaching beyond rightful debates and fruitless discussions. It is based on the emergent design ensuring complete equality and wholeness in the sharing and a focus on collective intelligence as output.
Our shared devotion to nature and to the wellbeing of all as a result of our work
- Nature based solutions: We provide community, connections shared learnings, and specific project collaboration groups for land stewards in order to accelerate natural climate solutions. Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.
- Carbon and Biodiversity Markets: Current voluntary carbon credit markets are yet to be fully regulated - Article 6 from Cop 21 is still in need of clarification and of further international agreements - see our blog about it here. We aim to advocate and influence for greater equity in the financial distribution of carbon credit revenue across all key stakeholders - see our story of the voluntary carbon credit market here. Long-term, the Art of Forests Alliance seeks to empower the larger experienced restoration players, the long tail of project owners and developers, and national, regional, and community-level conservation, reforestation and ecosystem restoration organisations through training, topic specific collaboration to solve key challenges together, and mentoring.
Our shared belief that we need to be and relate in new ways together to achieve what has not been achieved so far
-
Our Charter - All members have signed a Charter committing to relating in ways that:
- are rooted in trust, friendship and reciprocity, and
- nurture deep listening, inclusivity, transparency and equality
- The Assembly Process - We use the“Assembly process” for all our meetings and gatherings. This process is dialogic - reaching beyond rightful debates and fruitless discussions. It is based on the emergent design ensuring complete equality and wholeness in the sharing and a focus on collective intelligence as output.
Our shared devotion to nature and to the wellbeing of all as a result of our work
- Nature based solutions: We provide community, connections shared learnings, and specific project collaboration groups for land stewards in order to accelerate natural climate solutions. Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.
- Carbon and Biodiversity Markets: Current voluntary carbon credit markets are yet to be fully regulated - Article 6 from Cop 21 is still in need of clarification and of further international agreements - see our blog about it here. We aim to advocate and influence for greater equity in the financial distribution of carbon credit revenue across all key stakeholders - see our story of the voluntary carbon credit market here. Long-term, the Art of Forests Alliance seeks to empower the larger experienced restoration players, the long tail of project owners and developers, and national, regional, and community-level conservation, reforestation and ecosystem restoration organisations through training, topic specific collaboration to solve key challenges together, and mentoring.
Our shared belief that we need to be and relate in new ways together to achieve what has not been achieved so far
-
Our Charter - All members have signed a Charter committing to relating in ways that:
- are rooted in trust, friendship and reciprocity, and
- nurture deep listening, inclusivity, transparency and equality
- The Assembly Process - We use the“Assembly process” for all our meetings and gatherings. This process is dialogic - reaching beyond rightful debates and fruitless discussions. It is based on the emergent design ensuring complete equality and wholeness in the sharing and a focus on collective intelligence as output.
Our shared devotion to nature and to the wellbeing of all as a result of our work
- Nature based solutions: We provide community, connections shared learnings, and specific project collaboration groups for land stewards in order to accelerate natural climate solutions. Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.
- Carbon and Biodiversity Markets: Current voluntary carbon credit markets are yet to be fully regulated - Article 6 from Cop 21 is still in need of clarification and of further international agreements - see our blog about it here. We aim to advocate and influence for greater equity in the financial distribution of carbon credit revenue across all key stakeholders - see our story of the voluntary carbon credit market here. Long-term, the Art of Forests Alliance seeks to empower the larger experienced restoration players, the long tail of project owners and developers, and national, regional, and community-level conservation, reforestation and ecosystem restoration organisations through training, topic specific collaboration to solve key challenges together, and mentoring.
Some of our members
