Willem Ferwerda has an extraordinary background as an ecologist and international policy leader. But a little over a decade ago, after backing over 1,000 conservation projects, he decided to face down the fact that they weren’t making a dent in our slide into mass extinction and ecosystem collapse. He turned towards business and economics, and has since dedicated himself to building practical bridges between ecology and economy.
Since founding Commonland in 2013, his team has been applying its holistic ‘4 Returns’ framework to restoring landscapes at scale globally, across a range of ecosystems, and with brilliant success (including in my home state of Western Australia). Yet, the overall picture continues to worsen. So with 8 years of learning in hand, they’re gearing up a notch, and inviting us to join them, as a key element of the newly launched UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Willem and I first met on Ballardong country in the wheatbelt of Western Australia, at Oral McGuire’s place. It was a special few days spent with the Indigenous-led WA collaboration they’ve engaged with, that has been pivotal to Commonland’s evolution in recent years. We had a couple of open, warm and penetrating conversations about the state of things, and our respective observations about what is possible together.
Willem says he’s been watching ideas and talk of natural solutions move from marginal to mainstream over 30 years - that a transformation is afoot - across business, finance and economics, and above all in people’s search for meaning, purpose and spirit.
This conversation was recorded online with Willem at home in the Netherlands on Tuesday 29 June 2021.
Title slide: Willem Ferwerda in the Costa Rican forest in 1992 (supplied). Find more photos from Willem on the episode website.
Music:
Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae.
Find more:
Commonland
Willem’s personal post that prompted this chat (inc. film of the wolves returning to the Netherlands)
4 Returns Framework report
Full launch event featuring Oral McGuire & clips of global landscape restoration
Willem's personal video explanation of the 4 Returns Framework
4returns.earth online community platform
Green Gold, a documentary by John D Liu on the extraordinary story of the Loess Plateau in China (
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