International Forest Garden / Food Forest Symposium
Online 31 May-4 June 2021
and on-demand
Symposium Presentations
Welcome video
Adolfo Rosati: Research and farming experience in agroforestry: from theory to practice
Adolfo talks about the agroforestry research he is involved in at CREA in Italy, and about the diverse agroforestry on his and his wife’s farm.
aLp Pir: Functional Forests
aLp talks about the agroforests he calls Functional Forests which he designs and creates in Turkey. [See also: Mild/Mediterranean Forest Gardens panel Q & A]
Andreas Maier: Food Forest project in the Bavarian Alps
Andreas Maier describes his food forest project in the Bavarian Alps (Germany). [See also: Cold Climate Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Anne Stobart: A Medicinal Forest Garden: Problems and Solutions in Medicinal Agroforestry
Anne Stobart talks about the experiences of setting up and running her medicinal forest garden project in Devon, UK. She is also author of ‘The Medicinal Forest Garden Handbook’. [See also: Forest gardens and Health panel Q & A]
Bastiaan Rooduijn: A National Monitoring Programme for Food Forests
Bastiaan talks about the Dutch National Monitoring programme for food forests, which is monitoring and analysing a number of food forests to enable wider-scale rollout in the future.
Benjamin Brø-Jorgensen
Benjamin describes the challenges of setting up a forest garden in a far-northern climate in mid Norway. [See also: Cold Climate Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Bridget O'Brien & Charlie Brennan: In Defense of Food Forests
Bridget & Charlie argue for a critical reflective practice approach to Food Forest design and offer a series of ’Tips & Tricks for Success’ based upon their experiences of teaching, designing, installing and maintaining food forests in the US, UK & Australia.
Chris Mallorie: Fruit tree pruning for forest gardens
Chris talks about a different methodology for pruning apple trees more relevant to agroforestry and forest garden systems.
Conor Kendrew: Soil Research in the ART Forest Garden
Conor talks about the soil research he undertook in the ART forest garden and nearby fields in the UK. He found that the soil in the forest garden was top in all the soil health variables and in carbon stored.
Dave Jacke: Reframing and Deepening into Guilds and Polycultures
Dave’s talk refines and clarifies the definition and use of guilds in forest garden design, improving on previous definitions from ecology and permaculture. Dave is the lead author of the classic ‘Edible Forest Gardens’. [See also: Mild/Mediterranean Forest Gardens panel Q & A]
Dave Jacke: presentation + Q & A
Dave Richards: Forest Gardening on a Roof
Dave talks about the RISC rooftop forest garden in the UK, how it was set up and is functions, and challenges in the future. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
Emma Pilgrim: Research on People, Forest Gardens and Wildlife
Emma talks about her research into UK forest gardens, especially looking at their value to people and wildlife.
Eric Toensmeier: Perennial Vegetables: Biodiversity, carbon sequestration, nutrition
Eric talks about his latest research into perennial vegetables and their role in creating biodiversity, carbon sequestration and improving nutrition. He is the author of the comprehensive ‘The Carbon Farming Solution’, also ‘Perennial Vegetables’ (of which a new edition is due soon) and second author of ‘Edible Forest Gardens’. [See also: Mild/Mediterranean Forest Gardens panel Q & A]
Eric Toensmeier: presentation + Q & A
Eva Johannsson: A pilot project to assess perennial vegetables for commercial production in Sweden
Eva talks about a research project in Sweden, where commercial vegetable growers are testing out different perennial vegetables, to assess their viability. [See also: Farm Scale Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Franck Nathié: Varieties and Species suited to productivity
Franck Nathié talks about the species he has found work best in his 20 years experience of designing and implementing forest garden systems in France.
Frank Gorter: Forest Farm Welna
Frank describes his plans to create a commercial 14 hectare food forest on the family estate in the Netherlands, replacing forestry with food forestry. [See also: Farm Scale Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Geneviève Michon: Forest gardening : a lesson for « eco - inspired » food production inspired by small farmers all over the world
Geneviève talks about forest garden examples from across the world created by small farmers. She is also the author of the excellent “Agriculteurs À L’ombre Des Forêts Du Monde”.
Geoff Lawton:Agroforestry Systems for global stability
Geoff talks about the importance of agroforestry systems to stabilise climate and other global systems. Also features film-maker and ecologist John Liu.
Geoff Lawton: presentation + Q & A
Graham Bell:Garden Cottage - Thirty years living in a forest garden
Graham gives a history of his forest garden in the Scottish borders, and talks about yields – not just of produce, but other less tangible (but possibly more important) yields. [See also: Cold Climate Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Graham Bell: presentation + Q & A
Jelle Fekkes: 50 Shades of succession for successful biodiverse landscapes
Jelle talks about succession and food forests, and how they can help in the creation of biodiverse landscapes. [See also: Farm Scale Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Jennifer Schulz: Urban Food Forestry in Germany
Jennifer talks about food forest projects in Berlin and other German cities, and the increasing acceptance of the technique by local authorities. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
Jenny Pickup: The Elephant in the Garden - Mental Health and suicide prevention in a Forest Garden
Jenny talks about her work in suicide prevention and why being out in nature and forest gardens is one of the best ways to improve mental health. [See also: Forest gardens and Health panel Q & A]
Jerome Osentowski: Indoor and Outdoor Permaculture
Jerome talks about his projects to make outdoor and indoor forest garden systems at the Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in the USA. He is the author of ‘The Forest Garden Greenhouse’.
Jo Homan: Forest Gardening in the City
Jo talks about the founding of Edible Landscapes London and how they have introduced forest gardening to many people via their training and volunteer sessions. She also gives a short tour about their forest garden. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
John Kent: Growing a food forest in Turkey in the Bodrum peninsular
John describes his young forest garden project in the Bodrum peninsular of Turkey. [See also: Mild/Mediterranean Forest Gardens panel Q & A]
Jouke Bruinsma: Low tannin cold - climate oak breeding
Jouke talks about his project to breed oaks with low-tanning acorns for cold climates, using hybrid swarms. [See also: Cold Climate Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Kath Rosen: Community Orchards in UK Cities
Kath Rosen talks about The Orchard Project, which is creating orchards across UK cities, and the natural progression to turn them into forest gardens. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
Louis de Jaeger: Food Forest Institute
Louis talks about founding the Food Forest Institute and his work in designing, educating and inspiring the greater use of food forests. [See also: Farm Scale Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Louise Gehin: The Bec Hellouin forest garden research programme and the new multistrata orchard
Louise talks about the research she was involved in at ‘Bec Houlluin’ (The farm of Perrine and Charles Hervé-Gruyer, made famous in their book Miraculous Abundance) and about her new multistrata orchard project.
Malika Cieremans: Turning a coniferous wood into a food forest - vision, design process and practise of "Het Voedselrijk"
Malika talks about her project in the Netherlands to turn a conifer forest into a food forest system. [See also: Forest to Food Forest panel Q & A]
Malte Rod: Where are all the perennial vegetable cookbooks?
Malte asks why, despite the rapid increase in interest in growing perennial vegetables, there are so few perennial cookbooks about?
Marieke Karssen: Building up the evidence with the crowd
Marieke talks about her Citizen Science project to build up the evidence of forest garden benefits.
Martijn Aalbrecht: How planting a food forest changed my life
Martijn talks about how he discovered food forests, and how they changed his life! [See also: Forest to Food Forest panel Q & A]
Martin Crawford: Maximising carbon storage in food forests
Carbon storage in growing systems is now critically important. Martin will talk out how, by using various techniques and choosing various option, carbon storage in biomass and soil in forest garden and food forest systems can be maximised. Martin is the author of ‘Creating A Forest garden’.
Martin Crawford: presentation + Q & A
Matt Reynolds: Cornish Projects
Matt is involved in two forest gardens in Cornwall (UK), one created from new and the other taken on after someone else started, and talks about the challenges and possibilities in a mild wet climate. [See also: Mild/Mediterranean Forest Gardens panel Q & A]
Maxime Leloup: Territorial evolution and agroforests, any room in France?
Maxime talks about his Masters thesis looking at about territorial evolution and forest gardens in France.
Minni Jain: Holding water in the landscape - the role of agroforestry in a healthy water cycle
Minni talks about how degraded and desertified landscapes can be brought to life by catching and storing water using low-tech systems, resulting in healthier landscapes and people.
Pablo Van Neste: Ecoliteracy program for school children in food forests
Pablo talks about an ecoliteracy programme in the Netherlands introducing school children to food forests.
Paul de Graaf: Designing food forests as publicly accessible spaces
Paul talks about how to design food forests as publically accessible spaces using his experience on various projects in the Netherlands. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
Paul Pivcevic:The National Forest Gardening Scheme
Paul talks about the UK National Forest Gardening Scheme, its aims and objectives, and successes so far to propagate forest garden ideas more widely to the general public.
Philipp Weiss: A Nordic Perspective on Forest Gardening
Philip is probably the leading Nordic forest gardener and has written a book on the subject. Here he describes the challenges of forest gardening in a cold northern climate and the adaptions required. He the author of the cold-climate forest gardening book “Skogsträdgården: odla ätbart överallt”. [See also: Cold Climate Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Philip Weiss: presentation + Q & A
Philippe Etienne: The Human Factor - Our Relationship with Nature
Philippe talks about how are fractured relationship with nature has led to ‘the great divide’, and how a new paradigm is required.
Pip Gilmore: How to set up your own Edible Wood Farm
Pip talks about setting up a mushroom production system using logs from forest thinnings to grow high-quality food.
P K Nair: Multistrata food - forest systems and ecosystem stability
PK has been researching agroforestry systems for 50 years and is a legend in the field. Here he talks about food forest and multistrata systems from across the world. He is the author of numerous papers and books, including joint editor of ‘Tropical Homegardens’.
Ricarbol Valdes: La Bosquicultura in Chile
Ricarbol talks about the history and potential of forest garden systems in the many different climate zones of Chile.
Ricarbol Valdes: presentation + Q & A
Rob Hopkins: What if … the future is forest gardens
Rob reflects on how creative positive thinking can help create a future where forest gardens are common.
Sabien Windels: Roof Food
Sabien talks about the founding of ‘Roof Food’ and rooftop forest gardening in Belgium. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
Sagara Vajra: The East Devon Forest Garden
Sagara talks about the creation of a unique forest garden project in Devon (UK) converting a monoculture field into to a diverse healthy ecosystem. [See also: Mild/Mediterranean Forest Gardens panel Q & A]
Salah Hammad: Agroforestry systems as a post disaster aid empowerment tool
Salah talks about projects he has been involved in, in Yemen, Jordan, Fiji, Guatamala and Vanuatu. He finds that teaching and empowering local farmers to explore agroforestry systems including food forests can be incredibly empowering.
Salah Hammad: presentation + Q & A
Sandra Alderden & Santitham Bonnetisane: The Interconnectedness of healing body and soil
Sandra and Santi talk about how their experience of living in a Buddhist Monastery relates to their permaculture project in the South of France.
Sebastian Pole: Pukka’s work in forest gardens and wild harvesting
Sebastian Pole founded Pukka teas and here he talks about their work in ensuring that wild harvesting of plants in agroforestry and forest garden systems is sustainable and fair. [See also: Forest gardens and Health panel Q & A]
Siegfried Tatschl: Edible Town - Edible Community - Fruit Orchards for ALL
Siegfried (Sigi) Tatschl talks about his project to introduce diverse orchards in public spaces in towns and villages in Austria. He is the author of “555 Obstsorten für den Permakulturgarten und -balkon“.
Simon Miles: The importance of forest gardens and our health
Simon Miles forest gardens in Cornwall, UK, and here he emphasises the importance of forest garden to our health. [See also: Forest gardens and Health panel Q & A]
Steven Heyde: Potential of food forestry for historic estates
Steven explains why historic estates are ideal venues for establishing food forests, with their history of food plant introductions and innovative attitudes towards growing systems. [See also: Farm Scale Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Steven Newman: Forest gardens in the UK
Steven gives a short overview of forest gardens in the UK and asks the question, how can we achieve the sort of yields Robert Hart thought were possible?
Steven Newman: presentation + Q & A
Stijn Heijs: Foodforest In ‘t Holt from forest to food forest
Stijn talks about his project to transform an existing conifer forest into a homestead and food forest in the Netherlands. [See also: Forest to Food Forest panel Q & A]
Susannah Hall: Permablitz London - creating urban forest gardens
Susannah talks about her work with Permablitz London, creating forest gardens in the city, as well as training and facilitating to maintain them. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
Thomas Regnault: Creating Forest Gardens to reclaim polluted soils
Thomas talks about two projects using forest gardens to reclaim degraded/polluted soils, which will include analysis of how much pollutants plants store and where in their biomass do they store them, hoping to find parts still edible. [See also: Urban Food Forests panel Q & A]
Tomas Remiarz: Researching Forest Garden practice: Current extent and potential
Tomas talks about his research into the extent and potential of temperate forest gardens.
Tycho Holcomb and Karoline Nolso Aaen: Myrrhis Agroforestry & Forest Garden
Tycho and Karoline talk about creating their forest garden in Denmark and expanding with a diverse agroforestry system to grow food for local supply.
Vimala Nair: Biochar as a Nutrient Source in Agroforestry Systems
Vimala has been researching nutrient us in agroforestry systems for many years. Here she talks about using biochar as a nutrient source, and explains why there are so many contradictory results from the science of biochar.
Violaine Mussault: An urban forest garden in Lille in a community garden
Violaine describes how a group of landscape architects in Lille, France, are setting up forest gardens in the city.
Wouter van Eck: Food Forests Future Role in Feeding the World
Wouter is a leading light in the Dutch and European food forest revolution and here he gives an update on his work. [See also: Farm Scale Food Forestry panel Q & A]
Xavier San Giorgi: Utopia Island & Urban Food Forest Rijnvliet - Adopting Agroforestry and Food Forests into our Broader Society
Xavier gives an overview of two major food forest projects in the Netherlands.