Nordic By Nature

First we hear from Ajay Rastogi who works closely with the women of Majkhali village in foothills of the Himalayas, in Uttarakhand, India. He set up the Vrikshalaya Centre there to be a meeting place and knowledge hub for the villagers and other communities in the Himalayan lowlands, as well as foreign visitors and homestay guests interested in more meaningful forms of sustainability.

Then Nadia Bergamini speaks about facing the growing global challenges of population growth and climate change through agro-biodiversity. Nadia works at Bioversity International and runs an organic, biodynamic farm together outside Rome. Nadia collaborates with the Satoyama Initiative, helping communities all over the world develop strategies to strengthen their social and ecological resilience, whilst maintaining the diversity of the landscapes’ species and varieties.

Reetu Sogani is a passionate women rights activist. She has become known around the world for her work with grass roots communities, building awareness levels and capacities for a stronger foundation of local knowledge systems and practices, across the Middle Himalayan ranges and other parts of India. Reetu has addressed the International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit in New York as one of the 100 women global leaders from across the world.

#tracesofnorth #arnenaess #deepecology #ajayrastogi #nadiabergamini #reetusognai #foundnature #contemplationofnature #bioversityinternational #climateequity #biodiveristy #climatechange #nordicbynature #nordicbynaturepodcast

Walid founded a ground-breaking news aggregation service in his home country of Yemen, which spurred him onto work with tracking Internet censorship and enabling activists and journalists to bypass government-imposed firewalls to access news and social media websites. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society (ISOC) and co-founder of the Society’s Blockchain Special Interest Group. His work in tech development for increasing Internet Access has earned him international recognition, including a TED senior fellowship, and Örebro University's Democracy Award, and he has been featured by global media such as CNN, the Guardian, and the Huffington Post.

Esra'a is passionate about music as a means for social change, and is also the founder of MideastTunes, where musicians across the world with Middle Eastern and North African origin can share their music that is often censored on mainstream music platforms. She also a senior TEDFellow, and Echoing Green fellow. As an outspoken defender of free speech, Esra'a was FastCompany magazine’s "100 Most Creative People in Business and The Daily Beast one of the 17 bravest bloggers worldwide.

The music you hear with Esra’s is by Tam Tam, the Saudi born pop star who sings about love, solidarity and equity.

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Ajay Rastogi works closely with the women of Majkhali village in foothills of the Himalayas, in Uttarakhand, India, where making art is an intrinsic part of everyday life. Ajay set up the Vrikshalaya Centre there to be a meeting place and knowledge hub for the villagers and other communities in the Himalayan lowlands, as well as visitors and homestay guests interested in learning about more meaningful forms of sustainability.
Catrine Gangstø is the founder of the Peace Painting Foundation, that runs painting workshops for children, youth and adults all over the world, including war zones. Through her idea of Painting for Peace, Catrine has engaged over 3,000 workshop participants and many more through travelling exhibitions of their work. Catrine has proven that painting can be a safe space for sharing difficult experiences and emotions as well as a way to communicate hopes and desires for peace in the world.

Then we hear from Laila Kolostyák, a visual artist who works with snow and ice. Laila and her colleagues have engaged a whole generation of young people in creating and enjoying outdoor snow and ice experiences that culminates in the Borealis festival in Alta, which lies 375 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle.

#tracesofnorth #arnenaess #deepecology #ajayrastogi #nadiabergamini #reetusognai #foundnature #contemplationofnature #bioversityinternational #climateequity #biodiveristy #climatechange #nordicbynature #nordicbynaturepodcast #peacepainting #ajayrastogi #catrinegangsto #lailakolostyak #imaginarylife #alta #norway #sweden #thenordics #icecircle

Tom Crompton’s research into values shows that the dominant narrative of the selfishness of humankind is deeply flawed. Paul Allen presents a positive and attainable vision of the future, where technology creates smart, localised and integrated infrastructures that help us humans live in harmony with the planet for centuries to come.

We then hear from Yuan Pan, whose work integrating biodiversity into the Natural Capital Framework at Cambridge University aims to help businesses and policy makers make smarter decisions and start understanding the direct benefits from acting as stewards of the environment and nature’s resources.
Finally, we hear from Paul Jepson who is also active in science communication, particularly in the area of biodiversity, science-policy interfaces and new media. In 2016, Paul published an agenda for European Rewilding and conducted research with Frans Schepers on creating policies for Rewilding within European Commissioned nature institutions. Paul currently works for the consultancy ecosulis.

#Nordicbynature #nordicbynaturepodcast #ecologytoday #tracesofnorth #arnenaess #deepecology #ajayrastogi #tomcrompton #commoncausefoundation #Paulallen #CAT #centreforalternativetechnology, #yuanpan #dryuanpan #cambrideuniversity #naturalcapitalhub #naturalcapital #ajayrastogi #foundnature #contemplationofnature #imaginarylife #bioversityinternational #climateequity #biodiveristy #climatechange #sitikasim #orangasli #forestfires #sumatra #indonesia #rainforestprotection #FransSchepers

Tomas is the author of the book The World We Create and the co-author of The Nordic Secret. He is a founding member of the Swedish youth association Protus for lifelong learning and philosophical exploration. In 2016, he founded the Research Institute Perspectiva in London together with Jonathan Rowson - to inspire our political, academic and business leaders to examine real world problems with a deeper appreciation of the influence of our inner worlds.

In 2017, in partnership with the Norrsken foundation, Björkman launched the digital platform 29k to help people reconnect with themselves, like-minded people and what they value most in life. He has been a member of the Club of Rome since 2014. He is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien or IVA.