reNature

Today’s industrialised farming is threatening our food security. It accounts for 1/4 global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s highly vulnerable to climate change. It threatens our natural resources. We are losing hectares of arable land every day. Because our current system excludes nature. 

reNature promotes, designs, and implements regenerative agroforestry to bring nature back into agriculture, restore depleted land, secure the economic resilience of farmers and tackle climate change. 

Regenerative agroforestry brings a durable social, economic and environmental improvement for the farmer, the community, and the landscape. By working directly with the farmer reNature is able to change the agricultural practices forever. 

Resilient Ecosystems challenge

Today’s industrialised  farming threatens our food security. These challenges express themselves differently all over the world, but commonly include:

• Soil degradation;
• Water scarcity;
• Biodiversity loss;
• Greenhouse gas emissions;
• Vulnerability to climate change;
• Economic instability; and
• Nutritional insecurity

For example, in Bangka, Indonesia, our project aims to tackle a combination of soil degradation; disease pressure; volatile commodity prices; and changing climate which are severely impacting the livelihoods of the island’s pepper farmers. As a result, many farmers are turning to monoculture cultivation of oil palm and rubber or destructive livelihoods like mining. This drives deforestation; excessive use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides; and exposure to poor working conditions. 

Simultaneously, food and agricultural companies are increasingly expected to be demonstrably improving their environmental and social impact. Internally, companies increasingly need to show themselves to be purpose-driven and “good for people and planet” to attract and retain skilled staff. A positive, “sustainable” image is not only about public relations, but a key Human Resources issue.

Global capacity to tackle these challenges in a commercially viable way is lacking and farmers need significant resources to support transition, especially those taking risks to innovate.

reNature enables farmers to adopt Regenerative Agroforestry by offering tools for implementation and capacity building PLUS offering access to finance. reNature connects finance and farmer by inspiring companies; organisations; and consumers; organising immersive agroforestry experiences; and giving talks. reNature operates in two main branches:

1. Implementation & Capacity Building
   Farmers learn best from other farmers. Therefore, reNature’s strategy encompasses Model Farms, Model Schools, and Transition Packages. On a higher level, reNature offers advisory services to corporates and investors.
   1. Model Farms - Demonstration plots and a "starting point" for larger-scale programs for implementation and education.
   2. Model Schools - Long-term capacity-building programs running over multiple years, building deep agroforestry expertise within the local community. 
   3. Transition Packages - reNature develops packages of tools to help large numbers of farmers transition towards regenerative agroforestry.
   4. Consulting - Advice on a strategic level e.g. Impact investor’s agricultural portfolio
       
2. Inspiration & Outreach
   To inspire both individuals and corporate employees, reNature combines visibility with experience.
   1. Changemakers - people can help with or get to know agroforestry first hand by helping farmers on agroforestry initiatives;
   2. Talks - To spread the message of agroforestry, reNature also provides talks and lectures at conferences, private events, within companies, etc.

The primary beneficiaries are the farmers we work with and their communities. We operate in a range of locations with various scales of farm, from smallholders to medium- (e.g. 2-50ha) and large-scale producers (up to 25,000ha). 

We collaborate with farmers to create effective, context-specific agroforestry solutions. We combine farmers’ local knowledge with scientific insights through collaborative design processes and hands-on methods for transferring knowledge and establishing systems that meet the specific goals of the context.

For example, white pepper farmers in Bangka face interlinked challenges of volatile pepper prices, degraded soil, disease pressure and drought. We have worked with them to create an agroforestry system that rapidly builds soil (improving water-holding capacity), reduces pest pressure and diversifies incomes. This includes pepper as well as over 20 other tree species that generate either marketable products or key ecosystem services.

This highlights a key advantage of agroforestry: it can produce multiple valuable products. It is therefore logical for multiple off-takers to take part in developing new systems. For example, palm oil can be productively integrated with cocoa production. This establishes multiple valuable income streams for the farmer, while mitigating risk for the commercial partners investing in transition.

Regenerative agroforestry directly supports the revitalisation of agricultural landscapes while intensifying production, from smallholders to medium and large commercial farms. Agroforestry supports soil regeneration, pest management and improved water cycling of agricultural systems, reducing or eliminating farmers’ need for synthetic inputs, while maintaining or increasing productivity and sequestering carbon.

Our goal is to make regenerative agroforestry mainstream. This means making it appealing for businesses and farmers at large scales. We focus on creating systems that work with the goals of agricultural businesses, such as management efficiency, profitability, large-volume production and supply stability. We're working towards resilient ecosystems.

Founders Marco de Boer and Felipe Villela built reNature’s reputation as a key innovator in the regenerative agricultural world. The concept was born. This initial phase was sourced by the founders at low costs and with tons of driving power.

Late 2019, the first financial need was met by an Impact Investor with a pre-seed investment. reNature Investments BV was set up and 5 people were recruited. The team drove the acquisition and execution of projects and built key strategic partnerships. The prototype was fine-tuned and reNature piloted its services.

Currently, we're growing. A bigger team and an office space allowed us greater project & financial acquisition; increased our project execution capacity; in-house Agroforestry expertise; consulting capacity; and relieved key staff of administrative burdens. 

The organisation will become a fully-fledged leader in Regenerative Agroforestry by 2025.

A growing number of innovative and energetic organisations are promoting regenerative agriculture and agroforestry. reNature fills a key niche in this ecosystem. We focus on collaboration to achieve common goals, rather than “competing”. Nevertheless, of the approximately 150 organisations we have identified in the regenerative agriculture space, 6 may significantly compete for clients:

• Propagate Ventures
• Terra Genesis
• Rizoma
• Holistic Management Intl.
• Ecotop Consult
• Vi Agroforestry

Our most important USP is that we act as catalysts for large scale agroforestry projects involving multiple partners. We bring parties together for impact at a scale larger than individual organisations alone could achieve. For example, we are developing a silvopasture pilot on over 1000ha in Mato Grosso, Brazil, coordinating farmers, agroforestry experts, institutional researchers and commercial offtakers.

Further USPs include:

Applying agroforestry in commercial contexts. Agroforestry is traditional agricultural practice in many parts of the world. It has also been recognised in recent decades as a key conservation and development tool for smallholder farmers. However, application in production of commodity crops has been limited. We make agroforestry a compelling proposition for food & agricultural companies looking to secure a stable supply chain, and for farmers whose livelihoods depend on commodity production.

Inspiring change through marketing & communication. We communicate an inspiring message through innovative use of social media. In 2 years we have organically grown a social media following of over 30,000. Using modern marketing know-how, we inspire a movement of current and future leaders to make rapid, large-scale changes to agricultural systems worldwide.

• Number of farmers directly served: 35,507
• Number of farmers served in 1 year: 69,007
• Number of farmers served in five years: 2,000,000

1. Ecological (SDG 2, 6, 13, 15)
   1. Climate: carbon tracked by using a combination of remote sensing and allometric equations.
   2. Soil health: using soil samples that align to international standards for quantifying carbon captured from the atmosphere whilst restoring soil fertility.
   3. Biodiversity: bioacoustics (recording ecosystem sounds), for the diversity and abundance of key groups of vocalising animals and environmental DNA, a cutting-edge technology that allows to sample the breath of life present in water or soil samples.
   4. Water, plant and land health: using remote sensing (satellite) technology and land use cover and change maps. 
2. Social (SDG 3, 4, 5)
   1. Food security: including both exposure to pesticides (quantity applied and toxicity) and minimum nutritional diversity index (or FAO.
   2. Quality of life: by measuring the quality of life index and poverty reduction index.
   3. Women & Youth: Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index and number of jobs created (for youth) and % of youngsters leaving the countryside.
   4. Outreach: including the number of farmers trained, number of farmers adopting reg ag and their perception of the project.

1. Economic (SDG 1, 8, 12)
   1. Yields and Productivity Indexes: such as the Land equivalent ratio (LER) or Land use efficiency (LUE), together with yields;
   2. Profitability and as cash flow projections: NPV, IRR, PP, etc., as an a priori estimate of the cost and benefits, followed by an a posteriori data collection to prove and refine the system
   3. Resilience and Risk Reduction: decreasing the dependence from external inputs and subsidies, by tracking project inputs compared against a conventional benchmark

Core staff

Full-time: 8

Part-time: 4

Contractors and volunteers

Contractors: Varied, 10+

Volunteers: Varied, approx. 5-10

https://www.renature.co/teams/

Our founders Felipe Villela and Marco de Boer drive our work with passion, experience and energy. Felipe’s ambition is to prove that we can feed 16bn people by 2050 using regenerative agroforestry systems. Marco has a background in advertising and 25-years of experience in Brand Development, Marketing Communications Strategy and Advertising. His role is to present reNature and its work as being the way to innovate agriculture, bring food security for millions of people and restore nature around the globe.

Next to reNature’s founders Marco de Boer and Felipe Villela, the management team consists of Eva Teekens (former Rabo Foundation), Elena Yurchenko (former Danone), and Guus ter Haar (former NewForesight).

Core team Daniel Costa, Alexander Daniel, Maeëla Porcheron and Waas Thissen combine on-farm and project & business development experience from Latin America, Europe and SE Asia. They create effective and client-driven agroforestry solutions for farmers across the globe. 

Daniel has a farming background in Brazil and has worked 12 years at companies directly related to agricultural production. Alexander is a content creator and MSc graduate in Sustainable Development with expertise in International Development. Waas has experience in the technical and social aspects of sustainable agriculture. His background lies in International Water & Land Management which he obtained at Wageningen University. Maëla comes with 5 years experience in multinationals (food/luxury/fashion) with a deep knowledge of packaging and recyclability topics.

reNature celebrates diversity and strives to foster an inclusive working environment. As an equal opportunity employer, we make no distinction on the grounds of race, ethnicity, age, disability status, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Instead of relying on a classic hierarchy, we work in self-sufficient teams. We’ve all heard that teamwork makes the dream work, but only a strong network and shared dedication lead to global regeneration.

We do not accept…

Bad-titude

A bad attitude will not take you far. We should be able to share our opinions and thoughts in a safe and supportive setting.

Prejudice

We should treat people as equals, no matter their background, gender or preferences. We should feel free to be ourselves.

Illegal Activity

Unfortunately, where profits are involved, the danger of oppression, child labor, money laundering etc., is present. We make sure our projects are legally compliant and ethically sound.

We demand and stand for…

Respect

We respect nature, the world’s peoples and a diversity of opinions.

Reliability

We keep our promises and get things done, sowing the seeds of trust to grow our relationships.

Quality

We deliver the same quality we would like to receive if the roles were reversed. We  are constantly working on improving.

At the moment, reNature is re-thinking the role and composition of its Advisory Board and intends to bring in Advisors who represent the constituency that we serve.

We highly value the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other organisations. Being part of an ecosystem of innovation can support our goals directly, and we hope to be able to support others. While we have expectations for what we need as an organisation (see our partnership goals below) we also know that opportunities can emerge that we do not expect. 

We are a rapidly expanding team and we have ambitious growth goals over the coming 4 years. While we have a very large international network, we need to build solid processes for recruitment, so that we can match people’s talents and professional goals to our organisation’s needs. 

MIT Solve can also support us in monitoring and evaluation of our projects (see partnerships description below). Measuring impact is still a challenge for us: we work in a range of contexts, we face some technical challenges and we are a young company that does not yet have M & E capacity internally. The ability to monitor and evaluate the impact of our work is key for us to drive business confidence in agroforestry solutions and increase willingness to pay.

On the Business model & Service Distribution

We see a huge interest in regenerative agroforestry by leading companies. However, to really make a change we are seeking ways to make our offering more widely accessible while keeping up a profitable enterprise.

On Technology 

Monitoring and Evaluating our interventions is crucial. We are building a platform to keep track of our social, economic, and environmental impact. Because we see this as a piece of the puzzle for driving large-scale commitment to agroforestry. We are seeking science and tech partnerships to strengthen our M & E capacity, to create a set of consistent comparable impact indicators that can be applied across all our projects. These indicators can be used to set a base level for the 'industry' of regenerative agroforestry and should be available to others.

Preferred partners at MIT Solve

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• BMW Foundation
• Inter-American Development Bank
• Olam International
• UN Environment

Building a global network of technical staff & broadening our reach.

We are already engaged with or seeking to engage with organisations to support expanding our projects from the farm scale to the landscape scale, for example:

• Commonland (The Netherlands)
• Savory Institute (USA)
• The Nature Conservancy (USA)

Monitoring and evaluation of impacts on a large scale.

This can be supported by a number of both private and institutional partners. Specifically, partnerships could help us establish the impacts of agroforestry interventions for landscape dynamics such as water cycling, biodiversity and air quality. For example, MIT’s School of Sciences could be a valuable partner. Large-scale M&E would facilitate leveraging of more resources, with a greater potential for impact.

Finance for scaling up solutions. 

Many of the projects that we have in development can meet diverse impact and investment aims, but do not yet have funding. We are always looking to connect our work to communities of funders who are looking to effectively invest funds in high-impact work. 

Beyond this, we will be happy to explore opportunities for partnerships within the Solve community: especially those in the food & agriculture space who could support, or be supported by, regenerative agroforestry. For example, some of our project farmers in need of supply chain infrastructure can also be linked directly to others already working in the Solve ecosystem (e.g. ColdHubs).