One of Sol Nascente’s deepest desires is to become a hub that helps incubate and connect a network of regenerative forests. Within our lifetime, we’d like to see hundreds, and eventually thousands of projects in our region that work with biodiverse forests at their heart. Towards that dream, we’ll be starting by giving small grants to projects we think will help put us on a path towards making this dream a reality. That means we need your ideas!
In 2021, we’ll give out our first ever public grant: €500 in support of an action, event, or project that revolves around regenerative forestry and attempts to answer the following question:
“What piece of the story of regeneration do you want to tell? And how do you believe it would align the needs of trees and people?
What are we looking for?
We’re looking for someone to tell their part of the story. We want to see proposals about planting trees, of course, but, we also want to see proposals about projects that seek to educate a wider audience, or spark an interest in ecology. Feel free to surprise us! This can be a video, pamphlet, planting weekend, series of poems, forest design, artistic installation, a way to respond to wildfire, or anything else you believe would inspire people to want to actually make the leap into living with and working alongside regenerative forests.
We believe that a strong relationship with nature is the base on which a healthy culture is built, yet we understand that planting trees might not be enough if there’s no one around to care for them. So, we’re looking for ideas for concrete proposals that accomplish the following:
- Help us see that the destruction of nature, is the destruction of ourselves. And the regeneration of nature is a regeneration of ourselves.
- Demonstrate or educate us on an ecologic/regenerative principle.
- Provide insight into, or make real the many possibilities of regenerative forestry.
- Help people understand that to care for a forest can be more important than the physical act of planting them.
For a sense of the type of thing we’re looking for, you can look over the grant we gave out last year to Ecoaldeia Silverto for “The Forest is a Pantry” project and the blog we wrote about it, that wanted to show how a small pieces of land are capable of providing a family with a full diet.
What would we need?
As a foundation, we have to be able to prove that the money we give is genuinely going towards the public benefit and regeneration. However, we see that there’s many directions that can take. With this in mind what we’re looking for is something that accomplishes any of the following:
- The planting of a living forest or an example of real ecologic regeneration.
- A shareable video, pamphlet, or educational short into a regenerative and/or ecologic topic.
- Something that inspires people to plant and care for forests.
- Something we and others might use as an educational tool for ecological regeneration.
- Accurate accounting of expenses.
Who can apply?
Any group or individual who is active in Galicia or Portugal is free to apply.
How to apply?
Download and fill out the following form. Then email it back to info@solnascente.eu before August 15th. And though English is our preferred language as not everyone on our team speaks all of these languages, feel free to apply in Spanish, Gallego, or Portuguese.
How will applications be evaluated?
Applications will be evaluated based on how well they answer the following questions:
- How well does the proposal align the needs of trees and people?
- How well does the proposal intersect with the mission and pillars of Sol Nascente?
- How well do the applicants tell the story of the project?
- How innovative is the proposal?
- How replicable or far reaching are the potential benefits of the proposal?
- How effective do we believe the proposal will be in achieving its goals.
- Video, goal and educational accountability.
- Financial accountability. How is the money spent?
Sol Nascente 