Impact Stories: Nature as a Role Model
Learning with and through the environment
Hiking, swimming, snorkelling. Observing, picking and processing plants. Shopping at the market, at the local bakery or in the farm shop. What sounds like everyday activities or fun leisure pursuits are actually learning processes. We learn every day and in everything we do. Informal learning processes are constantly being triggered. These are difficult to grasp and even more difficult to control, but they are an essential part of our development. During the SEEDS-project, and especially during my time in South Africa, I not only became more aware of how important these informal learning processes are, but I also learned how we can actively initiate them. Hiking and snorkelling are methods that our South African partner organisation Amava Oluntu uses as a matter of course. Not only the connection to nature, but also the shared experience, overcoming barriers and self-doubt, and trying new things trigger positive learning processes.
Learning with and through the environment is possible everywhere, which is why we should make much more use of it. In times when the flood of information can be overwhelming, we should be aware that all actions, all impressions and all experiences trigger a learning process. If we ignore this fact and leave informal learning processes increasingly to chance, we have no insight into the learning processes that are triggered and the associated effects. If, on the other hand, we consciously perceive our environment as a place of learning and consciously integrate the resources available there, we increase the likelihood that positive learning processes will be triggered.
Nicolas Bosch, Starkmacher e.V. (Germany)
ON THE SIDE OF PLANTS
A plant can survive even after losing up to 80% of its tissues, whereas animals lack this ability. The reason is simple: plants don’t have vital organs concentrated in a single spot.
The animal kingdom is inherently vulnerable, and in response, it relies on just two strategies: attack or escape. Plants, on the other hand, are remarkably equipped to face adversity. Since they can’t run away, they must learn to adapt and defend themselves—something that requires an enormous effort and a much greater number of genes than we possess.
Thanks to their complexity, plants can sense changes in the air and soil, detect concentration gradients, direct their roots toward richer nutrient sources, and orient their leaves toward the light.
The animal model, organized around systems and organs, is simpler—but when a key component fails, survival is no longer possible.
This biological comparison offers a compelling parallel to human organizations. We explored this idea by asking: What can we do to make our network more resilient in the face of challenges? In the context of enterprise development, what lessons can we learn from plants?
We worked on these questions together at Spazi ReAli, a project based in one of the city’s most beautiful parks. It serves as a gathering place and listening space for local youth.
While it’s important to have roles and a division of tasks, we envisioned an organization built around a continuous exchange of skills among team members, making the work smoother and more transparent. This means valuing roles while minimizing hierarchical structures.
Starting from the understanding that not everyone can be entirely interchangeable, we aimed for a model of shared competence—administrative, planning, and operational—so that each team member can, to some extent, step in and cover the essential functions of others.
The key question became: To what extent?
Taking inspiration from the polycentric model of plants shifts us from thinking in terms of pyramids to thinking in terms of networks.
It’s about building nodes, not ladders.
Flavio Vigna, Eufemia (Italy)
Shared Garden
At Vryground, we were able to participate in the shared garden activities for a morning. We
planted, watered, carried soil, cleared weeds, and even painted the premises.
Through these activities, we were able to interact with the people involved in the garden on a daily basis. They explained the social importance of this garden in the Vryground community. It is a welcoming place for children who are often left to their own devices in the afternoon. It is also a space for economic production and the circular economy. Vegetables are used for cooking in certain places (MuizKitchen, for example) during organized evenings. For the event we attended, a zero-waste approach was implemented, which led us to use every part of the harvested vegetables.
The visit to this garden was enriching because it allowed us to understand an entire economic and social cycle. The garden produces and serves as a place of integration and social connection. It also generates economic activity which contributes to setting up evenings where the question of food and the circular economy exist.
In Aniane, the Vivre à Aniane association uses a shared garden as a vehicle for social connection and as a source of food for certain events. The issues are not at all the same. It’s a place used more to help people escape isolation than as a place of refuge. However, the management of these gardens, the involvement of the people involved, and the uses overlap.
The Vryground Peace Garden has greatly inspired my approach, and I will be showing our shared gardens in September for a real exchange of ideas between our associations.
Milena Lachmanowits, L’Engrainé (France)
Building Up
I’ve always loved looking at maps — they show us the world in miniature, with lines and shapes that tell stories of landscapes, cities, and human connections. Yet, some maps only come to life when you walk through them.
This is the case of the Zentraler Mannheimer Lehrgarten, a 2.5-hectare space where nature, education, and social inclusion come together in a project that leaves a meaningful impact.
As part of the Erasmus+ KA2 project SEEDS 4 Youth, I had the chance to explore this garden as a learner, a team member, and a change-maker. We experienced how environmental practices can bring people together.
At the Zentraler Mannheimer Lehrgarten, the beneficiaries of social inclusion projects didn’t just work the soil — they also built spaces. Each structure tells a personal story: someone who held a hammer for the first time, someone who discovered the value of teamwork, someone who learned how to read a plan and turn it into reality.
Building Up: building together, brick after brick, with nature and with people. And this is how they transformed a garden into a place that cultivates skills, solidarity, and a shared vision for the future.
Ivana Ristovska, Eufemia (Italy)
Botanical Walk
One of the most interesting things about building a welcoming environment in France has been the collective creation of projects with new associations.
As part of this, we created a botanical walk with the Puechpop association in the village next to ours. Initially, the idea was simply to bring the organizations together, then the idea of a botanical walk emerged with the help of Camilla, a volunteer from the association, and Matis, the employee. Meanwhile, Laurelou suggested making cyanotypes with the foliage collected during the walk to create a more creative look. Then came a meeting with new members who proposed having a large meal outdoors and without electricity to support sustainable development. The idea is to use a wood-fired oven, a solar-powered antenna, and a Norwegian pot.
We’ll be able to enjoy dishes cooked (probably ratatouille) in the great outdoors.
All these ideas came about simply by discussing them twice around a table.
We also decided to make cookies with plants from nature and organize an aperitif in the evening. This outing will be free for participants and open to all members of the associations as well as the villagers.
Thanks to this first project, we hope to develop associative links leading to larger projects that
reach more people.
For me, this is one of the goals of seeds4youth!
Milena Lachmanowits, L’Engrainé (France)