Webinar: Freeing the Potential of Nature with Herded Livestock

21st of February 2022

7:30 to 8:30 PM London

Lennart Claassen's Statement of Purpose is "to free the potential of Nature". He is fulfilling this purpose by working in a degraded landscape in the Cévennes region of South Central France.

Much of the land in the region was abandoned by farmers 60 to 70 years ago. Everyone left for the city because the high-intensity agricultural practices had stripped the land bare.

Since then, forest and brush have taken over and shaded out everything leaving no understory. The bare soil washes away with the rain, and wild boars leave heavy animal impact on the land in search of acorns and chestnuts.

Fire is used to manage the brush encroachment leading to further erosion. The soil has become bacteria-dominated and hydrophobic, meaning rain water runs off.

Fences are not viable in this wild and hilly landscape, and Lennart and his team of people and dogs are using herding techniques on conjunction with Holistic Planned Grazing to regenerate the land using sheep and cattle.

Lennart will address these topics:

• What history led to the departure of agriculturalists to the cities?
• What are they doing to regenerate the land?
• What signs of change are they seeing already?
• How to choose good animal tracks so livestock are comfortable and don't require so many dogs and people to move them?
• How to build your paddocks in a herding scenario?
• Explain what he has learned using GPS-controlled collars.
• Plus, he will answer your questions.