Speakers

• Alan Watson Featherstone Public Speaker, Ecologist, Nature Photographer, and Writer
  

  Alan Watson Featherstone

  Public Speaker, Ecologist, Nature Photographer, and Writer

  Alan Watson Featherstone is an inspirational public speaker, ecologist, nature photographer, and writer who cares deeply about our planet and has dedicated his life to protecting its biological diversity. In 1986, Alan founded the award-winning conservation charity, Trees for Life. Based in the Findhorn Community in the northeast of Scotland, Alan is a trustee of several charities, including Wild things!, the Findhorn Hinterland Trust, and Trees for Hope. He is also a patron of Moor Trees.

• Dr. Carla Portugal Instructor, Mentor, Researcher, and Translator for the Soil Food Web School
  

  Dr. Carla Portugal

  Instructor, Mentor, Researcher, and Translator for the Soil Food Web School

  Dr. Carla Ribeiro Machado e Portugal speaks Portuguese, English, and Spanish while working as a simultaneous translator/interpreter for Portuguese-English, and English-Portuguese. She began her academic career at the Federal University of Uberlândia, graduating in 2004. She then completed a Master’s in Environmental Engineering, relocated to the United States, and completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences after researching the biostabilization of unpaved roads to minimize the impact of hydric erosion. Her research has resulted in 27 empirical listings. Since 2008, Dr. Portugal has served as a co-founder of a consultancy company in Brazil for Environment and Agriculture projects. She consulted with the Brazilian federal government in developing and approving one of the few Category II centers within UNESCO focused on Education for Water management for Portuguese-speaking countries. She also worked for the government of Minas Gerais developing strategies to enhance the abilities of small farmers and settlements to achieve better agricultural practices towards organic and sustainable practices. She served as Environmental Education Supervisor and Environmental Legislation Supervisor at Instituto Inhotim, a significant Botanical Garden in Brazil. Since 2019, Dr. Portugal has served as an Instructor, Mentor, Researcher, and Translator for the Soil Food Web School. Her robust skills consistently guide her international students toward success.

• Ernst Götsch Commercial Farmer, Syntropic Agriculture
  

  Ernst Götsch

  Commercial Farmer, Syntropic Agriculture

  Ernst Götsch was born in 1948 in Raperswilen, Switzerland, and migrated to Brazil in the early 1980s, establishing himself in a farm in southern Bahia. Years before, Götsch had decided to quit a research job on genetic enhancement at the state-owned FAP Zürich-Reckenholz (today’s Agroscope), after a disturbing questioning:“Wouldn’t we achieve greater results if we sought ways of cultivation that favor the development of plants, rather than creating genotypes that support the bad conditions we impose them?”

• Paul Morris Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner
  

  Paul Morris

  Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner

  With over 27 years of experience, Paul Morris is an expert in the fields of ecology, botany, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative farming and is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) with the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). Paul uses his extensive experience in restoration ecology and conservation biology in the design and planting of restoration areas. He spent 20 years restoring his 95-acre farm, completed numerous projects across Canada, and spent six years restoring a 40-ha biological reserve back to a tropical dry forest in Yucatan, Mexico.