Pachaland, Belgium
Pachaland is located in Genappe in the Belgian countryside, just 30 minutes away from Brussels. This ecosystem restoration community is fostering entrepreneurship around land regeneration to achieve more resilient food and energy systems. Surrounded by thousands of hectares of conventional farmland, Pachaland is Belgium’s first land regeneration centre. The team believes that the way we grow food is the single greatest challenge of our time to address, and that excess CO2 and biodiversity extinction can be solved by changing the way we produce food. To achieve this, they are working on a series of experimental and startup projects to help farmers and market gardeners with their regenerative agriculture, agroforestry and permaculture practices. They are also practicing afforestation on the land by planting forests of native, diversified and wildlife-friendly tree species.
Discover Pachaland, Belgium
Status
Biome
Location
Hectares

Our impact

This restoration community is located in Western Europe where water and vegetation challenges are fortunately not as dire (yet) as in other regions. The challenge with this little piece of land is that it is polluted. Forty years ago, the land was used for a gunpowder factory. After going bankrupt in late eighties, the land was left mostly abandoned and used as landfill. Presently, the property is surrounded by conventional farm activities, thus exposed to high quantities of nitrates. This ecosystem restoration community’s mission is to transform the land into an abundant, diversified, productive and holistic micro-farm, while developing a restoration lab to learn how new consumer products can tell the regenerative narrative. The team hopes their efforts and soon-to-come results will inspire many more people to turn around hopeless places while making an income.

Achievements

Pachaland’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship in land restoration, so they run a startup studio and also a social hub. At the social hub, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts in Belgium meet, learn and collaborate with other passionate and active people. The startup studio co-founds and launches businesses which they believe can make a difference. Pachaland has also founded Belgium’s first soil microbiology lab, and they have built a network of ponds to filter the excess nitrate from surrounding commercial farms, and grow pond weeds which will feed out of this nitrate. The next planned venture is an innovative seed bank and tree nursery.

Volunteer or donate to Pachaland, Belgium

Activities that need your support ​

Compost making
Water retention
Tree planting
Food growing
Erosion control
Soil building
Cover cropping
Habitat creation
Restoration of livelihoods
Regenerative entrepreneurialism
Natural building

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