"As we look around the world today – at the conflicts, the destruction of the environment, urbanisation of the Wild places, the human and animal suffering – it almost seems absurd to say that my wish is for a more peaceful, healthier and happier world. Yet this is the world we all yearn for. With the image of such a world in my mind and in my heart, it is easier to take action, every day, to move things in the right direction.

Of course, the road is long and full of disappointments but still it gives me energy to keep going with that goal in sight. Without hope there is no hope."

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

‍

‍

‍

‍

The first cell managed to multiply, and to create larger organisms, plants, animals, us, each time because it had the intelligence to take less than what its environment is capable of regenerating.
Then we gathered in communities, in shelters like this one, in villages, in cities, each time we could evolve only if we were capable of symbiosis.

We then gathered in communities, in shelters, villages, towns, each time we could only succeed if we were capable of symbiosis. Today, as we have created a global village, our challenge is to succeed in creating a species in symbiosis with the Earth.

We have grown up with the perception that only the strongest survive and that competition is the rule. But by thinking this way, we have turned the Earth from a paradise into a war zone.

We thought we were at the centre of everything, but when we focus our attention on ourselves, we no longer think about others, we weaken, our energy is directed inwards, chaos appears when there is no longer symbiosis, when we take more than we are able to give in return.

We learned that the trees in the forest were competing for resources and light, and that only the strongest would survive. The large trees that receive sunlight share their nutrients with the small trees through a mycelium matrix - the large trees generally lose their leaves in winter and in turn let the sunlight in and feed the small trees that are usually evergreen.

These small trees in turn give the large trees the nutrients and energy they have taken up from the soil in winter - the forest uses natural intelligence, and plants are the best model for learning how to thrive.

Forests are vital organs of the planet.

The colonisation of the land by plants 425 to 600 million years ago, and the extension of forests, helped to create a breathable atmosphere with the high level of oxygen we continue to enjoy today. Forests impregnate the air with water vapour, fungal spores and chemical compounds that form clouds, cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight and providing the necessary precipitation for inland regions that might otherwise dry out. Researchers estimate that, collectively, forests store between 400 and 1,200 gigatonnes of carbon, which could exceed the atmospheric reservoir.

Most of this carbon resides in forest soils, anchored by networks of roots, fungi and symbiotic microbes. Each year, the world's forests capture more than 24% of global carbon emissions, but deforestation, by destroying and removing trees that would otherwise continue to store carbon, can significantly reduce this effect.

When a forest is cut down, the planet loses an invaluable ecosystem and one of its most effective regulatory systems.

"Cutting down a forest, no matter how small, is not only the destruction of beautiful trees, it is the collapse of a republic whose inter-species alliance of reciprocity and compromise is essential for the survival of the Earth". The New York Times

Seeing only the tree that hides the forest

‍If we have a book and sell it, we make a little money but we lose it forever, we lose its knowledge and the possibilities that go with it, this misperception of how life works has destroyed 90% of life on Earth and in the Oceans. This is what those who consider a forest to be wood to be exploited are doing today, they "only see the tree that hides the forest".

But if we keep our books, like our forests, our oceans, we care for them, we develop and share their knowledge, Nature, like a book, becomes a place of transformation, health, food, sport, wonder, education, innovation - open to unlimited economic, human and biospheric prosperity, this is the project of the sanctuaries of life.

la vallée éternelle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Historic Monument, classified among the Natural Monuments and Artistic, Historic, Scientific and Legendary Sites, it has recently received the Tides of Patagonia Award, Yvon Chouinard
It is part of what is undoubtedly the richest museum and living laboratory in the world" Time Life International / New York / Dr. J. Leclerc 1978 and participates in the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations.

If the planet is finite in the biophysical sense of the word, a growth of human existential values, such as beauty, love and goodness, as well as ethics, is infinite. Our civilisation is currently experiencing limits to growth because it is locked into the growth of material goods, and we know that matter is only a tiny part of reality.

We must now reconcile the physical and the metaphysical, the material and the spiritual, man and the 20 million living beings, creativity and gratitude, innovation and life.

2021 must be the year to reconcile humanity with nature" UN Secretary-General António Guterres - One Planet Summit.

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍