Roos Nijpels-Cieremans

I live with passion for nature and a compassion for human kind. I am a NGO rooted social entrepreneur building partnerships with a win on ecology and economy.

Dedicated, motivated and passionated, are the words that people use to describe me. For years I have worked with indigenous communities in Asia, farmers in India and the Philippines and small organizations worldwide. I enjoyed providing opportunities to grow small and medium enterprises of Non Timber Forest Products while maintaining and restoring the remaining pockets of rainforests. This work brought me deep into the forests where you start to learn to appreciate the strength of humans to cope with fast changes and rooted traditions and culture. It makes you think deeply about the choices made on high political level driven by those in power and with control over the common goods. How can we work towards a world that provides sufficient opportunities for all?

I have found my part of the answer to deal with this challenge in Rich Forests. Rich Forests brings together the local realities, the experiences and knowledge gained by generations of living in the forests with science, technology and agro-ecology/Analog forestry. I am inspired to function as a bridge between those who are dedicated to contribute to a sustainable (food) production and those with the knowledge how to improve production systems and those that have finance to support this.

Besides having been project leader for the Fair Green and Global alliance for over 2 years, I am since 2018 project leader for the Communities regreen the Sahel-program. An add to my previous experiences both in region and method for land restoration (Assisted Natural Regeneration).