Karen de Vries offers a multi-disciplinary perspective. She holds a BSc in Psychology and MSc in Medical Anthropolgy and for the last 12 years has been studying, working and teaching on the topics of Permaculture and Syntropic Farming at a grassroots level.

In 2009 Karen co-founded the project La Loma Viva, along with Ryan Botha. La Loma Viva is a research and education project specialising in Permaculture Design and Syntropic Farming in a Mediterranean context. They have been implementing various strategies to transform a degraded farm in southern Spain. Permaculture Design was applied to the planning and layout of the farm, including the integration of renewable energy and water harvesting features. In 2016 they were introduced to Ernst Gotsch, the originator of Syntropic Farming and have since been collaborating with him to develop this framework in a Mediterranean climate. It presented a groundbreaking way of combining the regeneration of the land with an efficient means of production. La Loma Viva is a pioneering project in the research and education of Syntropic Farming in Europe.

“We are developing the tools to meet our human needs in a way that also benefits the ecosystem in which we live. By observing natural systems, we are learning to facilitate regenerative processes that support life. Agriculture is our starting point to develop a participatory relationship with the land and ultimately to create a resilient and healthy human habitat.”