In permaculture design philosophy zoning terms, Het Kloosterbos is a gateway zone 5 project: creating a place that facilitates rewilding of both humans and their natural environment. As such it enables the liberation from the pressures and addiction to residential lifestyles and empowers the exploration of itinerant lifestyles as a viable and compelling option for “living in harmony with nature” – as called for in the draft CBD COP15 agenda of 2021.
Way Station
Most permaculture projects already have zone 5 wilderness areas incorporated into their design. With a small addition, a public way station for itinerant designers, teachers and other guests, these rewilding areas could become a powerful tool of transition in the mission to achieve “living in harmony with nature” as proposed by the new UN “Paris style” agreement on the restoration of global biodiversity.
While the politicians do their thing, permanauts blaze the trail and build the infrastructure needed for such an ambitious and existential requirement, should we want to live beyond today. Networking nodes into routes.
Het Kloosterbos
Het Kloosterbos has been pioneering this approach successfully, now in its third year. On private land, open to the public.
The leading practices are xenia and ataraxia, concepts developed by ancient Greek philosophers and popular tradition, brought into the context of the twenty first century.
Het Kloosterbos provides a platform to explore and experiment with both best practices in rewilding urban and peri-urban human-inclusive nature and transitioning urban residential life to itinerant ‘living in harmony with nature’.
The project is currently transitioning from the pioneering phase to a climax phase and is finding its inner identity as pleisterplaats for travelers, from microbes, plants to animals, including a growing number of international students and knowledge workers and their families.