REGENERATION

A planetary movement is awakening. We help it grow roots.
We convene the people who steward living systems, from Indigenous elders to farmers, financiers and policymakers, and back the prototypes they start.
467

leaders in our Latin America Ecosystem Leadership Program since 2023; 65% women, 90% with financial support

55

prototypes launched by program participants in the first two years

210+

leaders in our agroecology and conservation labs in Tanzania, Mozambique and West Africa

~1,000

people at one global session on soil health, human health and regenerative economies

THE MOMENT

A planetary shift in the making
On every continent, farmers, communities, entrepreneurs, educators and activists are working in parallel: restoring land, rebuilding local economies and reweaving relationships. Together they are part of a shift in three dimensions: ecological, social and consciousness.
Otto Scharmer calls this moment an axial threshold, a rupture comparable to the one that gave rise to the great wisdom traditions 2,500 years ago. Climate breakdown, polarization and the loss of meaning are symptoms of a depleted social soil.

Partnership with Commonland in Europe

Gathering held in Arusha, Tanzania

Interview with SEKEM, Egypt, at the Presencing Series

Theory U practitioners' gathering in México

What regeneration means to us

Regeneration is not a technique. It is a shift in the soil.

01

Ecological


Healing our relationship with land, water, food and the living systems we are part of.

02

Social


Rebuilding trust, belonging and our capacity to act together across divides.

03

Consciousness


Moving from ego-system to eco-system awareness: sensing ourselves as part of the whole, and acting from love rather than fear.

The institutions, markets and projects we can see grow from an invisible layer: our social fields. When that soil is healthy, what grows above it flourishes. So we begin there.

“My father did not force the harvest. He tended the soil.”


Otto Scharmer

HOW WE WORK

How we support emergence
Change in living systems doesn't come from a master plan. It comes from small islands of coherence that find each other.
Our programs and gatherings are where regenerative initiatives are born, tested and connected.

Threads across every region:

Ancestral Knowledge
Water
Soil & Food
Biodiversity
Money for Life
join

u-lab

A free global course and movement, with self-organized hubs in hundreds of places. Its Landscape Regeneration track was built with Commonland, and hubs like La Pulpería connect it to local regenerative initiatives in agroecology and other efforts.

Ecosystem Leadership Program and regional gatherings

In Latin America, Europe, Africa and beyond, each rooted in its own context. In Latin America it is where Chilean watershed leaders met and where the Regeneration group prototypes together.

Presencing Series and Regenerative Futures Labs

Global gatherings where regenerative initiatives are sensed, shared and supported, with nearly 1,000 people per session this year. The Labs end in a Festival of Prototypes.

u-research

A consciousness-based science of the social soil, with the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, exploring why regeneration must begin with how we know.

AROUND THE WORLD

What we do, and what it makes possible
Latin America
Europe
Africa
Asia Pacific
North America
Planetary Field
We convene whole systems around a place, a theme or a community, and build the inner and collective capacities that make regeneration last.
Then we make those islands of coherence visible, and help them connect.

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01

Latin America
Indigenous grandmothers and grandfathers teach alongside Theory U, the social arts and nature.

WHAT WE DO

Ecosystem Leadership Program

  • 467 leaders since 2023
  • 65% women
  • 90% on scholarships
  • 55 prototypes by year two

The 2024 Regeneration group, 47 leaders from 13 countries, launched five prototypes:

Network of Guardians of Bioregional Inspiration
Voices of Water
Learning Days for Financiers
Regenerative Cultures in Colombia
A Common Portfolio

Maipo Basin, Chile

A bioregional strategy for the Maipo

With Fundación Santuario del Maipo, Commonland, the Embassy of the Netherlands and local partners, we are building a shared vision for a basin of 1.5 million hectares, from Andean glaciers through Santiago to the Pacific. It sustains nearly half of Chile's population, and the work connects conservation, water security, regenerative agriculture and local economies.

Read more

WHAT IT MAKES POSSIBLE

Palguín Alto, Chile

Guardians of the Forest

Fundación Cuidemos Paraísos is raising funds to protect 76 hectares of forest and its water rights, at the source of the Palguín River and on land sacred to the Mapuche. They are also building a research centre for the region.

We Are Forest

Llanquihue, Chile

Maullín watersheds

A 20-year plan to restore riparian corridors, wetlands and native forests across 1.1 million hectares of watersheds, alongside a shift to sustainable livestock and regenerative agriculture.

Uruguay and beyond

Montaña Sagrada

A research centre joining academic, ancestral and artistic knowledge in mountain territories.

Galápagos, Ecuador

A Regenerative Seafood System

70+ fishers, officials, chefs, guides and scientists used Theory U to co-create a vision and 10 prototype ideas for the islands' seafood system, with Commonland, Conservation International, the Charles Darwin Foundation and local partners.

Read the story

Brazilian Amazon

Witoto Institute

Vanda Witoto, a participant in the program, is professionalizing an Indigenous institute in the Amazon.

Transform yourself to transform the world

Argentina

La Pulpería

A u-lab hub of about 50 people working on community activation and intersections with food, agroecology and bioconstruction.

Read more

Querétaro, Mexico

Tianguis 2025

A marketplace of 15 documented initiatives and 30 more tables, from territorial regeneration to participatory finance.

Across the continent

Seeds

A return to the land in Venezuela; women guardians of large land areas in Brazil; a Regeneration Festival in Uruguay; active-conservation prototypes in Chile.

COMING UP · 14–16 NOVEMBER 2026

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

Three gatherings in one place.



The Universidad del Medio Ambiente (UMA) is a pioneer in sustainability and regeneration in Latin America. UMA has trained changemakers in sustainability and regeneration across Latin America for more than 14 years.

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02

Europe
Regions building food sovereignty from relationships up, with farmers, retailers, policymakers and citizens at one table.

WHAT WE DO

Lake Constance · since 2024

Solidarity Regions

PI Europe accompanies regions building food sovereignty: solidarity purchasing groups and a regional solidarity fund. Early roots in Uckermark, Germany, and a new bridge to Bilbao and Latin America.

Read the story

Southern Spain

AlVelAl, with Commonland

Restoring a degraded landscape with its farmers, in a region where 79 local governments have signed a regenerative area manifesto.

Read the story

Netherlands · with Commonland

Rethinking Dutch agriculture

95 farmers, officials, business leaders, financiers and educators joined an 18-month lab with the Dutch government and Commonland.

Read the story

Gipuzkoa, Basque Country

Citizens' assembly on agriculture and climate

Citizens deliberating on agriculture and climate with Arantzazulab, recognized by the OECD as best practice.

10 European bioregions

Bioregional Weaving Labs

A collective aiming to regenerate 1 million hectares of land and sea and support 1 million changemakers by 2030.

Read the story

WHAT IT MAKES POSSIBLE

Vorarlberg, Austria

~60 farmers

Reviving Urdinkel, an ancient spelt, with a regional bakery and Musik am Hof, music on farms.

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03

Africa
A pan-African learning ecosystem grounded in Ubuntu and Theory U, and convenings where prototypes become farmer-led practice.

WHAT WE DO

Mapai, Mozambique

Weaving ecological corridors

With Peace Parks Foundation, Ubuntu.Lab and the national conservation agency ANAC, 50+ people co-created 6 prototypes to turn corridor plans into action in the Great Limpopo.

Read the story

Arusha, Tanzania

Agroecology convening

  • 126 participants
  • 900+ new connections
  • 10 prototypes

Farmers, funders and policymakers co-created prototypes on policy, markets, finance and soil health.

Read the story

Senegal · Cameroon · Benin

West Africa Biodiversity Learning Lab

With the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, 34 conservation leaders from government, civil society, academia and community organizations, March–June 2026.

WHAT IT MAKES POSSIBLE

ALLIES WE AMPLIFY

Tanzania

Arusha prototypes, now participant-led

A Participatory Guarantee System linking certified farmers to schools and hospitals, and a Rapid Soil Health Doctor that teaches farmer groups to read their soil via WhatsApp.

Read the story

Nairobi, Kenya

Integrated Zero-Waste Rabbit Farming

20 young people and farmers turning waste into fertilizer for hanging gardens.

Egypt

SEKEM

Justus Harm on how 250,000 farmers are transforming Egypt's agriculture, shared at the 2025 Presencing Series.

Watch the talk

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04

Asia Pacific
Learning from Bali's subak, a centuries-old way of governing water, land and spirit as a commons.

WHAT WE DO

Indonesia · Australia · Nepal · India · China

Ecosystem Leadership Program, Asia Pacific

Held on Kura Kura, an island near Denpasar restored from degraded land into a living campus. The community includes forest stewardship cooperatives replacing logging economies, and work on a national social forestry policy that recognizes Indigenous community rights.

Read the story

China

Cultivating the social soil in the age of AI

~3,000 people in one week

With Tsinghua University, MIT IDEAS China and others.

Read the story

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05

North America
Leadership rooted in place.

WHAT WE DO

ALLIES WE AMPLIFY

Vermont, USA

Executive Champions Workshop

Senior leaders reconnect to place with Peter Senge, Arawana Hayashi, Otto Scharmer and Anishinaabe scholar Melanie Goodchild, whose ceremonies acknowledge the land and the ancestors. Next: 24–27 August 2027.

“The land is holding us — not just a tent and chairs in a field.”

USA

Eileen Fisher

A long partnership with a company sourcing wool from regenerative farm collectives and remaking worn clothes through Renew, including a cross-industry Regenerative Business Lab on textile waste, for companies evolving into regenerative enterprises.

Read the case from Eileen Fisher
Read about the lab

Pennsylvania, USA

Farmer Jawn

Christa Barfield left health care to build the largest Black-owned produce farm in Pennsylvania: 128 acres, eligible for Regenerative Organic Certification. She is an alumna of our Presencing Foundation Program.

“Every decision must improve environmental health, physical health, and social health simultaneously.”

Read the story

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06

Planetary Field
Free, open programs that connect regional work to a global community of practice.

Presencing Series

Free global sessions on regenerating planetary and social soil, and on soil health, human health and regenerative economies, which drew nearly 1,000 people. The Labs coach regenerative prototypes and end in a Festival of Prototypes.

Presencing Series 2025 recap
Presencing Series 2026 recap

Global, online

Regenerative Futures Labs

Open labs ending in a Festival of Prototypes.

Read "What is Mine To Do?
Read "From Intention to Action"
Read "A Festival of Prototypes"

Free and online

u-lab Landscape Regeneration track

Theory U combined with Commonland's 4 Returns.

Join the track

15,000+

GAIA

People in 8 languages sensing together through the pandemic, including on food and farming.

Recordings

67

The Soil Dialogues

Ways to steer capital toward regenerative agriculture, found in dialogues around soil wealth.

Read more

Reaching the Tipping Point: How 250,000 Farmers Are Transforming Egypt's Agriculture · Justus Harm, SEKEM

Linking Soil Health, Food Quality & Public Health · Zuzanna Zielinska on System Transformation

Symbiosis: The Missing Concept in Our Relationship with Earth · John D. Liu

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07

Deepening
Many ways of knowing
An epistemic monoculture helped bring us here. Regeneration needs a wider science, one where Indigenous knowledge, embodied experience and the knowing of the social field stand alongside data and analysis.

Relational Systems Thinking

Melanie Goodchild, Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 2021. Guided by the Haudenosaunee two-row wampum, Anishinaabe scholar Melanie Goodchild explores the sacred space between Indigenous and Western systems thinking. Downloaded more than 75,000 times.

"A reconnection with Mother Earth and with each other is fundamental to disrupting global patterns of trauma."

Article page

Building a Science of the Social Field

Otto Scharmer and Eva Pomeroy, 2026. An invitation "to reimagine science not only as the study of systems, but as a practice of deep sensing, shared meaning-making, and regenerative transformation."

Explore the Social Field Foundations

Niigani Miinigowiziiwin: We Give These Gifts to the Future

Canada, 2026–2029. Canada's science centres are learning to weave Anishinaabe knowledge with complexity science and systems ecology. The program was designed and facilitated by Melanie Goodchild with the Presencing Institute and the Wolf Willow Institute. Its first cohort brings together 65 people from 15 science centres, working "beyond inclusion to true reciprocity and shared understanding."

Press release

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Read

We May Be Entering a Second Axial Age


Otto Scharmer, Noema, May 2026. Why today's polycrisis is a rupture on the scale of the first Axial Age — and why the response lies in collective awareness, the social soil, and new civic infrastructures built to tend it.

Read the essay


Partner with us


Fund the soil, not just the harvest.

Most investment goes to what is visible above ground. The human capacities that make regeneration possible — sensing, relating, acting together — receive almost none. Help us tend them.

Partner with us
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The Presencing Institute, a global non-profit, equips change-makers with innovative tools and methods for leading from the future as it emerges. Using our Theory U approach, we combine science, collective action, and creativity to drive systemic change, with hubs across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. 

 
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1770 Massachusetts Ave. #221
Cambridge, MA 02140 - USA
 

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