Inspiration from trees for a different world

Trees started developing 360 million years ago, way before dinosaurs got extinct 67 million years ago and the Homo Sapiens appeared 300'000 years ago. Forests are heavens of (bio)diversity, offering a multitude of habitats and food to fauna and flora.

A walk in the forest soothes us and contributes to our well-being; yet for the observant eye, notions such as resilience, connectivity, interdependence, diversity and inclusion become apparent.

Obviously, competition is also part of the balance, but not in overwhelming fashion as in, e.g., monocultures of Red fir trees. In the Jura and the alps, thousands of Red fir trees are dying due to drought and increase of temperatures. Monocultures planted by humans suffer the most.

Forests, trees and natural processes seem better than us humans at developing natural and resilient balances, in harmony with even the biggest natural grazers such as wild cattle, bisons or, in the past, mammoths, that help shape open, strong and very diverse landscapes.

This is maybe not a surprise if we consider the experience trees have gathered over 360 millions years.

Since the dawn of mankind 300’000 years ago, we conquered the world and have tried to control every natural aspect that impacted our comfort and development. Doing so, we developed a society with amazing achievements, but also at times questionable results.

Trees cannot move, do not build walls, do not launch wars. Yet forests adapt, are organised, and use interactions, dynamics and hierarchies that work in balance while being the host of an almost infinite diversity.

Can we draw parallels between human societies and forests ? And what if trees could inspire us in our lives and the way we build relationships? In the way we organise our institutions, companies and societies ? Can we tap into this 360 million years long experience, and if yes, how ?

This hike is an invitation to explore these questions. We’ll walk deep into a forest and look at it through new eyes. We will observe, feel the atmosphere and breathe the air. Your guide will help you in your observations and understanding, and as a group we will develop new insights on how this new knowledge and gathered experience can help us in shaping our future. This can be done in line with a theme defined at the beginning of the day.

This day can be organised as a simple hike and ongoing discussions, and also as a team building event with a structured workshop that targets specific themes and outcomes. In all cases it will be about positioning ourselves as full members of nature and developing new individual and collective perspectives that can help us organise our world, small or large, differently.