LIOS is a young NGO, founded by people from all walks of life who strongly believe that climate change is a soil problem. Our team of young soil advocates, UN professionals and regenerative agricultural farmers were bound together by a passion for soil and the desire to make a change.
LIOS was initially established under the name Growth4Peace in Vienna, Austria, which had the aim to advocate for the pressing global issue of desertification. Johanna Walderdorff founded the organization after having trained as a safari guide in South Africa where she learnt up close how nature works in arid environments. Later on she found regenerative agriculture , by seeing the TEDTalk on a Holistic Management method which is based on nature's principles, developed by the Zimbabwean ecologist and livestock farmer, Allan Savory. From then on she felt an overwhelming urge to play a part in the climate battle we all face today. She met Dr. Afsar Rathor who had worked at the UN for 30 years and Dr. Josef Siegele, an International Human Rights Lawyer, both at different peace events in Vienna. Whom all saw a promising solution in regenerative agriculture, however, noticed a very large knowledge gap and lack of awareness on the topic among policy makers. The organisation has a deep focus on implementing regenerative agriculture into peace agreements as Johanna has aligned warzones and vegetation lines in arid environments, showing how countries battling desertification conflicts always have a tendency to align with the decreasing vegetation lines. Furthermore the organisation would like to aid the increasing need to switch to regenerative agriculture practices in Europe due to increasing aridity. Ultimately, the organisation aims to communicate, advise and help implement on the issue of soil degradation to two main players:
- global leaders, politicians, policy makers, and other stakeholders, who have the power to encourage and implement wide scaled changes;
- and developing, fragile countries and underprivileged communities, who are least equipped to deal with the rapid changes caused by today’s climate crisis.
