Dregger Leila - Desert or paradise: restoring endangered landscapes using water management, including lake and pond construction

Sepp Holzer was born into a family of mountain farmers in 1942 in Austria. From early on he experienced natural cycles with the open curiosity of a child. Through watching his self-built habitats, their animals, plant life and water, he found more coherent answers to his questions than school could provide. This paradise, created by him on a small scale, with all the symbiotic relationships the interplay of species and biodiversity has shaped his respect for nature and ways of co-operating with her.

As a child, Sepp Holzer was a true scientist: he did not believe blindly, and he would search and research until he found satisfying answers. Often his findings would contradict what his parents and teachers had to say. When young, he made a radical decision then and has stayed true to it to this day; he decided to make it his life-task to restore an ecological paradise on earth by fully co-operating with nature, consciously.

Conflicts were unavoidable. Nature and our man-made world have grown apart in all areas: politics, agriculture, social life and science. In order to stay true to himself and his integrity Sepp Holzer became the Rebel Farmer. All who know Sepp Holzer experience his authentic sympathy for anything living. He is unable to tolerate social injustice, cruelty to animals or destructive stupidity when working with nature. He is unable to ignore the worldwide destruction of nature he encounters wherever he goes, or the loss of humanity in our actions and humanitys global suffering from poverty and hunger. He is not afraid to support life and to name grievances. He does not avoid conflict, but he never makes accusations. Blessed with enormous energy, willpower and intelligence he always seeks alternatives to create win-win situations for humans and nature alike.

He often dreams these solutions. Whilst asleep his spirit is able to connect with the collective unconsciousness giving him access to an intuition deeper than his daytime intellect.

Sepp Holzer (right) with son and his successor, Josef Andreas Holzer (left)

A lot of these discovered principles are so fundamental that they not only apply to growing healthy food, but are also applicable to many other areas of life.