The Tree Conference has been on a pause since 2020 as its coordinator, Suzi Steer, has been working with TreeSisters on an extraordinary collaboration that arose out of the Tree Conference of 2017.
We are delighted to be able to highlight the publications that have come out of these years of concentrated listening and collaboration.
These publications are on the TreeSisters website and are co-published between TreeSisters and the Fountain.
The Story
To cut a long story shortish, Clare Dubois invited Suzi Steer to join the TreeSisters team after the 2018 Tree Conference in Frome and as a result of Clare’s appearance at the first Tree Conference in Glastonbury in 2017.
Through TreeSisters we were building a collaborative movement towards a global effort to put trees centre stage in 2020 as part of the launch of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. As part of that we nurtured the seed of an idea Andy Egan, the then CEO of International Tree Foundation, had suggested at the 2017 Glastonbury Tree Conference.
The idea was to create an Ethical Tree Growing Framework. You can read an interview with Andy on TreeSisters website.
There was an in person conference planned for May 2020 in Cambridge to share that draft of the Ethical Tree Growing Framework with a wider audience to get feedback from communities. Then lockdown hit and all in-person events in the UK had to be cancelled. Hence the online version in 2020 that was not affiliated with TreeSisters.
Moving forwards TreeSisters led developing the Framework by honouring Freely Informed and Prior Consent which included over two years of listening with the representatives of the Mother Earth Delegation of United Original Nations. The listening process gave the team a much deeper understanding of the impacts of colonisation on humanity and landscapes. It also confirmed the cultural practices around working with trees as conscious intelligent beings spans across six continents.
Ethical Principles & Nature Relationships
Rooted in Ethics articulates Pillars of Nature Relationships, Ethical Principles and Working Practices that are now adopted as central tenets for the Tree Conference.
You can read the history, the collaborative efforts and so much more
in the introduction of the online pdfs of Rooted in Ethics via TreeSisters’ website.
The launch of Rooted in Ethics is available via TreeSister’s YouTube channel.
To explore working with Rooted in Ethics or the Practices, it is co-published by TreeSisters and the Fountain. Please go to their websites to explore their excellent work.