Peter Westerveld developed a method to make desertified areas green and fertile again for both people and animals, called contour-trenching. This proven technique is an integral solution for the enormous problems of deforestation, erosion, desertification and climate disruption. One of Peter’s goals is to reforest the Kilimanjaro area so there will be snow on the mountain again, using cloud formation.
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Blogpost: Big Aspirations: Making the world a greener place
There are some people who at a certain point in life, decide to devote their time making this world a better place. It’s always inspiring meeting the faces behind these well doers to find out who they truly are and what drives them to fight for causes that sometimes seem a bit out of reach. My quest to find answers started with the inspiring story behind the Naga Foundation.
I met the man behind the foundation, Dennis Karpes a few months ago during the Sanoma Media Parade and have to say that on first glance, he looks like an ordinary man. He’s quite tall, has charismatic eyes en was very at ease while speaking to the huge crowd that gathered to listen to five ideas worth doing. It wasn’t until I had a chance of speaking to him that I found out how not ordinary of a man Dennis actually was.
For those of you who haven’t heard of the Naga Foundation before, let me break it down very quickly the way Dennis explained it to me. For over thirty years, the Tanzanian born Peter Westerveld had been studying the ways of Mother Nature in Afrika, often trying to find ways to cut back the exponential growth of deserts in his native country. After the tragic loss of his wife Maartje van Westerop in 2008, who was the driving force behind most of his studies until then, he returned to Holland to start working in his art gallery. It was around this time that he met Dennis Karpes, who is also the founder of Dance4Life, which you might have heard of. It was one of those meetings that could never have been a coincidence and in which both men instantly knew: this was meant to be. They decided to bundle their strengths and so the Naga Foundation was born.
In Asia, the word Naga refers to “the waiters of water and the bringers of rain”. And this is exactly what the foundation has been doing ever since Dennis and Peter started their work. They rehydrate the deserts and thus make the world a greener place. After having met Dennis, I feel extremely privileged that I get to be able to follow him the coming months on his quest for a greener world.
Anna Nikabkht Nooshin (www.overdose.am)
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