Pictured left: Gideon at a gathering of young environmentalists in July 2021, where he led a conversation on the need for systems change and regenerative practices to address the climate crisis.
The Re-Alliance team are pleased to announce that Gideon Adeyeni has recently joined our Board of Trustees. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Gideon wholeheartedly, and to introduce him and his work to the wider network.
The Re-Alliance Board
In his new role Gideon Adeyeni will be joining Ruth Andrade, Gisele Henriques, George McAllister, Peter Mellett, and Geoff O’Donaghue, who are invaluable to the work that Re-Alliance does. The board has a range of responsibilities including determining the overall strategic direction of the organisation; ensuring that Re-Alliance fulfils its legal duties; and safeguarding the high standards of governance that align with Re-Alliance’s values, integrity, and reputation.
Re-Alliance announced an open call for applications to join its board at the 2023 Annual General Meeting, to which all Re-Alliance Members are invited. Gideon nominated himself and after interviews with Re-Alliance Trustees he was officially welcomed onto the board. Find out more about Re-Alliance’s other Trustees and Core Team here.
Gideon’s decision to join Re-Alliance, in his own words
When asked to share why he chose to join Re-Alliance as a Trustee, Gideon shared the following:
I am passionate about permaculture and regenerative practices. I am a community mobilizer and researcher, with interest in sustainability and livability. My interest in regenerative practices grew out of my inquisition about what we can do as individuals and communities to address the climate crisis and build stronger communities. Regenerative practices, I discovered, help in restoring the environment and strengthening communities.
Gideon in 2015 during a research project he and his team carried out in rural border communities of Southwest Nigeria, exploring existing land management practices and potential for sustainable alternatives.
Permaculture, as a regenerative environmental management and settlement design approach, became appealing to me immediately once I came about it as an idea. Perhaps the fact that I have spent the greater part of my years in the rural suburb of an ancient town of the Yoruba people of Southwest Nigeria, surrounded by evergreen trees of the regions tropical forest, which provided fruits and leaves for our meals and ensured that we woke daily to the beautiful songs of different bird species helped the appeal.
Watching our forest depleted through the activities of illegal and irregular gold miners (which I once initiated a campaign against), and hearing of similar experiences in different parts of the world, from the Congo basin to the Amazon, further sparked my interest in forest restoration, and of course, permaculture.
My growing interest in permaculture and regenerative practices led me to Re-Alliance, which, as I found out, is a network of “field practitioners, policymakers, educators, community leaders and humanitarian and development workers, sharing skills and experience to grow the influence and impact of regenerative development in the humanitarian field”. The decision to become a member of Re-Alliance grew out of a thirst for being part of a community of individuals who are committed to regenerative development and a sustainable future.
I decided to take up the challenge when the opportunity to become a trustee of Re-Alliance emerged, with the hope that I could use my previous experience in a similar role to help grow the organization, while as well forging a more knitted bond with the lovely crop of regenerative practitioners who constitute the leadership and members of Re-Alliance, so that we can together make a sustainable world a reality.
Aside from my youthful energy and creativity, I am hoping that through my membership of the organization and my being part of the trustee, we would be able expand an awareness of the works of Re-Alliance and to expand the network of regenerative practitioners in Africa and West Africa particularly, and by extension globally.
Gideon speaking as part of the Africans Rising movement to advocate for commitment to radically progressive ideas in addressing the climate crisis, during the 2019 Africa Climate Week in Ghana.
Looking ahead
Re-Alliance is currently exploring ways in which we can increase member representation, decentralise decision making, and ensure greater transparency between the organisation and its network of members, in order to ensure that our members’ voices are heard and their needs met. As part of this aim, and with Gideon’s guidance, Re-Alliance is in the process of setting up a Regional Advisory Board, which will be populated by regional representatives from within the membership. We encourage you to get in touch at contact@re-alliance.org to share your thoughts on this matter.