Eric Julien | The Explorers Club 50

Interstice Explorer

developing dialogues

meet eric

Eric Julien is co-founder and director of the NGO Tchendukua, which supports the Kogis, Aruacos, and Wiwas (indigenous peoples of Colombia) in the restitution of their lands and the preservation of their ancestral cultures. Since 1997, 2,586 hectares have been bought back and restored. He also co-founded the EPNS (Ecole Pratique de la Nature et des Savoir/“Practical School of Nature and Knowledge”), which trains adults and children to form new alliances with living beings, using a systemic and organic approach. He lives in the Drôme region of France, where he runs nature reconnection courses for adults, children, families, entrepreneurs and managers, to help people rediscover what’s essential in themselves and their place in the living world. The courses take place on the Comtesse site: accessible on foot, at an altitude of 1,300 meters in the high Diois valleys, it’s a territorial laboratory for experimenting with a healing reconnection with the living within and around us.

Nominated by: Richard Wiese, FR'89

Class of 2024 Location France

Eric and Kogis Community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Massif

As a geographer, my form of exploration is centered by dialogues that invites critical distance, give equal dignity to the various groups involved, and challenge deeply-rooted assumptions.

Being a geographer means opening up multidisciplinary areas of creativity. From climatologists to biologists, anthropologists to historians, and elected representatives to rural indigenous communities – geography takes into consideration all of these distinct perspectives and more. The common consideration of this diversity of viewpoints is territory and nature, and as a geographer, my role is to combine them in pursuit of informed actionable steps toward progress.

Eric and Kogis Community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Massif

“At a time of great ecological, climate-related, and social imbalances, it is a path of hope for imagining a more serene world, at peace and no longer at war with nature.”

- Eric Julien

Our global situation demands multiple dialogues: Firstly, with indigenous societies that have never broken their ties of alliance with nature – both to support them in reclaiming and preserving their lands, and to nourish science and renew our modern systems of thought. We must also consider territories, their sensitive dimensions and their non-human inhabitants, to renew our capacity for care and resilience. We must address business leaders and managers to find ways of reconciling efficiency and sustainability. And finally, we must develop discourse between generations, to adapt past strategies to the major challenges of our time.

Dialogue, this new terra incognita, is a sign of maturity for a social body, opens up creativity and mobilizes energies towards hope and a diversity perspectives. At a time of great ecological, climate-related, and social imbalances, it is a path of hope for imagining a more serene world, at peace and no longer at war with nature.

Author: Manuel Dingula

VIEW THE EC50 2024 PRINT PUBLICATION