To protect biological and cultural diversity, we need rapid and dramatic change.
Restoration depends on reawakening to our interdependence with the natural world.
Help lead your community in the movement towards a just and sustainable transition.
OAEC supports change makers and communities to design for a resilient future.
We live in a time of profound challenges that require immediate, courageous and strategic responses. We are confronted by global ecological and climate crises, by widespread social injustice, and by economic and governance systems unwilling and unable to correct the course.
OAEC’s work focuses on cultivating ecological literacy and building the capacity of civic and social movement leaders and organizations to guide their communities toward an ecologically regenerative, economically viable, and socially just future. We see that the most innovative and effective change is happening at the regional and local levels — all around the world. We work with communities in our own home region of Northern California, and we learn from and support similar efforts in many other parts of the U.S. and world. Join us!
Vision & Strategy
We humans are evolved to tend deep, regenerative and reciprocal relationships with the rest of the natural world. With the mission of protecting and restoring biological and cultural diversity, OAEC works to support diverse communities – schools, watershed groups, public agencies, social change organizations, and more – to design their own regenerative systems at the regional and local scale.
Projects & Partnerships
OAEC has a diverse, interrelated set of projects and partnerships, each sharing four strategies: 1) researching and modeling resiliency, 2) training and supporting change makers, 3) empowering organizations to design their own resilient communities, and 4) working in coalitions to change the rules of governance and economy.
About OAEC
OAEC is an 80-acre research, demonstration, education, advocacy and community-organizing center in Sonoma County, California. We host dozens of courses, retreats, tours and events each year; sell hundreds of varieties of organic plants at our Biodiversity Nursery; offer internships; and organize and advocate for social change.
