“As an ecology professional, Justin enjoys rebuilding social and ecological resilience through quiet conversations with nature. With extensive experience in ecological restoration in southern Africa, Justin worked with rural communities developing ‘community-based natural resource management programmes (CBNRM)’. In the Idanha-à-Vida project, he works with his wife, Sofia (a cultural anthropologist), to link the traditional social mechanisms of this area for building ecological resilience and limiting livelihood vulnerabilities over time. Justin also manages and consults on several ecological projects in Portugal, such as the Idanha-à-Vida project. These projects focus on both post-fire recovery and the recovery of damaged, degraded and destroyed ecosystems through ecological restoration interventions, such as the recovery of the water cycles, soils, and endemic vegetation. Along with his colleagues from a Portuguese environmental NGO, he also works with landowners and land users to improve land management decisions for food-based systems by introducing regenerative agroecological and agroforestry practices. Justin also does research on land degradation and ecological functionality, and is currently completing a PhD based on his work in Portugal at the School of Science and Technology at Nova University Lisbon”

Michael Marder is an IKERBASQUE Research Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Spain. His writing spans across the fields of ecological theory, phenomenology, and political thought. He has published numerous scientific articles and monographs, including Plant-Thinking (2013); Phenomena—Criticism—Logos (2014); The Philosopher's Plant (2014); Dust (2016), Energetic Dreams (2017), Heidegger (2018), Political Categories (2019), Pyropolitics (2015, 2020); Philosophy of Eviction (2020); Hegel's Energy (2021); Green Mass (2021), Philosophy for Passengers (2022) and The Phoenix Complex (2023), among others.

Learn more

Matilde Seabra with a background in architecture works on the expanded field of art-mediation. Thinking like an architect, she designs, in co-authorship with artists and thinkers, the cultural programs collectively building from the specificities of each territory. Matilde believes that erudition is at the intersection of academia and ancestral knowledge. The Talkie-Walkie company, founded in 2012 with Ana Vieira, has contributed to the recognition of tourism in architecture and local heritage. Currently, Matilde is in charge of the PING! the educational and public programmes at the Department for Contemporary Art - Porto City Hall which invites different publics to eco-thinking based on nature and whose perspectives challenge for the visibility of more inclusive narratives of history and for the dissemination of young artists and makers in the city and country-side.

Learn more