What is the Land Guardians network?
The creation of this network is a request made by the breath-taking, mountainous landscape surrounding Boschendal Estate in the Western Cape, and was heard by me while having dinner with Seth, during the Be The Earth Festival at Boschendal in April 2025.
For those who don’t know me, I have been working professionally with the more-than-human aspects of Nature, including landscape-level ecosystem intelligence, for about 4 years through Ecofluency, and through my academic research and practice of Nature communication for about 13 years.
The purpose of this experimental network is to support custodians of estates, large farms, nature reserves, wildlife corridors and other large pieces of land, who may welcome support in working more closely with the unseen elements of the landscape.
Who are the unseen elements in a landscape?
Essentially, these unseen elements are the beings who exist beyond the physical realm, who are responsible for ensuring the operational vitality of the manifest realm.
Recognising that there could be differences in language preferences for these intangible forces, we invite that these elements could go by many different names, e.g. guardian spirits, overarching intelligences, overlighting angels, guiding essences, devas.
These can include human ancestors, but there are a wide range of more-than-human aspects of Nature who hold great power and wisdom in forming landscapes that allow for greater biodiversity and ecosystem prosperity.
When humans collaborate with these elements, including the geobiological energies of the land, they fulfil their role as a keystone species in thriving ecosystems, orchestrating things that other species cannot.
But this requires us to enter into dialogue with these more-than-human elements of the landscape, in order to co-create the design and timing of landscape management practices.
How does one communicate with the land?
Ecofluency is the science and art of communicating with Nature, using an expanded spectrum of sensory awareness. It operates on the principle that communication with any aspect of Nature is possible and fundamental to finding harmony in all relationships, and to engender trust and facilitate healing and transformation. This is because we are Nature, and so we are in relationship with the rest of Nature all the time, which includes the materials with which houses have been built, the ecosystems surrounding the buildings, the air, water, microbes and everything else on our beloved Earth.
Nature communication predates all other forms of language. It is nothing new, and has been practiced by indigenous peoples worldwide for millennia.
This modern version of Nature communication through Ecofluency both invites us to acknowledge the bi-directionality of our participation with the rest of Nature, and equips people with the skills to cultivate reciprocity and co-create solutions with the more-than-human world through dialogue.
It brings the wisdom and intelligence of Nature to the table as a stakeholder, allowing humans to make more truly holistic practical decisions on all levels. This would mean greater efficiency in the regeneration of the landscapes, and would also support personal and collective healing and evolution through access to Nature’s wisdom and power.
What are the next steps?
To find out how this network could best support land custodians, we’ll host a series of free, conversational online calls.
Saskia will share more about the what, why and how of Nature communication in listening to the land, and we’ll listen to custodians about what are your needs and desires in this field of practice, so that we can better meet you in this exploration.
The first call is on Thurs 6 Nov at 10:00-11:30 SAST.
Please use this link to register your interest:
If you can’t join on that date, please email Saskia directly at saskia@ecofluency.org by Fri 17 Oct.
This initiative is experimental, and we don’t yet know how the land guardians network will be funded. The retreat mentioned below only covers costs including Saskia’s time in organising and hosting, but since the network is still emergent, we’ve decided to not ask anything for the calls at this stage.
Ecofluency retreat
In addition, Saskia will be hosting an invite-only Ecofluency immersion tailored specifically to land custodians, at Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat near Stanford in the Western Cape, 27-29 March 2026.
Details will be shared in the coming weeks, but you’re welcome to save the date and register your interest via email in the meantime.
For now, this is a private network focused on land in South Africa. It may eventually grow into a network and community of practice worldwide, but in the meantime, please do let us know if you think of anyone else, locally or elsewhere, who might be interested in working consciously with the spirit of the landscape for which they are the custodian.
We hope that you’ll join us.
With gratitude,
Saskia and Seth