What is the Land Guardians Network?
The intention of this experimental LGN is to help nurture the relationships and deepen the conversations between the human and the more-than-human guardians of estates, large farms, nature reserves, wildlife corridors, conservation areas, and other significant landscapes in South Africa.
It is mainly aimed at supporting the human custodians in exploring ways of working more deeply and consciously with the invisible, more-than-human elements of Nature who support the vitality of their landscape.
Origins
As the founder of Ecofluency, I have been working professionally with landscape-level intelligence for about 5 years, building on my academic research in subtle agroecologies and my practice of Nature communication of about 13 years. Then, in April 2025, I heard a request from the land itself to create this network, during the Be The Earth Festival, held at Boschendal Estate in the Western Cape of South Africa.
Boschendal sits on the eastern side of the striking Simonsberg Mountain, with whom my relationship began when I was 6 years old, because I grew up in Stellenbosch and went to university there. I saw the western slopes of Simonsberg Mountain almost every day for 20 years, so it felt like a natural next step in my journey to honour this request from the landscape that had held and witnessed me throughout my education.
The LGN met online for the first time in November 2025, and I’m forever grateful to Seth Tabatznik, co-founder of Be The Earth Foundation, for his role as a founding member and advisor in creating this network.
Who are the more-than-human land guardians?
Animals, trees, microbes, mountains, rivers and various other physical aspects of a landscape can all act as guardians of landscapes, each holding different responsibilities. For example, elephants are not only ecosystem engineers, but the sounds they carry and share along migration pathways also nourish and reconfigure the spaces they pass through on a metaphysical level, like updating the evolutionary ‘software’ for the hardware of the system.
But in many maps, it is the beings who exist beyond the physical realm who are primarily responsible for ensuring the operational vitality of the manifest realm. These invisible guardians include wise and ancient human ancestors, but there is a wider range of more-than-human elements of Nature who hold great power in forming landscapes, increasing biodiversity and guiding ecosystems to prosperity.
These inter-dimensional species support ecosystems at all scales, from the internal terrain of our digestive system, to the regional geography of a country, to the many planetary systems who orbit our Sun. For this network, the focus is at the local and regional landscape level.
Recognising that there are differences in language preferences for these intangible forces within and across cultures, we invite that these elements could go by many names, e.g. guardian spirits, overarching intelligences, over-lighting angels, Genius Loci, guiding essences, devas, to name a few.
Why work with these invisible beings?
When humans collaborate with these elements, including the geobiological energies of the land, they fulfil their role as a beneficial keystone species in thriving ecosystems, orchestrating things that other species cannot.
But this requires us to enter into conscious dialogue with these more-than-human elements of the landscape, in order to co-create the stewardship of landscape management practices in ways that enhance biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, and collective wellbeing.
What’s next for the Land Guardians Network?
In June 2025, Ecofluency was awarded a small grant from Be The Earth to support the growth of this experimental initiative. To find out how to best support human land custodians, we host free monthly online calls for members of the LGN.
The aim is of these conversational gatherings is twofold:
Find out what land guardians need in order to develop their relationship with the more-than-human guardians of the landscapes that they steward. This will inform educational material and facilitation frameworks in online and in-person gatherings for land guardians.
Allow a community of practice to emerge, to support deeper collaboration both with each other and with the unseen guardians of the places that our members steward.
Email Saskia directly at saskia (at) ecofluency.org if you have any questions.
The role of Ecofluency in land communication
Nature communication predates all other forms of languages. It has been, and still is, practiced by indigenous peoples worldwide for millennia. It rests on the principle that clear communication with any aspect of Nature is both 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.
Ecofluency is the science, art and magic of communicating with Nature, using an expanded spectrum of sensory awareness. This modern version of Nature communication through Ecofluency invites us to acknowledge the bi-directionality of our participation with the rest of Nature, as well as equips people with the skills to cultivate reciprocity and co-create practical solutions with the more-than-human world.
While Nature communication can be done in situ, it happens beyond time and space, allowing one to seek counsel from the wisdom and intelligence of Nature wherever, whenever.
It complements logic, rather than replaces it, and brings the more-than-human to the table as a stakeholder, creating more truly holistic practical decisions on all levels. Through this lens, land management can be more efficient, supporting both ecological regeneration and evolution for all of life on our beloved Earth.
This initiative could eventually grow into a larger group of networks and communities of practice worldwide. But for now, this is a private network focused in South Africa. Please do let us know if you think of anyone else, locally or elsewhere, who might be interested in working consciously with the more-than-human guardians of their landscapes.
We hope you’ll join us!
With gratitude,
Saskia and Seth
