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The Whirlwind of Working with Refugees in Bekaa Valley

By Shaya Laughlin From Bekaa Valley, Lebanon Walking through a refugee tent settlement in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley brings mixed feelings. On one side, there is the misery and the despair.…

The Young Explorers Program in the Black Forest

The Young Explorers Program in the Black Forest is a project which was inspired by Mike Horn’s Pangaea Project over four years ago. Over the past years, we have set…

A Baby in the Backpack

If you find yourself in the strange age right after your whole education has ended, you have worked for several years and have a trusted partner (or maybe not entirely)…

The Man Europe Doesn’t Want

Nothing could have prepared me for my first food distribution at the largest refugees and migrants camp in Serbia. One by one, hundreds of men lined up for a plate…

Living on EARTH and building with EARTH

Human beings live on the planet since several millions of years and have learnt to adapt to the environment, to live on earth and to create shelters for protection, intimacy,…

Campus In the Heart of African Jungle: A New Game-Changer in the Congo Basin

The Congo Basin is the second largest tropical rainforest and biodiversity hotspot in the world after the Amazonia. Covering an area of 3.7 million square kilometers, the tropical rainforest locates…

The life of a dive instructor

During 2016 scuba diving became a passion. Loving travel, people and the sea, becoming a scuba instructor, was the obvious choice. Easier said than done, but with a huge number…

Forgotten in Greece

Until today, more than 50.000 refugees of all ages and nationalities continue to find themselves stuck in a bureaucratic limbo in Greece. Barely protected by authorities and organizations, the violation…

Ideas on Identity while Wild Camping in Morocco

This April I travelled through Morocco with some three Italians, one of them being a very dear friend of mine. Although we see each other only once a year we…

In memory of our great friend and treasurer Constantin Vogt

Our beloved friend Constantin Vogt passed away in an avalanche accident near Lauenen in Switzerland in late February 2018. It is incredibly hard to believe. Conny was an outstanding personality,…

Of Altitude and Adventure: Introducing Skiing in Nepal

There exists not a single skiing slope in Nepal, nor any local snow sports culture. At the customs I was asked if my ski bag contained golf cubs. In short,…

Recycling Realities: A Perspective on Multi-Layer Packaging

We produce something that has no value to be collected, nor to be recycled. We produce something for which we have no viable technology to handle it. We produce something…

Annual New Years Reunion 2017/18

Following a well-established tradition, members and friends of the Pangaea Project e.V. met from 30th December 2017 until 1st of January 2018 to celebrate New Years and hold the annual…

Different Stories: Documenting Our Water Borehole Construction in the Heart of South Sudan

Reflection written by Kirsten König   Not being an engineer, one might think that the documentation of a borehole construction is not interesting to accompany. However, if this construction takes…

Experience Geography – Explore Europe: the European Geography Association

By Sophia Paul At the end of my bachelor, I spent a semester abroad in Utrecht in the Netherlands. There I first encountered EGEA, the European Geography Association. That’s a…

Riding Without Moving: Biking from Cologne to Tirana

We spent 17 incredible days riding past the Rhine, meeting people with great hospitality, crossing the Alps and passing clear water lakes in Austria. Then we thought we would conquer…

A year later – seedlings check of last years project

One year passed already by since the first seedlings were planted by Pangaea members. Accompanied by professional advice, Pangaea Volunteers planted seedlings with so much energy, manpower and passion in…

Cocoa

By Henrike Christ Everybody loves it. It’s the most popular sweet. You can get it all over the world and it’s one of the most produced. We all are eating…

The Brazilian Mata Atlantica Forest- filled with Life and Diversity

By Henrike Christ (English Below) Wer seine Zeit in und um den Mata Atlantica aufmerksam verbringt, kann neben der außergewöhnlichen Flora auch eine vielfältige Tierwelt kennen lernen. Die Entdeckungstour beginnt…

The Beauties of Bahia

By Kirsten König (English Below) Abwechslungsreich, wunderschön, entspannend. Nach den ersten fünf Tagen Bäume pflanzen, ging es heute auf eine Bootstour die uns zu Wasserfällen besonderer Art führte. Einmal durch…

Already 600+ Trees Planted!

By Charlotte + Max (English below) Es braucht ein bisschen Kompost, Calcium, Erde und einen Setzling. Ach, nur noch kurz hacken, schaufeln und ankratzen, nun ist der Baum gepflanzt. Wäre…

Brazil Tree Planting 2017- Arrival into a New Environment

After our successful Pangaea Tree Planting project in summer 2016 (see video) another group of motivated Young Explorers travelled to Bahia to work for positive change. (Blog auf Deutsch +…

Summer Reunion in Vorauen, CH

From the 21st to the 25th July 2017, we held our summer reunion in Vorauen, Klöntal in Switzerland. Around 30 of us enjoyed the  beautiful region with its high-rising mountains…

Surprised by Your Own Home – The Pariacaca Expedition

Lima: Peruvian capital. 0 metres above sea level. 10 million people, a third of the country’s population. I found myself stuck in the fast paced city life and decided it…

Dakota Access Pipeline Protests: ‘Relatives, wake up. Remember what you are here for.’

I was woken by intense drumming every morning at dawn inside the tipi I was sleeping in. I was staying at the Oceti Sakowin camp, the biggest camp of about…

Reclaiming our Meat Production

We all know there are problems with the meat industry. For those of us willing to learn, and to invest some time and money, there are viable alternatives. Here’s how…

Primero, somos tontos – Firstly, we’re fools

Authors: Chris Arderne, Michael Kloos, Rick Kotze  We knew this already, but our three weeks in Mexico drove the message home on an almost daily basis. This is the story…

UnConference Freiburg

An unConference is a conference, but better. It doesn’t have a fixed agenda but rather develops on the spot. It brings together people from all sorts of different backgrounds and…

Marching into 2017- New Years Reunion in the Silvretta Mountains

Following an established tradition we met from 30th of December 2016 until the 2nd of January in a mountain hut close to the Bielerhöhe in Vorarlberg, Austria. This year about…

Discussing Sustainability at the Arab-European Young Leaders Forum in Doha

By Ansgar Fellendorf In the first week of December I participated for Pangaea Project and my university, the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, at the 4th Arab- European Young Leaders Forum…

Almada Tree Planting – 4 Month Update

Tree planting project at Fazenda Almada near Ilheus, Bahia, Brazil – 20.10.2016 till 02.11.2016 We finished our second project at Fazenda Almada. It was great to see the 600 seedlings…

Watch Our Brazil Tree Planting Project Video

We are excited to share with you the final video of our 2016 summer Brazil Tree Planting Project on Fazenda Almada. You are interested in joining the reforestation project next…

Arctic Greenpeace Journey against Seismic Blasting

Clara Natanine is a youth leader from the Inuit town Clyde River. In 2011 she spent a week with us Young Explorers during the Pangaea Program Mike Horn Nunavut expedition.…

Mission Accomplished and More to Come: Our Brazil Tree Planting Project

After two eventful, tough and inspiring weeks at Fazenda Almada close to Ilheus, Brazil we successfully finished this year’s tree planting and agroforestry project. We planted 605 tree seedlings, dozens…

Planting a Tree: Expectations and Reality

You might wonder what we do here all day. We admit, we were asking ourselves the same before coming to rural Bahia. Many expected that planting a tree cannot be…

The Tree that named a Country

We write the year 1500. The Portuguese navigators reaching the new continent found the tree in abundance at the coast and its hinterland. It presented itself with a hard red…

10 things you should know before planting trees in the rainforest

1. Have a dedicated team around you.   2. Make it sustainable: Prepare the ground properly and use agroforestry know-how.     3. Don’t kill yourself with the machete, hospitals…

Meet the Brazil Tree Planting Team

Find out what our motivation is to spend more than two weeks on the Fazenda Almada, planting trees!    

Let’s Get Started

Today we started the tree planting agroforestry project on the edge of the Natural Reserve on the farm Fazenda Almada. During the next two weeks we will be busy removing…

How can I justify to fly around half of the globe to plant trees?

Is it even possible to rightfully claim to help the environment with the Pangaea Project agroforestry project in Brazil, if I travel from Europe across half of the world for this? To be…

Fazenda Almada – our summer project’s partner

In the first week of July we start our tree planting and agroforestry project in Bahia Brazil. We are both excited to explore the area and its community and keen…

What is Agroforestry?

Before travelling to the farm Fazenda Almada in less than two weeks to start our tree planting project, we want to shortly describe Agroforestry. The word combination already gives it away,…

Youth Project in Cederberg Mountains

Text by Henko Roukema and Pictures by Lani van Niekerk The Cederberg is the perfect place to host a project like this. The environment is breathtaking, the camping facilities are…

Ende Gelände 2016

For one weekend, the international community came together for a world-wide uprising against extractivism, carrying out disruptive actions of civil disobedience against the infrastructure of the climate catastrophe. Together with almost…

Short History of Brazil

Bem vindo to another blog that leads towards Brazil. Although at the moment you encounter the country a lot  in the media, I only recently started to learn more about…

Cederberge Mountain Exploration trip for Youth

We take 8-10 youth from the Fisantekraal bike club (settlement outside of Cape Town) to the Cederberg Conservation area over a weekend filled with adventure of hiking, rock-climbing and camping…

A Journey of Ups and Downs: Canoeing to Lake Michigan

Campus to Coast – a 160 mile canoe adventure race from Michigan State University’s campus in East Lansing, following the Red Cedar and the Grand River all the way to…

Preparing for the Project

Bem día and thanks for reading the first entry about our tree planting and biodiversity project in July. Currently, we- that is about eight Pangaea members from Germany, Switzerland and…

A Hospital for Seals

This winter I spent two months volunteering at the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre (SRRC) in Pieterburen, Netherlands. This centre works as a hospital for sick or injured stranded seals…

Pangaea Rescue Team

Ever since the continuous migration movements across Europe started to increase throughout the course of 2015 we have been witnessing Europe’s incompetence to prevent a major humanitarian crisis. Instead of…