Samuel Oram

Award winning British baritone Samuel Oram has been acclaimed for singing “with fire and gusto” and for his "...masterful breadth of line”. He recently appeared as Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore/Westminster Opera Company), Thoas (Iphigénie en Tauride/Euphonia Opera), Nardo (Finta Giardinera/RCMIOS), Marquis de la Force (Dialogues des Carmelites/BCO), Oberon (P.U.C.K./RCMIOS) and John in John Joubert’s new commission of Jane Eyre with the English Symphony Orchestra.

Jodie Marshall

odie Marshall set up A Mind Apart Theatre Company Limited in 2008 after finishing her degree in Drama at Lincoln University. Having found her love from the Brazilian social and political theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, Jodie’s directing often leans towards bringing unheard voices out for the audience to hear whilst encouraging them to look deep into themselves. Jodie encourages her actors to stay true to their characters, whilst bringing historical themes and texts into the present, questioning current political and social themes in our society.

Dida Guigan

Dida Guigan is a graduate of the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, Switzerland. She continued her learning in Lebanon and Egypt with the support of the Swiss promoter Pro Helvetia, and over the course of four years immersed herself in many different singing techniques, languages and musical systems. For the last seven years she has accompanied and assisted choirs and individuals with personalized designed programs and workshops in Switzerland, Beirut (Collectif Kahraba, 3a 7abl el Hawa and the music hub) and the Emirates (Emirates Foundation Youth Mentoring Platform).

Kathryn Gardner

Kathryn Gardner received her music degree from Emory and Henry College and a Master’s of Music Education  at James Madison University. She studied with Sharon Christman who was instrumental in helping her perfect the lyric coloratura repertoire. She was delighted to be able to work with Randolph Mauldin, a vocal coach from the Washington Opera Company.  Ms Gardner has earned accolades from her performances with numbers opera companies, symphonies and choral societies. She has toured throughout the east coast of America and France performing with the Virginia Ensemble.

Grace Carter

British Soprano Grace Carter began her musical career as a pianist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Having graduated in Postgraduate Vocal Performance from Trinity Laban, London, she is now based in Amsterdam working with Rosemary Joshua and Olivier Lallouette.

John Burrows

John Burrows has been acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. He was born in England, and is now a US resident. In 1983 he founded The Lyric Opera of Dallas and served as Artistic Director for ten seasons. He appeared as guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra, Shreveport Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Theatre of San Antonio, OperaDelaware, Nevada Opera, Opera Northeast, the American Music Theatre Festival, and Cleveland Lyric Opera.

Sébastien Fabre

Sébastien Fabre makes air travel easy every step of the way, by developing a portfolio of solutions that provide a seamless passenger journey (passenger & baggage processing), supporting efficient and smooth operations at the airport and allowing stakeholders across the air transport industry to work better together through the common SITA Platform and Data services.

Brian Iselin

Brian Iselin is a former soldier and Federal Agent. For the last 17 years he has conducted modern slavery operations in almost 50 countries. He now runs slavefreetrade, a Swiss NGO providing the world’s first Human Rights Compliance Platform for assessing and monitoring workplace conditions globally in real time.

Ash Domah: A passion to green the deserts

CDLS Impact Stories: Ash Domah

01/05/2019
Featured Story
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CDLS Impact Stories: Ash Domah
Ash Domah

Growing up with his twin brother in Mauritius, Ash Domah spent most of his time in nature around trees and plants. His passion today is greening the deserts, and he says his visit to Caux in 2018 inspired him to give all his time to this.

Ash moved the UK to study when he was 20, qualified as a chartered account in 2005, and then at the age of 36 embarked on an MBA at the Bradford University School of Management. While studying a module on Ethics & Sustainability, he saw how businesses over-exploit resources to maximize profits and create shareholder wealth, at the cost of the planet and its people.

In 2010, Ash became Controller for multinational US-listed Tech companies from the Silicon Valley. In 2017 he was introduced to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and participated in the first ever technological fair of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in Ordos, China.

The same year he founded Tradom, a start-up company inspired by the SDGs. It aims to spur a new Green Revolution to feed one billion people, while increasing forest cover and protecting wildlife. Over the next 12 months he set up private-public partnership agreements with NGOs, private-sector players and government agencies. The projects with NGOs include an 100,000 hectare Agro-Forestry programme; a jatropha plantation for biodiesel, an alternative to fossil fuel; a partnership in North Africa to stimulate socio-economic development; a bid to expand Arundo Donax biomass (known as Green Coal) internationally; and strategic partnerships with one of China’s largest environmental and ecological companies and with UNCCD.

In July 2018, he was invited to the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS) and its Policy Makers’ Round Table. These gave him a chance to learn more about the relationship between land and ecosystem restoration and conflict resolution, community building and sustainable finance. He was inspired by his interactions with others working in the field and developed new collaborative partnerships. 

After leaving Caux, Ash decided to resign from his corporate job and dedicate all his time to implementing large-scale land restoration projects with Bremley Lyngdoh, who had invited him to Caux. They are collaborating on EcoRestoration projects developed with Worldview Impact. They are also working with the Government of Meghalaya, and partners from Germany, South Africa and Australia, on a project to restore 5,000 ha of rat-hole mines, which have contaminated air, water and land. And they have started collaborating with the Natural Capital Alliance – an initiative by CDLS participants to empower the regenerative economy through peer-review of blockchain projects, with the aim of building a trusted global marketplace.

Ash believes that charity is not sustainable but that addressing climate change with small and marginal farmers is a business opportunity. So he is developing sustainable business models. Climate change cannot be mitigated without addressing poverty, he believes: the poorest people, those least responsible, are – and will be – the hardest hit.

‘Caux has been an inspiring place to be,’ says Ash. ‘It led me to retire from the corporate world to pursue my new-found life purpose of greening deserts.’

His technologies can be viewed here.

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Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace aims to deepen understanding of links between land degradation and human security and to build the trust needed for effective collaboration on the ground and in ‘land-peace partnerships’. As a programme of Initiatives of Change International, it inspires, equips and connects people to address world needs, starting with themselves.

Among other activities, each year ILLP organizes the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security in the Swiss village of Caux, in collaboration with Initiatives of Change Switzerland, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The CDLS is much more than an annual Dialogue. It is located at the centre of a growing network of practitioners working on every aspect of human security and ecosystem restoration. They support each other, inform each other, and collaborate with each other.


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Sai Kishore Nellore: Empowering small farmers

CDLS Impact Stories: Sai Kishore Nellore

01/05/2019
Featured Story
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CDLS Impact Stories: Sai Kishore Nellore
Sai Kishore Nellore

After serving in the Indian Air Force for 13 years, Sai Kishore Nellore decided to work on climate change while studying for a MBA in Aberystwyth, Wales. He realized that the people most affected by climate change are small and marginal farmers, who get limited support from such affirmative actions as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which enables projects in developing countries to earn Certified Emission Reduction units (CERs), which can then be sold, mainly to developed nations.

Sai's research in the UK led him to Bremley Lyngdoh, Founder and CEO of Worldview Impact. They discussed the issue of small and fractured land holdings and on his return to India, Sai started working with VEDA Climate Change Solutions (VCCSL), an enviro-social enterprise working with small and marginal farmers. He completed the validation and verification of its Improving Rural Livelihoods project, which has now been implemented in partnership with the BioCarbon Fund of the World Bank and JK Paper Mills.

This was the first project of its kind in Asia. It has benefited some 1,600 small and marginal farmers in six poor districts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and afforested or reafforested 1,607 hectares of degraded land. The farmers sold 80,000 CERs to the World Bank for $4.05 per ton of CO2. During the project’s lifetime, each farmer will get about $300 per ha and also make about $3000 per ha by selling pulp wood to the local paper industry.

Sai strongly believes that farmers are not just beneficiaries but providers and stewards of the ecosystem services on which we all depend. He has been working on developing unusual business models to benefit farmers and is exploring the convergence of payment for ecosystem services, blockchain and fintech in a doctorate with the International Open University Foundation.

He has worked with UNDP, the Government of Bhutan, and the corporate sector to develop and manage projects related to land restoration and climate change. He and Bremley have conceptualized a project to develop a new Ecosystem Services Assessment and Valuation Standard that uses such technologies as blockchain and drones for monitoring and verification.

Sai took part in the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS) in 2018. It offered a platform to interact with others working in this domain and to develop collaborative partnerships. Sai and Bremley have started collaborating with Natural Capital Alliance – an initiative by CDLS participants to empower the regenerative economy through peer-review of blockchain projects on regeneration, with the aim of building a trusted global marketplace.

Sai also participated in the Policy Markers Round Table at Caux. He realized CDLS's immense potential, was inspired by its energy and has committed himself to target land restoration at scale and replicate his successful Indian project.

Since leaving Caux, he and Bremley have identified 5000 ha of degraded mountain ecosystems in the Aruka region of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh for a project that will benefit more than 4,000 households. Once implemented, it will be replicated for the whole of the Eastern Ghats, an area of over 50,000 in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. They are also developing collaborative partnerships to address livelihood issues over nearly 50,000 ha in Assam, and working in 400 villages in Meghalaya to contribute in community-led landscape management initiatives. The latter are a direct outcome of CDLS.

------

Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace aims to deepen understanding of links between land degradation and human security and to build the trust needed for effective collaboration on the ground and in ‘land-peace partnerships’. As a programme of Initiatives of Change International, it inspires, equips and connects people to address world needs, starting with themselves.

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