We Implement, Teach and facilitate Resilient Design
Our mission is to restore biodiversity by regenerating ecosystems and equipping individuals and communities with the training and knowledge needed to be effective land stewards.
The Founders
Co-Founder, Senior Designer & Ecological Educator
Timoteo Granzotti
Timoteo Granzotti is a Senior Designer and Instructor with the Resilient Community Design Program at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC). With over 20 years of experience in California and Mediterranean ecology, Timo specializes in whole-systems design, agroforestry, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), integrating Indigenous and contemporary approaches to land stewardship.
He has taught and consulted on regenerative projects across California, the U.S., the Brazilian Amazon, Costa Rica, Panama, and Kenya advancing biodiversity restoration, sustainable food systems, and community resilience. His past work includes co-developing Pathways to Resilience, a re-entry permaculture certification program for formerly incarcerated individuals at Merritt College.
A frequent speaker and collaborator, Timo has presented at the EcoFarm Conference and TEDx on ecological resilience. Of mixed Ethiopian-Italian heritage and raised across Alaska and Sicily, his multicultural roots and connection to wild landscapes inform his lifelong commitment to restoring relationships between people and the natural world.
Ericardo Baldonado
Co-Founder, Head of Communications & Financial Officer
Ericardo (Ricky) Baldonado’s primary focus is on spiritual ecology, informed by training in permaculture design and the soil food web, and over two decades of experience building intentional communities and working within spiritual sciences. His work centers on the understanding that the health of the land is inseparable from the inner, relational, and collective health of people.
He spent five formative years living and teaching in a yoga ashram in India, where daily spiritual practice, service, and communal living shaped his approach to leadership and stewardship. He has also worked alongside Native American and Indigenous communities, bridging prayer traditions, ancestral wisdom, and ecological practice in service of land and community restoration.
Ricky’s work emphasizes that reforestation and regenerative food systems are not isolated technical outcomes, but expressions of unified and healthy communities in right relationship with the Earth. He is also the founder of Warrior Council, a men’s initiative focused on purpose, health, right relations, and service, which complements and supports his role within People of the Forest
Advisors
-
Kumu Ramsay Taum
LEI of the Pacific LLC President
-
Cliff Guzman
Galaide Group LLC President
-
Miriam Volat
Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative, River Styx Foundation Executive Director
-
Kendall Dunnigan
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center RCD Director
-
Dave Henson
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center Executive Director
-
Eric Watson
Producer, Writer, Advocate
Designing a Resilient Future
To design a resilient future, biodiversity can be our goal, and our greatest teacher.
In this thought-provoking TEDx presentation, People of the Forest co-founder, Timo Granzotti offers a profound way to understand adaptation in the natural world, and how we too can adapt.