November 2025 – Zwolle, Netherlands
We are Blagovesta Tzaneva, Giovanni Maria Macchioni, Laia Ongmali Chorto, and Leopold Barasch, four students of Global Project and Change Management at Windesheim University.
As part of our Value Creators semester, we are challenged to tackle a complex issue and add value for the network of stakeholders that is affected by this issue. In our case, we are reimagining support systems for small-scale regenerative farmers through an Earth Charter-based initiative that addresses both isolation and market barriers. We propose to develop a Community of Practice that draws on the Earth Charter’s Principles.
Throughout the semester, we conducted extensive interviews with farmers, politicians, professors, and other experts in the field. Based on this, the team identified two main problems: small-scale regenerative farmers face significant certification costs and experience professional isolation.
Therefore, we propose to set up a Community of Practice (CoP).
The CoP would serve different purposes. It would create a space for farmers to share their experiences with soil health improvements, biodiversity enhancement, local market development, seasonal and cyclical planting patterns, and much more.
In addition, the CoP members would benefit from the peer-to-peer assessment system using the Earth Charter’s Principles. Our team developed an assessment rubric taking inspiration from the EC-Assess: The Earth Charter Ethics-Based Assessment Tool. We adapted the different criteria to our project, keeping an alignment with the principles that distinguish the Earth Charter’s work.
As European agriculture faces urgent transformation needs, this student-led project shows how Earth Charter values can be turned into practical support systems that improve both farmer resilience and ecological integrity. The vision goes beyond the Netherlands, presenting a replicable model for farmer empowerment across Europe.
On January 19th 2026, the team will present their work alongside Earth Charter Netherlands at a book launch event. The students will be introducing their platform, as they will be looking for someone who is interested in learning more about this project and eventually taking it over from them and making it feasible.
Those interested in learning more about the initiative or exploring possibilities for collaboration are encouraged to reach out to the Earth Charter Netherlands, or directly to the students at [email protected].
