Christopher Le Breton on Kaitiakitanga, Guardianship of the Environment for Seven Generations

Published: July 23, 2015, midnight

b"In what has been called the defining decade, there's a growing sense of the need to reappraise our current global situation, and to question many of our prevailing assumptions. What if we really are the people we've been waiting for? Christopher Le Breton is uniquely placed to make a difference at the interface of environment and development, having been an environmental project officer in the European Commission in charge of projects in the former Soviet Union. He was also a European Union environmental adviser and capacity-builder on the ground in Serbia.\\xa0 He has lived, worked, and travelled in 97 countries around the world, engaging at all levels, from Government to grassroots, from private sector to not for profit sector. Christopher walked away from this lifestyle, sold his house in London, and set out to bike the world giving Awakening the Dreamer Symposiums as he went. After completing 75 educational workshops in 7 countries over years, including 50 of them cycling through Australia and Indonesia, Christopher Le Breton has settled in New Zealand. He had been able to implement a number of projects in 10 countries over 7 years, inspiring people to create thriving, dynamic projects in their communities. These projects are boosting, for instance, local economies in Australia, saving indigenous wisdom in Indonesia & Ecuador, saving orangutans, and addressing climate change in Indonesia. On leaving Ecuador recently an indigenous elder asked Christopher to go back and change the dream of the modern world \\u2013 that is to wake every one up! Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, Christopher has set up Earth Partners Trust in partnership with tangata whenua, promoting the concept, understanding and implementation of Kaitiakitanga, guardianship and stewardship of the environment for the current and the next seven generations."