(Fatema) F Baheranwala

Biography

I am a PhD candidate at the Institute of Social Studies, Den Haag since March 2022, doing research in the field of Spiritual Ecology. My topic is to investigate human-plant relationships within pagan and druid communities in the Netherlands.

Prior to starting the PhD I have work experience within Sustainability as a consultant and analyst doing research and analysis for various organizations. In 2018, I founded Naturecentric as a ZZP’er based on the idea of living in spiritual and environmental harmony with nature. Over the past five years, I have focused on grassroot projects in Amsterdam and reducing my own environmental impact. With Cityplot, an urban farming collective in Amsterdam, I set up worm composting in my neighborhood, gave herb and cooking workshops, and co-designed a community herb garden for undocumented people in Amsterdam using participatory action research. I researched the health, environmental and ethical reasons for eating plant-based diets; a blog for Amsterdammers  on practical ways to reduce their environmental footprint; and phytoremediation to utilize plants and fungi to clean soil and water.

I have lived and worked in four countries in diverse contexts which has shaped my worldviews and cultivated the self-reflexivity that will shape my research. In my research, I am channeling my existential fear and anxiety driven by climate change into hope and to imagine alternate futures. In an urbanizing world we are beginning to see the impacts of climate change and looming biodiversity loss, I am driven to find alternate stories – of people who live in reciprocity with plants, to understand their relationships with plants and how this affects their life and their actions, also in terms of their environmental footprint.