We’re honoured to share that John D. Liu will be one of the keynote speakers and workshop leaders in the Cities Leading Food Production programme during VIV Europe 2026!

John D. Liu is a Chinese American film-maker and ecologist. He is also a researcher at several institutions. In January 2015, he was named a Visiting Fellow at the Dutch Institute of Ecology (NIOO) of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences. John is also Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2017 John Liu founded Ecosystem Restoration Communities, a worldwide movement that restores damaged ecosystems on a large scale.

John D. Liu participating in the roundtables during Cities Leading Food Production at VIV MEA 2025 in Abu Dhabi.

Back in November 2025, during Cities Leading Food Production at VIV MEA 2025 in Abu Dhabi, John was both inspirational and pin-sharp in his roundtable participation and inspiration seminar on what’s happening and what’s possible in ecosystem restoration:

“When I went to the cradle of Chinese civilization, I saw one of the most eroded landscapes on Earth, stripped bare and seemingly desert, despite 300 to 700 millimeters of annual rainfall—enough for temperate forest. The problem wasn’t rain, it was infiltration and retention. The heated bare soil created thermic drafts that pushed moisture higher into the atmosphere so it didn’t fall as rain.”

*Loess Plateau around Hunyuan, highland area in north-central China, covering much of Shanxi, northern Henan, Shaanxi, and eastern Gansu provinces*

“When I went to the cradle of Chinese civilization, I saw one of the most eroded landscapes on Earth, stripped bare and seemingly desert, despite 300 to 700 millimeters of annual rainfall—enough for temperate forest. The problem wasn’t rain, it was infiltration and retention. The heated bare soil created thermic drafts that pushed moisture higher into the atmosphere so it didn’t fall as rain.”

“As I began to think this through, I was invited to speak at scientific gatherings, which felt strange for a college dropout who went there just to film. I expected scientists to correct me, but instead they funded more fellowships so I could document similar patterns worldwide, which made me increasingly confident in what I was seeing. That led to invitations in Africa to share these insights with different countries.

This had a profound impact in Rwanda and Ethiopia, both scarred by famine and genocide. Speaking with presidents, prime ministers, cabinets, parliaments, academics, students, and the press—and showing films to the public—meant ‘ecological function’ became a national conversation. I realized policy and action could align around restoring perennial polycultures and the hydrological cycle, and that functioning ecosystems are always more productive—and that this is real work.

Instead of just circulating money and pretending that’s progress, we might as well do the work that actually restores ecological function. That insight helped seed a network of ecosystem restoration communities over the past decade—nearly 100 voluntary groups where people simply go and do what’s needed. The more people share this collective intention and act on it, the more it spreads. You don’t have to tell people what to do; once they understand, they wake up each day already knowing.”

Register your free ticket for VIV Europe 2026 and join us at Cities Leading Food Production!

Keynote speaker John D. Liu confirmed for Cities Leading Food Production

Cities Leading Food Production: keynote speaker Dan Kittredge