Ernst Gotsch

Ernst Gotsch is a Swiss farmer and researcher.

Gotsch's work in Latin America on models of agroforestry has led to conversion of large tracts of degraded land into productive and diverse agroforests. He has developed a new technique of rapid recovery of poor soils by imitating existing patterns in nature in which carefully selected species of plants - a consortium of species - are placed at a given spacing and orientation, introduced in a predetermined sequence, and are heavily pruned during their growth period at regular intervals. In the space of a few years he has converted over 1200 acres of degraded land in Brazil into a productive rainforest producing cacao among other things. His students and some corporate are now implementing the same techniques combining commercial and ecological interests.