Cork oaks freshly stripped of their bark, standing in green grass
Where Life Returns

A regenerative model connecting land, water, agriculture, hospitality and community as one living system.

What EPONIA is

A regenerative model that begins with land, and brings land, water, agriculture, hospitality and community together as one living system, with the village at its heart.

The model needs enough scale for those parts to support one another. Hospitality is how people take part in the wider system. The aim is a working proof of regeneration: healthier soil, better water retention, resilience to fire and flooding, renewed local food systems, stronger community life, and a reason for people, knowledge and economic activity to return to rural places.

Five parts, one living system

Each part strengthens the others. Their connection is the model; none of them works as well on its own.

Close-up of cork oak bark

Land

Read before it is designed. Old oak landscapes, soil and habitat come first.

Still water among golden reeds at dusk

Water

Slowed, held and returned to the ground, so the land can carry life through dry summers.

A woman walking through tall feathered grasses

Agriculture

Regenerative, mixed farming that builds on what the land already does well.

Guests sharing a long table under an old tree

Hospitality

The way guests meet the landscape and its people, and an engine for long-term care.

Friends and neighbours around a crowded kitchen table

Community

A village at the heart: homes, work and services, built with the people who already live and farm there.

Why

Land that has carried people for centuries is under pressure.

Water stress, tired soils, wildfire and a changing climate weigh on rural landscapes. Their economies no longer support livelihoods on their own, and young people leave.

Most capital treats land like this as a development opportunity. EPONIA starts from stewardship: regeneration takes time and trust, and real impact depends on deep knowledge of a place and its people.

A lone old tree silhouetted against a deep blue evening sky

  1. Adapt to a changing climate

    Diverse habitats, returning biodiversity, water held in the landscape and living soil lower the risk for everything that depends on the land.

  2. Grow resilience in food

    Diverse, regenerative mixed farming strengthens food security. The ambition reaches toward renewable energy and circular water and waste, within what the land can carry.

  3. Build a stable local economy

    Many activities in place of a single land use, bringing work, education and opportunity to residents and the wider area.

  4. Bring a village back to life

    Homes for every stage of life, with hospitality, wellbeing and everyday services, grown on reciprocity and trust rather than imposed from outside.

  5. Share a model others can adapt

    What travels is the framework: the methods, the team, the way capital and stewardship are organised. Each new place writes its own plan.

A dirt track winding between broad oak trees Hands holding a small seedling with its roots in soil A cork harvester at work on an oak trunk A reed-thatched cabin glowing at dusk Aerial view of contour-planted hillsides Umbrella pines in morning mist Aerial view of orchards and woodland A timber courtyard built around an old olive tree Olive trees in a green spring meadow
How

Regenerate first. Let the economy grow out of a healthier place.

EPONIA follows a clear framework for land, agricultural and community regeneration. The plan is not imposed; it emerges as knowledge of the place grows, and changes as evidence arrives.

A man kneeling to tend young trees in dry ground

  1. Restore the landscape

    Water, soil, old oak woodland, biodiversity, and resilience to fire and climate.

  2. Build a productive ecology

    Regenerative agriculture and land-based enterprise that work with the restored landscape.

  3. Create an inhabited landscape

    Homes, community infrastructure and places to learn, so people can live and work on the land.

  4. Add aligned economic engines

    Hospitality, food, wellbeing and enterprise, designed together with the ecology rather than added afterwards.

  5. Return value to stewardship

    The resulting economy sustains long-term care for the land, while we measure, learn and make the model transferable.

An integrated plan

EPONIA is an integrated plan.

It all begins with the land.

Each layer rests on the one below it. The land and what already grows and lives on it come first. Agriculture and reforestation build on that ground, and hospitality and community grow out of a healthier place.

Each layer moves at its own pace. Care for the land starts at once; the village and hospitality follow when the landscape and the community are ready for them.

Illustration: The Young
Principles we hold to

The way we work matters as much as what we build.

Read the land before designing it

Baselines, listening and local knowledge come before any masterplan.

Build with the people who live there

Local communities take a prominent role in decisions, from the first meetings onward.

Enough scale, not maximum size

Scale is a functional condition: enough for land, water, farming, hospitality and community to support one another.

Value flows back to the land

When shared effort makes a place more valuable, that value is meant to serve long-term stewardship.

Decide in small, tested steps

Staged decisions with clear gates, so the model can learn and correct as evidence arrives.

Claim only what is proven

We speak about intentions as intentions, and about impact once it is in the ground.

Where we are

At the beginning, on purpose.

EPONIA is being developed first in Portugal. We are bringing together partners in regenerative design, hospitality, food systems and governance, and studying the conditions a first place needs before anything is built.

If you care about land, food and the future of rural places, we would like to hear from you.

Sun rising over a quiet rural hillside
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
Lao Tzu
Who

The people building EPONIA

A small core team bringing together hospitality, food systems, horticulture and responsible development, each with a long track record of turning complex ideas into working places.

Portrait of Xander Bueno de Mesquita

Xander Bueno de Mesquita

Concept, storytelling & stewardship

Initiator and concept developer of QO Amsterdam, a circular hotel that achieved LEED Platinum, and founder of Treating Life Well. Xander brings experience of initiating, integrating and delivering a complex hospitality and place concept.

Portrait of Marinus Luiten

Marinus Luiten

Project development & food systems

Director of Project Development at Greengrounds, working on strategy, partnerships, food resilience and systems thinking. Earlier commercial and project leadership in horticulture at Priva and Horticoop. MSc in Sustainable Business and Innovation, Utrecht University.

Portrait of Meiny Prins

Meiny Prins

Founding partner & partnerships

Executive Chairman and co-owner of Priva Group, and founder and CEO of Greengrounds. An international track record in horticulture, climate control and resource management.

Portrait of Tony Williams

Tony Williams

Governance & responsible development

More than 35 years of international resort development, integrating commercial development with environmental and habitat considerations.

We work with a growing circle of specialists in regenerative design, systems thinking and hospitality. They will be introduced here as their roles are confirmed.