Alec de Selliers listening to a trainer's explanations in a food forest in autumn

an invitation from Alec de Selliers

80 years old, and a thousand food forests to plant

For his birthday, Alec doesn't want gifts or flowers. He invites you to give something closer to who he is instead: trees, orchards, food-producing forests — a donation to Semisto.

alec & semisto

A birthday planted for the next hundred years

Alec isn't just a Semisto well-wisher. Over a year, from October 2025 to June 2026, he completed the full thirty days of the Food Forest Designer program: ecology, permaculture design, plant propagation, planting and agroforestry management — taught in French. Hands in the soil, in every kind of weather, alongside a cohort who could have been his grandchildren.

At 80, he's one of those rare people who plant trees whose shade they won't live to see — and who are glad of it anyway. It's that vision he's asking you to support for his birthday: instead of a gift, a donation to Semisto, the non-profit that trains, designs and plants food forests in Wallonia, Belgium and beyond.

Every donation, whatever the amount, becomes very concretely fruit trees, food-producing hedges, knowledge passed on — and Belgian donors benefit from a 30% tax deduction via the King Baudouin Foundation.

Alec de Selliers smiling, holding his Food Forest Designer certificate, next to Michael Hulet, Semisto's founder

June 2026 — Alec receives his Food Forest Designer certificate

why this cause

What your donation helps grow

Ladybird on the yellow flowers of a flowering brassica

For biodiversity

A food forest is a complete ecosystem: dozens of species of trees, shrubs and perennials that host birds, pollinators and soil life. Where a maize field shelters a handful of species, a food forest holds hundreds — durably, with no inputs.

Freshly harvested figs passing from hand to hand

For food resilience

Our regions depend on long, fragile supply chains. Every food forest planted is a source of local, lasting, low-energy food, producing fruit, nuts and perennial vegetables for generations.

Large joyful group gathered in a warm room, arms raised

For social connection

A food forest is planted and harvested together. Participatory planting days, courses, knowledge passed between generations: these places recreate community in villages and neighbourhoods, around the most universal thing we share — the table.

a donation for Alec's 80th birthday

Make a donation, simply

Your donation goes through the Fonds des Amis de Semisto, hosted by the King Baudouin Foundation: you give to the Foundation, which channels all of it to Semisto's projects. Donors of any nationality are welcome.

Belgian donations from €40/year benefit from a 30% tax deduction on the amount paid (art. 145/33 of the Belgian tax code). You'll automatically receive your tax certificate from the Foundation — this specific benefit applies to Belgian taxpayers only, though the donation itself is open to anyone.