Followly promotes forms of intelligence that emerge from direct engagement with landscapes.

Tracking develops the ability to read complex situations from subtle signs. It cultivates capacities that are becoming increasingly rare in contemporary societies: embodied perception, patient observation, detection of weak signals, contextual reasoning, working with uncertainty.

At a time when automated systems increasingly dominate knowledge production, these forms of intelligence remain essential. They complement algorithmic systems by cultivating abilities that machines struggle to replicate.

Tracking therefore represents not only a naturalist practice, but also a training ground for ecological reasoning. We believe that engaging, even briefly, with the practice of tracking — or simply experiencing it during an introductory workshop — can be valuable for anyone pursuing ecological work, whether in political, academic or artistic fields. For this reason, Followly seeks to position itself within a broader ecosystem of NGOs and initiatives engaged with ecological questions, encouraging their members to discover and practice the fundamentals of tracking.

Across Europe, many forms of ecological knowledge have been developed through deep familiarity with landscapes. Naturalists, shepherds, foresters, hunters, farmers, guides and observers have cultivated sophisticated ways of interpreting the traces left by animals and environmental processes. These practices form part of Europe’s cultural heritage, but they are also living cognitive infrastructures rooted in specific territories.

Yet such knowledge does not sustain itself automatically. Like all living traditions, it requires attention, transmission and political support. Without this care, practices developed over centuries — sometimes millennia — risk fading precisely at the moment when their relevance is becoming clearer than ever.

Followly documents these practices and contributes to their transmission through films, educational materials and field-based pedagogy. By doing so, the project supports the preservation of situated knowledge while strengthening the connection between cultural heritage, environmental understanding and local practices. Concretely, we support these practitioners by offering what we know best: images, narrative attention and visibility for the practitioners and schools who keep these practices alive.

We are convinced that this knowledge can also generate concrete opportunities for European territories: supporting rural economies through nature-based tourism and cultural initiatives, preserving ancient skills and opening new pathways for young people in environmental education, guiding and biodiversity protection.

At a time when many societies invest heavily in digital infrastructures, artificial intelligence and automated decision systems, it is essential to recognise that sovereignty cannot be technological alone.

It must also be cognitive.

Across European territories, generations of observers have developed sophisticated ways of interpreting living environments. These practices form a vast body of knowledge rooted in landscapes and transmitted through experience. This heritage represents a form of cognitive infrastructure that remains largely invisible but profoundly valuable.

In a rapidly changing geopolitical and ecological context, preserving and transmitting these capacities becomes a strategic task. They contribute to the resilience of societies by maintaining the ability to understand territories directly, interpret and adapt to complex situations and respond to unexpected changes.

Followly seeks to document, preserve and renew this ecological intelligence as part of Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage.

Tracking practices exist across Europe but often remain fragmented and locally rooted.

Followly acts as a platform that connects trackers, naturalists, educators and observers interested in reading landscapes through traces. The project contributes to emerging forms of citizen science, where careful field observations made by individuals contribute to collective ecological knowledge.

Through its agenda, documentation and collaborative initiatives, Followly strengthens a distributed European community engaged in observation, interpretation and shared learning about the living world.

Tracking reveals landscapes as spaces full of hidden narratives : footprints, broken branches and subtle marks in the ground are fragments of stories that unfold between humans, animals and environments. Followly explores how these stories can be shared through contemporary cultural forms such as films, podcasts, interviews and interactive experiences.

By combining documentary practice with environmental observation, the project contributes to developing new ways of narrating ecological relationships and making the complexity of living systems perceptible to wider audiences.

Our ambition is to open passages. Porosities.