Gabriel Păun
on Fearless Environmental Defense and Being a Champion of the Earth
“If I stopped, then I would be morally dead. And to me, moral death is the most painful death of all.”
Environmental defenders are Nature’s fiercest allies in a world where ecosystems face relentless degradation. Yet their journey is filled with attacks, smear campaigns and adversity.
Gabriel Paun is no stranger to this reality. Guided by his belief that “the coward dies many times in a lifetime, but the brave only once,” he calls on all of us to make a difference by “using your right to say No when you should say No.”
Inspired by his father’s love for nature and encouraged by his professor who saw his gift for translating science into inspiration, Gabriel became what was predicted: an advocate for biodiversity protection and animal welfare.
In 2024, the United Nations named him a Champion of the Earth in the Inspiration and Action category, near trailblazers like Sonia Guajajara and Madhav Gadgil. He is the first Romanian to receive this honour, being boldly portrayed: “Against all odds, Gabriel stands tall.”
Gabriel is the founder of Agent Green and EU Director of Animals Australia. He launched the Carpathian Peace National Park, an ecological diplomacy initiative to unify Ukraine and Romania’s wildlife: “The only boundary exists in our minds. For wildlife and all other species, there are no boundaries.”
Although his actions earned him global recognition, like the EuroNatur Foundation Prize or inclusion in POLITICO’s “Green 28” List, Gabriel’s chosen path has come at a cost: “I don’t know how and why I’ve survived this long.”
Romania’s old-growth forests have been under siege for decades. His work saved tens of thousands of hectares, but the price has been isolation. Gabriel’s documentation of illegal logging led to many assaults and threats: “I’m not upset or angry or worried. I’m happy because I can do more. I’m not fighting only for the trees but for the entire ecosystem, including the thousands of species that live under and above ground. I have every reason to dedicate my life to them.”
The name, Agent Green, speaks for itself: “We stand for investigation. But we also work with scientists to document that these forests are precious and worth preserving.” Listed by Front Line Defenders among the world’s activists at the highest risk, Gabriel acknowledges the vulnerability of environmental defenders: “Our opponents are happy that we are very few. But all the threats I’ve endured mean little to me. I cannot unlearn what I know: that the planet is suffering and needs healing.”
As he prepares to launch his book, Homo Sentient, Gabriel continues to ask the hard questions about planetary health. Read his answers for Inspirators to understand why, whether loved or hated, his impact is undeniable.
Thank you, Gabriel, for being a Romanian Champion of the Earth!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Gabriel Păun
Company / Institution: Agent Green
Title: Founder / President
Website: www.agentgreen.ro and www.homosentient.ro
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-paun-65641110a/
Country of origin: Romania
Country you currently live in: Safe House abroad due to multiple life-threatening events.
Your definition of Regeneration: Regeneration is the journey a conscious human takes to be a beneficial participant in restoring planetary health.
Main business challenge you face: The anthropocentrism. The rotten mentalities and morally bankrupt beliefs of governments and corporations that fail to acknowledge the overshot and remain human-centred instead of Earth-centered.
Main driver that keeps you going: Admiration and love for life in its entire diversity.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: Resilience.
The trait you most value in others: Kindness.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: Visiting the World’s National Parks, attending live concerts of beloved musicians, freeride snowboarding.
The Inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
My father - who offered me outdoor experiences before he died when I was 6 years old.
My university teacher, Marcian Bleahu - who told be that I have a unique gift to translate science for all and that I am meant to become a nature defender armed with the strongest weapons: science and truth.
A starting point for companies or professionals that are beginning the regeneration journey:
Earth does not produce anything, so we can only consume what we have as slowly as we can. At the same time, the Sun is the only thing in our system that produces something: energy. So much of it that a single hour of its shining gives Earth the energy that humanity consumes in an entire year. Having that in mind, it is a duty for each company and professional to think of ways to live more solar so we can slow down the consumption of Earth's resources, close the overshot and restore Earth’s regeneration capacity.
Then, think profoundly and honestly before any action you take about the impact. How does one action have a positive impact on others and the Planet? Could this action hurt others and the Planet? Who and how? What can I do to cancel the unnecessary harm?
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you: I think that the very term “sustainability” has become a cliché in general.
Sustainability is something they were teaching me back in the 90s at the university and has become meanwhile the best tool for greenwashing. They were saying sustainability is when humans find the balance between economic growth, social well-being and nature protection. While the world was talking about sustainability and faking it, the worst-case scenario that scientists drafted in the 90s about climate change and loss of biodiversity has been today surpassed by very far.
I think we should be shifting the public conversation from sustainability to Planetary Health and towards reconciliating the destructive divide between people and nature.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope:
Well, losing hope does not help anyone. I am going to say a few more words on this as there are too many hopeless people around who are wonderful people and they deserve much better than they get. It’s okay to be sad and worried since the worst-case scenario that scientists drafted in the 90s about climate change and loss of biodiversity has been today surpassed by very far. There is no doubt that the only way out is down because hell is already above us.
By way out going down, I am not being apocalyptical. I mean the necessary controlled degrowth because the future ahead of all of us looks terrible unless we join forces for Planetary Health to make it less terrible. We can dare to shape a future by individual choices and actions that are not in the power of failed political ideologies to influence. We may stay worried until it gets better but at least we can regain our hope for taking action and making better choices.
Choices that are too unpopular for politicians to promote. It is exactly these unpopular choices that we have to make if we look at it from a different perspective. Not at the sacrifices we have to make but at their advantages. You can choose to have a smaller family. You can choose to take animals off your plate and eat certified organic plants instead. You can choose to think if you really need all the things you are buying. You can choose to hold on to the things you already have for as long as possible. To stop wasting food, energy and other things. You can choose to travel electric. You can choose a power supplier that only feeds your home with electricity from wind and Sun.
We can make degrowth a bit more bearable by design or by disaster. By design means by education. And I do not mean the education that built the current World. Such education is perhaps the biggest crime against humanity and the entire Planet. I mean education that replaces humans with Earth in its centre.
By design, we can create a movement on a global scale that has the power to heal the Planet. The current cities are made of petrol. We will have to change Petropolis into Ecopolis. Villages have poisoned the water and soil. We will have to turn chemo–villages into eco-villages. Each of us must be part of the change somehow.
So, no need to be hopeless, get involved instead! Not starting next 1st of January. But starting now. There is never a better time than now. Now is the only time there is for sure. You must do something because otherwise, your past will become as nonexistent as your future.
Look, you don’t have to become a campaigner to be brave and make a difference. The coward dies many times in a lifetime. The brave only once. You can make a difference anywhere you are by your more educated choices, by using your right to say NO when you should say NO at home, at work, on the streets, in elections etc.
Books that had a great impact on you / Must-Reads for any regenerative professional:
Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
The Divine Matrix by Gregg Braden
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future by Philip Lymbery
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again: Arrival, Cloud Atlas, Star Wars, Interstellar, Our Universe, Layer Cake, All Quiet on the Western Front, All the Light We Cannot See.
Websites / Podcasts you visit frequently: The Great Simplification.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Spotify tells me that I listened to 2598 artists this year and 4742 songs of all genres. I love music. I am music and the genre does not matter much for me as long as the melody I am humming while gardening brings me joy.
I will just name a few of those who come to my mind right now and whom I listen to regularly: John Lennon (Imagine is my anthem), Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Olafur Arnalds, Metallica, Taylor Swift, Max Richter, David Bowie, The Cure, Hans Zimmer, Queen, Nine Inch Nails, Moderat.
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: I love all the world’s national parks!
They are the best of natural Earth, its "leftovers" after we mutilated the rest of our Planet’s surface. I have not seen them all yet but I have been to all continents and have seen tens of them and cannot say which one I liked most.
From Yellowstone (USA) to Great Otway (Australia). From Tresticklan (Sweden) to Krueger (South Africa). From Whanganui (New Zealand) to Retezat (Romania. From Tsavo (Kenya) to Popa Mountain (Myanmar). From Arenal Volcano (Costa Rica) to Wuyi Mountains (China).
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Mamphela Ramphele
Corey Bradshaw
Stefan Rahmstorf
Nate Hagens
John Fullerton
Suzanne Simard
Janine Benyus
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on: Global Ecovillage Network, eco-cities, progressive political parties such as Party for Animals with healthy principles such as tax revolution (taxation depending on the sustainability of products), youth movements.
Events we should attend / Best places for networking (online or offline): There are so many great events that other Inspirators already indicated.
I will add just one: EarthTalks. And it's not because I was a speaker there but because of the concept. It originates in Austria from an idea of the single mind of an artist who is in love with nature. The idea was embraced by many other artists and they all volunteered to organize the Earth Talk each year since 2009. The patron of the event is the federal president himself. The speakers come from all walks of life and from all around the World and the result is an amazing appetite for networking and change. I believe this concept should spread and presidents around the World should host it having scientists and activists speaking freely about the necessary change.
Impactful and relevant Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses or certifications: This one at Cambridge.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: The fertile constructive creativity of humans: engineers, artists, scientists. Several EU laws: restoration law, deforestation law, CSRD. The EU Biodiversity Strategy and The Farm to Fork Strategy.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: The fact that humanity as a whole acts like a plague despite a rather low percent of World population being beneficial participants to Planetary health.
We are injecting into the global economy in a single glimpse of time the entire biomass and carbon formed in millions of years. And yet we failed to see the overshot. I mean, most of us. Not just politicians and corporations but also normal people. We were cosy while the Planet was dying. We have to admit these two problems that we failed to recognize: the collective guilt and the overshot. We are in debt with the Planet since 1970 and the buffer of economic growth will soon turn to a painful degrowth for billions of beings.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Vision, mindfulness, resilience and kindness.
The Inspirator(s) you are endorsing for a future edition:
Lyn White
Amy Bowers Cordalis
Louisa Willcox
David Mattson
Nate Hagens
The quote that inspires you:
“There can be no despair without hope.” written by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises.
Your quote that will inspire us:
