National Healing Forests

Peter Croal is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and has a B.Sc., Geology Degree from Carleton University (1979). Since then Peter has been working in the field of International development for over thirty-35 years. He focuses on the relationship between environmental resources and poverty in developing countries, and the Canadian  Arctic. Peter is particularly interested in how climate change affects developing countries, and how the knowledge of Indigenous peoples can be applied to developmental challenges.  He  also works on expedition cruise ships to Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic as a guide and lecturer. His work has taken him to over forty developing countries, including a two-year stint of living and working in Namibia with his family. Peter started his career prospecting for uranium, zinc, silver, petroleum, peat, and groundwater in Canada. He sits on the boards of several not-for-profit development organizations. 

In 2015 Peter started a reconciliation project called the National Healing Forest Initiative. The project is an invitation to Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, institutions, and individuals to create green spaces across Canada to honour residential school victims, survivors, and their families, as well as murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, and children who have been removed from their families and are now caught in the welfare system. You can learn more by going to: https://www.nationalhealingforests.com. Peter spent fifteen years as a wilderness canoe guide for Nature Ontario. In his spare time, Peter enjoys photography, cultural and adventure travel, organic gardening, and fiddle playing.