A free mycological curriculum, a cover in Science Magazine, an article in the New York Times, new partnerships and collaborations and much more!
FFungi Staff
FFungi Volunteer
First of all, THANK YOU for supporting the work we do for the fungi. Did you know that we turned 10 this year? We want to include you in our journey and share our progress with you.
Education Program
Our free mycological curriculum is published in English and accessible to all! Teachers and educators can use this comprehensive study program to teach students the wonders of fungi. Together with Reconsider and Fantastic Fungi we’ve created a standard guide for teachers to bring mycology lessons into their classes, along with many other free resources that are part of Fungi Education.
This year:
We've had over 1,800 enrollments from 44 countries! We've also hosted 9 training webinars for teachers, which you can use to learn how to teach some of the curriculum lessons.
We visited schools and taught lessons from the curriculum in the USA and Chile to almost 500 students.
We partnered with Ecovative who sponsored this program and, who created a mycelium grow kit lesson and provided us with kits and materials to distribute to schools in the USA.
Click here to visit our Fungi Education website and enroll in our free global mycological curriculum. Spanish version coming soon!
Expeditions Program
This year we sampled mycorrhizal fungi in soil alongside Toby Kiers from the Society for the Protection of the Underground (SPUN), biologist Merlin Sheldrake and musician and acoustic ecologist Cosmo Sheldrake. The expedition to northern Patagonia, Chile, was the start of a global sampling effort by SPUN to create maps of arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity. These open-source maps will help chart underground mycorrhizal systems, and determine carbon sequestration hotspots among others, and document new and existing fungal species able to withstand drought and high temperatures.
The old-growth forests of Melimoyu, Chile, were explored alongside Swiss mycologist from the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada Dr. Jean-Marc Moncalvo. Film director Mateo Barrenengoa joined the expedition and soon we will have a new documentary to show. Stay tuned!
As our last expedition this year, Giuliana Furci joined the research team for British author Robert Macfarlane's upcoming book "Is a River Alive?”. The group included Colombian lawyer César Rodríguez-Garavito from New York University, and musician/acoustic ecologist Cosmo Sheldrake to explore the Los Cedros Biological Reserve in north-western Ecuador which was recently protected from copper and gold mining by the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court based on Rights of Nature articles in their Constitution.
Old-growth forests of Melimoyu, Chile. Picture by Mateo Barrenengoa.
During 2022, our work and mission made it to more than 50 international publications from the US, Chile, UK, Australia and India. Read, watch and listen to all of them here.
This year we changed our look! We launched a new website with information about our work, wrote blog posts, and built a repository for all our videos and much more. Go ahead and explore.
Also this year, we have increased our total Instagram follower count on the Foundation’s three accounts by ~30% (+35,000 followers).
Conservation Program
There have been over 60 instances of the term "funga" being adopted by institutions in over 20 countries! The goal of the 3F Initiative (Flora, Fauna, Funga) is to increase awareness and protection of fungi by adding mycologically inclusive language into conservation and biodiversity policy frameworks and to unlock funding for mycological research, surveys, and educational programs. The term has been used in a variety of contexts, including by museums and herbaria, mushroom clubs, institutes, foundations and organizations, governmental agencies, science publications, a radio station and podcast, botanical gardens, a zoo, a biobank, and in art and design collectives. Some examples include the adoption of the third “F” by the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Herbarium Stetinesis in Poland, the Universidad de Panamá, The Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand Ltd, the Fungal Diversity Survey in the USA, the Museu Emílio Goeldi and UFSC in Brazil, the University of Oxford’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, Indianapolis Zoo’s Global Center for Species Survival, and The National Biobank of Thailand. In addition to formal institutional adoption, there have been thousands of public uses of the term on various social media platforms and podcasts.
In partnership with Micolab and IUCN SSC FUNCC, we held the 2nd Fungal Redlist Workshop of South America, where nine mycologists from Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay were trained in the use of the IUCN criteria for the evaluation of fungal species and their threat of extinction. Ten species have already been evaluated, 4 of which are in a threatened category.
During 2022, our dearest Giuliana Furci, foundress of the Fungi Foundation, received the prestigious National Geographic Award for Leadership in Conservation. This is the first time the award recognizes the protection of the fungi kingdom, setting a historical precedent. She was also recognised by the McKenna Academy with the Biodiversity Steward Award, and later received the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award from the Mycological Society of America for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Mycology.
Elders Program
Did you see our Fungal Elders short documentary? We are striving to document all ancestral uses of fungi and how they are related to humans since the beginning of documented time. For this purpose, we are creating a comprehensive global map according to the Elder’s Program Ethical Guidelines we have developed internally.
Collaborations
This year our media partner in Chile, Ladera Sur, held their LS Festival for the first time. The Fungi Foundation was part of the event with an interactive stand that attracted people of all ages to explore our fungal samples, magnifying glasses, field guides and short documentaries. Giuliana Furci was the main speaker on the last day, where she gave a powerful talk and closed the three-day festival.
Together with the Museo Interactivo Mirador (MIM) in Chile, we are creating the first permanent mycological exhibition in the country that combines the fungi kingdom, innovation, science, and art. We started by giving all the museum staff an introductory class about fungi and during the next months we will start planning the final interactive exhibition.
“Fruiting Bodies: An exploration of mushrooms through a decolonial lens” is an ongoing three three-part virtual series by the Museum of Food and Drink of New York (MoFAD), which had Giuliana Furci as their first speaker. Curated and moderated by journalist and writer Simran Sethi, the conversation ranged from the magic of mushrooms as instigators of restoration and connection to the importance of extending the focus on conservation beyond fauna and flora to include funga.
Together with Alma Institute, during July we held a fundraising event to support "Historias y Memorias Mazateca", an ethnographic project that aims to preserve the cultural heritage of the Mazatec people. Inti García Flores, custodian and guardian of a very important historical archive of the Mazatec culture, taught the audience about the importance of sacred mushrooms in the Mazatec culture; the legacy of Chojn Chijné Maria Sabina Magdalena García and the ritual of the sacred mushrooms. All funds are being used to restore, digitalize, catalog, and preserve an archive that includes journals, video footage, ceremonial textiles and jewelry, and an abundance of historical artifacts, which are currently endangered by climate damage.
Starting this year, people in Chile can play a new fungal board game. The Fungi Foundation collaborated in the creation of “Mycelium” with scientific advice to make sure the game is as accurate as possible. We were also part of the creation of the new “Fungi Route” in Santiago’s main urban park, a self guided trek that takes visitors into the history of the area and connects them with the surrounding funga.
Special thanks to all our volunteers and interns, who have been essential to all of our programs. The year 2022 proved to be one of our most successful years, thanks in a huge part to your support. We will continue to work for the fungi, their habitats and the people who depend on them during 2023.
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