Our location
Mud Valley Institute is located at Quinta Vale da Lama, a regenerative organic farm just east of the city of Lagos, Portugal. The views here extend to the Serra de Monchique mountain range to our north, across the estuary of the Ribeira de Odiáxere, and out to the Atlantic Ocean. With mild weather and over 300 days of sunshine a year, it is an inspiring and magical location.
The southwestern Algarve region of Portugal is our local geographical area of work and influence. There are a number of ecosystems and watersheds within this region that we actively work or intend to work in.
Our work is focused on our local area and ecosystem, understanding that it also has broader application to other ecosystems, ecoregions, bioregions, and climatological zones around the world.
Our learnings here are actively shared with others, and we incorporate their learnings into our efforts here.
This area is a part of a terrestrial ecoregion known as the “Southwest Iberian Mediterranean sclerophyllous and mixed forests” ecoregion, based on the classification system developed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). This part of Portugal is located in the “Hot Mediterranean Summer” (Csa) climatological classification within the Köppen scale. Regions with this form of the Mediterranean climate generally experience hot and dry summers, with mild winters.

Our History
Mud Valley Institute was founded by Walt Ludwick in 2010, originally to support Novas Descobertas Association, an eco-social regeneration educational nonprofit in the Algarve, by funding their summer camps and some of their other projects. In 2021, we reorganized and changed our organization type with the Portuguese government, and are now a non-governmental development cooperation organization (which is a fancy way of saying we are still a nonprofit!). Now we have more flexibility to do more things, and focus on three types of activities…
1) developing and presenting our own programs and training;
2) supporting academic research, and
3) offering grants for other nonprofits, all in the areas of eco-social and agricultural regeneration.

Our Founder
Walt Ludwick founded Mud Valley Institute in 2010. Prior to that he was a co-owner and operator of Weight Watchers franchises across eastern Canada and the northeastern United States for over 20 years before selling his businnes and moving to Portugal with his family in 2006. Since moving here, he has developed a regenerative, organic farm (Quinta Vale da Lama), an agrotourism business (Casa Vale da Lama), an educational and recreational nonprofit (Novas Descobertas Association), and an extended farm-family of fellow travelers on the path of “Living and Learning Closer to Nature”. He is the founder of Funda̧cão Abraço Fraterno, the registered organization that operates Mud Valley Institute. Personally, Walt is a private pilot, nature enthusiast, avid reader and researcher, and a devoted husband and father.