Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
Project Summary: Potters for Peace, Nicaragua
June 4, 2010
Pottery may seem like an unlikely vehicle for sustainable development, but through the efforts of Potters for Peace (PFP), thousands of people in Nicaragua and beyond now have the possibility of a better life.
Founded in 1986 as a demonstration of solidarity with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, Potters for Peace sees itself as a social justice organization. Its original goal was to help Nicaraguan women potters develop their products and marketing in order to improve the lives of their families. After Hurricane Mitch devastated Nicaragua in 1998, PFP developed a second phase of operations: producing a ceramic water filter to address the desperate shortage of clean drinking water. The filter is both quick and inexpensive to produce, providing an affordable water purification system to Nicaraguans of all economic levels.
Produced in a factory on the outskirts of Managua, PFP filters are made from porous clay with a coating of silver. The first step in the process is to mix finely milled clay with sawdust and water, and then press the mixture into a mold. After drying, the filter is fired in a kiln, which burns away the sawdust, leaving miniscule pores for the water to flow through. Next, the filters are soaked in water and tested for flow rate. The final step is to apply a thin coating of silver to kill any bacteria that get through the pores in the filter itself. To use the filters, consumers simply place them inside five-gallon (seven-liter) plastic buckets, which are cheap and easy to buy worldwide.
PFP filters remove 99.98 percent of bacteria, parasites, and turbidity, making them extremely effective in providing potable water at the household level. In fact, the simple and economical design has earned praise from both the U.S. Center for Disease Control and the United Nations. In keeping with PFP’s mission of bringing clean drinking water to as many people as possible, the entire process is open-source technology, available on the organization’s website.
Although PFP no longer operates filter-making facilities directly, the organization continues to provide training in order to enable others to establish factories around the world. Since the beginning of the filter project PFP has facilitated the establishment of 33 filter-making facilities in 25 countries (as of March 2010).
In the artisan pottery program, PFP provides technical and marketing assistance and facilitates interchanges that help potters learn from each other and broaden their perspective in order to further develop their work. One of the organizations that PFP supports is the Ducuale Grande women’s pottery cooperative in northern Nicaragua. The group was established in 1990 in a community with a tradition of working with clay that has been passed down for generations. The members of the cooperative joined together in an effort to improve their pottery techniques and better their lives. They found an outside teacher who taught them a technique that involves painting designs in mud on unfired ceramics and then firing the items with the mud still on them. After the pieces are removed from the kiln and allowed to cool, the mud is washed off, leaving patterns in lighter colors on the reddish-brown clay. Although the technique originated in Peru, the women of Ducuale Grande have made it their own by adapting it their own traditions and creating new designs.
The cooperative has had some stunning success. In the mid-1990s Pier 1 Imports placed an order for more than 18,000 pieces with the Ducuale Grande group. With six months to produce the pieces, the group contracted with 60 other potters and organized in a very professional manner, and succeeded in meeting the deadline. The group now sells its pottery throughout Nicaragua and overseas. Despite these accomplishments, however, the group is struggling with a number of issues, including facilities, marketing, and a steep drop in sales as a result of the global economic problems. PFP continues to work with the cooperative to help the women continue to develop their skills and improve their marketing efforts.
At the same time Potters for Peace is still reeling after its own loss. For 20 years, beginning in the late ’80s, the heart and soul of the organization was Ron Rivera, a potter and humanitarian dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the world’s poor. Sadly, Rivera died in late 2008 after contracting a particularly virulent form of malaria while setting up a filter factory in Nigeria.
Fortunately, PFP’s work did not cease with Rivera’s death. Instead, Robert and Beverly Pillers, an American couple with a long association with Potters for Peace, have taken over the running of the organization. Robert serves as Nicaragua Country Director while Beverly is chairperson of PFP’s board of directors. The Pillers live full-time in Nicaragua and are committed to continuing Rivera’s work.
Project Summary: AsoFenix, Nicaragua
June 4, 2010
In the developed world, clean water and electricity are things most people take for granted, but in countries like Nicaragua, such basic necessities are by no means a guarantee. For communities such as Candelaria and Malacatoya, located in Boaco province northeast of Managua, safe drinking water and household electricity were out of reach until the arrival of AsoFenix, a nonprofit organization that provides renewable energy projects to improve the lives of rural Nicaraguans.
The organization’s director, Jaime Muñoz, founded AsoFenix (short for Asociación Fenix) in 2001 after seeing a need to apply academic studies on renewable energy to solving concrete problems in the Nicaraguan countryside. The organization focuses on the provision of water – both for human consumption and for irrigation – and electricity to rural communities in central Nicaragua that would otherwise have to wait years, if not decades, before having any hope of accessing such services.
AsoFenix’s initial efforts involved using solar energy to bring potable water to rural households. Its first project was a solar water pump installed in the community of Candelaria in 2004. Solar panels power the pump, which operates at a rate of 10 gallons per minute. The water is pumped to a 6,500-gallon holding tank, from which it travels by force of gravity through pipes to the different houses of the community. Although local residents were initially skeptical that the sun could be used to pump water, the project was a great success and has made a huge difference in the lives of Candelaria’s 42 families. Before the pump, residents had to walk long distances to get water – half a kilometer just for drinking water and two kilometers to wash clothes. Parents sometimes had to keep their children home from school because they couldn’t bathe or wash clothes. Having clean water available right in the village – most houses now have their own faucets connected directly to the central pipe system – has reduced the incidence of flu, diarrhea, and other sickness, and has made it much easier to prepare food, bathe, do laundry, and complete other daily chores.
Since the success of this first project, local communities have welcomed AsoFenix with open arms. So far the organization has installed four potable water projects in four different communities, as well as two irrigation projects, and two microturbines (with a third nearly complete) that provide electricity to rural residents.
Another rural community where AsoFenix has made a difference is Malacatoya, a far-flung collection of 29 households that previously had no access to electricity. AsoFenix installed a hydropower turbine that generates approximately nine kilowatts of power per day, more than enough energy to light all the homes and provide some additional electricity for use on coffee farms. The turbine is located in a small cement building by a stream. Water enters the turbine and fills the small cups on the wheel. The weight of the water in the cups spins the wheel, generating electricity. Like the solar pump in Candelaria, the system is maintained by local residents whom AsoFenix has trained as technicians.
Residents of Malacatoya say having electricity has made an enormous difference in their lives. Household chores no longer have to be done during daylight hours, and children are able to do their homework at night. Air quality in homes has improved with the elimination of gas-burning lamps. Cruz Torres Burgo, one of the project technicians, says he has even been able to buy small appliances such as a refrigerator and a blender. He also saves a lot of time and money on his small organic coffee farm since he can depulp the coffee using an electric motor and sharpen tools with an electric grinder, rather than completing such tasks by hand
Although AsoFenix began with the goal of using renewable energy to solve specific problems of water and electricity, the organization’s goal has broadened to include associated projects to improve the quality of life in rural communities. The organization believes that it is not effective to simply come into a community with a renewable energy project without also implementing subsidiary projects that address other quality-of-life issues. Beyond energy issues, AsoFenix seeks to reduce poverty and improve health, education, environmental quality, and community organization.
The relative proximity of the communities to one another enables AsoFenix to maintain a close relationship with the families involved in the projects. AsoFenix staff visit regularly and spend a significant amount of time evaluating existing projects and speaking with local residents in order to understand their needs. In fact, Muñoz says wryly that he sometimes thinks he’ll never be able to retire or move on to other work because that would leave the communities without support.
AsoFenix has partnerships with four important international organizations: U.S.-based Green Empowerment, the Sweden-Nicaragua Friendship Society, the Finnish initiative Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America, and the Dutch organization Hivos (the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation). These organizations provide funding and help strengthen AsoFenix’s technical capacity by providing interns and other resources.
Project Summary: Rainforest Alliance, Nicaragua
June 4, 2010
The Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Tourism Program seeks to transform the global tourism industry into one that benefits the planet and local communities, by providing training, technical assistance, and marketing support for sustainable tourism and hospitality businesses. Although sustainable tourism is often associated with rural or wilderness areas, Rainforest Alliance sees the concept as much broader in scope.
“We really see sustainable tourism as a set of principles that are applicable no matter what type of tourism you do. It’s not a niche market but a way of doing business,” said Ronald Sanabria, Vice President of Sustainable Tourism. “Sometimes it gets confused with ecotourism or nature tourism, but we have seen great examples of urban settings where sustainable tourism is being practiced.”
One such urban setting is the historic colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua, where Rainforest Alliance is working with five tourism businesses: four hotels – the Hotel Patio del Malinche, La Gran Francia, Hotel Plaza Colón, and La Casona de los Estrada – and a tour operator, Oro Travel. Granada is one of Nicaragua’s top tourism destinations, but the country’s youthfulness in the tourism arena means that the city has not yet been transformed by large international hotel chains and other generic tourism enterprises. As a result, the city is in a good position to develop its tourism industry in a sustainable manner.
Rainforest Alliance recently released the results of a study that illustrates the benefits of sustainable tourism in Granada. Employees of the five businesses in the Rainforest Alliance program receive salaries that are 40 percent higher than the Nicaraguan minimum wage. The vast majority – 96 percent – of employees are local, and these local employees take home the lion’s share (90 percent) of the wages. A large proportion (40 percent) of the employees are women, who earn a higher percentage of the wages than men. In addition, the five sustainable tourism businesses work with predominantly local employees and suppliers and are involved in local conservation and community projects. Unlike many Nicaraguan enterprises, they are all legally incorporated, meaning that they contribute to the running of the country through taxes and licenses.
All have adopted a range of sustainability-related measures including recycling and energy conservation. For example, at Hotel Patio del Malinche, all of the 15 guestrooms have recycling bins, and signs throughout the hotel urge guests to reduce water and energy usage by reusing towels and linens, turning off faucets properly, and shutting off lights and air conditioning when leaving a room. Rather than purchasing disposable water bottles, guests can refill bottles or ask for glasses of water at the hotel bar. In addition to hiring local staff and using Granadan suppliers, the hotel’s owners, Ramón Cirera and Lidia Teixidor, are involved with local community groups and finance scholarships for local students.
Like the Patio del Malinche, La Gran Francia promotes recycling and water and energy conservation through in-room signage. A restored colonial mansion that has been included in Granada’s historic registry, the hotel has 21 rooms and two restaurants located just off the main square of Granada. The almost entirely Granadan staff participates in a weekly street cleaning effort and works to educate the community about protecting the city’s natural resources and colonial heritage. La Gran Francia also recently made a large donation to support free reconstructive surgery for children born with cleft palates and other facial deformities. In addition to being the right thing to do, says General Manager Grisele Camille, sustainability is simply good business.
The largest of the hotels working with Rainforest Alliance, the Hotel Plaza Colón is another historic colonial mansion with 27 guestrooms located on the west side of the Parque Central, Granada’s main square. The hotel’s sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts include a wide range of community initiatives, including working with a local school on projects such as facilities improvement, environmental education, recycling, cleaning days, and field trips. Another initiative addresses the issue of horse manure from the many horse-drawn carriages that ply the colonial streets and line up around the square directly across from the hotel. Currently the manure is simply allowed to pile up in the streets, but Hotel Plaza Colón plans to collect the manure and sell it to local farmers as compost. This will both clean up the streets and provide a valuable service to the agricultural community.
Another Plaza Colón project, designed by General Manager María Isabel Cantón, seeks to address one of Granada’s major social problems: the number of children who drop out of school and live on the streets, begging and sniffing glue. Since giving money to street children only feeds the problem, the hotel is offering an alternative for guests who want to help. Instead of giving money to street kids, tourists can purchase a “Plaza Colón Backpack” filled with a year’s worth of school supplies, which will be donated to a local school and awarded to good students, providing an incentive and financial assistance to children who stay in school.
The final hotel in the Rainforest Alliance program, La Casona de los Estrada, is owned and managed by Pascal Picot, who also owns Oro Travel. With just six rooms, La Casona de los Estrada is the smallest of the hotels working with Rainforest Alliance and retains the feeling of a private home. In addition to promoting water and energy conservation, Picot has sought to create a broader environmental consciousness among his employees which they can then transmit to their guests. In both his businesses Picot makes a point of employing local people and using Granadan suppliers. He believes tour operators have an important role in sustainable tourism since they “are in a position to choose and prioritize suppliers that are operating according to best practices.” On the community development side, Oro Travel is involved in various educational projects with the Esperanza School in Las Isletas de Granada, the more than 350 islands located just offshore in Lake Nicaragua. The company is also working with the Nicaraguan National Chamber of Tourism on a variety of conservation projects, including efforts to get Las Isletas established as a natural reserve and protect them from the growing threat of overdevelopment.
The efforts of these sustainable tourism businesses are not going unnoticed. Ardith Ekdahl and Elliott Whitby, Canadians staying at the Hotel Patio del Malinche, were impressed with the hotel’s recycling and energy conservation efforts. “We’ve been recommending a different hotel, but this hotel will get recommended now,” Ekdahl commented.
With such strong success in Granada, Rainforest Alliance continues to work to help other businesses in Nicaragua and beyond recognize the benefits of sustainable tourism and integrate the principles into their own operations.
Project Summary: La Cusinga Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
June 4, 2010
La Cusinga Eco Lodge is an outstanding example of a tourism business where quality service is accompanied by a sincere dedication to sustainability. Built to blend in with the natural environment, the lodge buildings occupy a stunning hillside location overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the relatively undeveloped southwest coast of Costa Rica. La Cusinga is surrounded by its own private 250-hectare nature reserve that is home to toucans, monkeys, and countless other wildlife species. Various trails lead through the mostly primary rainforest and down to the beach below the lodge.
Since the beginning, the environment has been at the center of La Cusinga’s mission and philosophy. John Tresemer, La Cusinga’s founder and manager, first came to Costa Rica as a college student from the United States more than 30 years ago. He fell in love with the unspoiled reefs just offshore, as well as the old-growth rainforest along the coast. At the time the site that is now La Cusinga was at risk from slash-and-burn deforestation, while the surrounding area under threat from proposed aluminum stripmining and the planned construction of a deepwater port.
Tresemer ended up staying in Costa Rica and, with the help of his parents, buying the land that is now La Cusinga. From the beginning his goal was to preserve the land and restore what had already been damaged. He tried various schemes for generating income from the land in a sustainable way, including chocolate production, before finally establishing La Cusinga Eco Lodge. Through his friendship with Alvaro Ugalde and Mario Bozo, the founders of Costa Rica’s national parks system, Tresemer was also instrumental in establishing several nearby protected areas, including Ballena Marine National Park, located just offshore from La Cusinga. In large part thanks to Tresemer’s efforts, what could have ended up an ecological disaster area is now an environmental success story.
La Cusinga takes sustainability seriously in all aspects of its operations. The lodge restaurant serves delicious food made with organic ingredients from La Cusinga’s own gardens and farm. Lodge buildings and furniture are made from sustainably harvested wood produced on La Cusinga property. The lodge has its own composting system, wastewater treatment system, and recycling center, and produces some of its own energy through solar and hydroelectric power. Tresemer and general manager Geinier Guzmán would like to further expand La Cusinga’s energy self-sufficiency but have been hampered by a lack of trained experts in Costa Rica to help build and maintain alternative energy infrastructure.
A key part of La Cusinga’s sustainability efforts is its involvement with the local community. Nearly all the employees are from the local area. In addition, the lodge has a close relationship with ASANA (the Association of Friends of the Nature of the South-Central Pacific), a regional organization that focuses on environmental education, biodiversity monitoring, and protected areas conservation. One of ASANA’s major projects is the creation of the Tapir Path Biological Corridor along Costa Rica’s southern coast between the Savegre and Terraba River. La Cusinga has been very supportive of this project, and the lodge’s private reserve represents an important refuge for wildlife species in the biological corridor. La Cusinga guests have the opportunity to volunteer with ASANA’s sea turtle hatchery program, and the lodge is involved in hosting workshops and training programs, controlling illegal activities that harm the environment, and coordinating work with local schools.
One school with which La Cusinga works closely is the Escuela Líder La Flor de Bahia, a primary school located in the nearby town of Uvita. La Cusinga helped the school set up a recycling program and also brings students to the lodge on field trips to learn about ecology, conservation, and sustainable agriculture.
Since the establishment of Ballena Marine National Park, La Cusinga has worked hard to help local fishermen develop alternative sources of income as boat tour operators. The park is ideally suited for marine tourism, with a dramatic, rocky coastline, offshore reefs, and islets where seabirds nest in great numbers. Bottlenose and spotted dolphins frolic in the deeper waters, and humpback whales – the park’s namesake ballenas – are commonly seen. Initially it was a challenge to convince local fishermen to stop exploiting the marine resources; once established, the whale and dolphin watching industry brought with it new challenges, as the tour boats began having negative effects on the whales. La Cusinga brought in outside experts to educate boat drivers about how to avoid disturbing wildlife and continues to work with a local tour operator, Bahia Adventures, to develop sustainable practices and train guides.
This emphasis on community and living within the natural carrying capacity of a place are at the heart of La Cusinga’s philosophy. The lodge currently has space for a maximum of 40 guests in private and group cabins, but its popularity has prompted many travel agencies to push for the construction of additional facilities. La Cusinga’s management isn’t giving in. With 250 hectares, “we could create a lot of rooms around here,” says Guzmán. “But that’s not our business.” Despite the pressure to expand, La Cusinga is committed to remaining a small, sustainable operation where protection of the environment is an integral part of the bottom line.
Project Summary: The School for Field Studies, Costa Rica
June 4, 2010
The School for Field Studies (SFS) offers experiential study abroad programs for primarily college undergraduates at field stations in Costa Rica, Australia, Kenya, Tanzania, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Baja California, Mexico. Each center has a different environmental focus, ranging from marine resource conservation to wildlife management to tropical rainforest studies. In Costa Rica, the focus is on sustainable development, and students gain hands-on experience in field research, conservation, and community-based development.
SFS Costa Rica students live at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies in Atenas, a small city in the central highlands, about 45 minutes from the capital city, San José. The Center is located on a hillside overlooking the Río Grande Valley a couple of miles from the center of town. Students live in dormitories and attend classes in the Center’s indoor and outdoor classrooms, as well as off-site in field locations. They eat in the Center’s dining hall and participate in a wide range of activities and chores, ranging from kitchen duty to gathering eggs from the henhouse to working in the plant nursery and orchard.
Studying with SFS is a life-changing experience for many students. Most have never had an educational experience of this kind, where most of the learning takes place outside a traditional classroom setting. Although students attend lectures in the indoor and outdoor classrooms at the SFS Center, the majority of their time is spent out in the field, conducting research, visiting national parks and other sites, speaking with stakeholders ranging from park managers to the Ministry of Environment to local farmers, and giving back to the local community.
“We’re not only collaborating with the students and the professors who are really invested in what we’re doing. The community is absolutely an integral part of everything we’re learning,” says Helena Manzella, a senior at Muhlenberg College and a student at the SFS Center in Costa Rica. “It’s amazing to be able to actually work with people that are people we wouldn’t be able to come across elsewhere and then, furthermore, to be able to put what we learn into action almost every day.”
Field research is a major part of the SFS curriculum, and much of it is tailored to the needs of the local community. For example, since 2005 SFS has been working with a local coffee producers’ cooperative and has helped three of the nine member farms obtain organic certification. One of these is Finca El Pino, a shade-grown coffee farm located on a steeply sloped hillside not far from Atenas. Run by Gerardo Calderón and his family, El Pino has a particularly close relationships with SFS. For the past year and a half or so, SFS Professor Achim Häger has been conducting research on the environmental benefits of various plants and agroforestry methods. The research gives SFS students hands-on experience with scientific research and sustainable agriculture, and provides information that the Calderóns can use to improve their production.
Another important part of the SFS curriculum is field trips to places such as the Tárcoles River and Carara National Park, on the Pacific Coast by the Gulf of Nicoya. Field trips may include excursions into different ecosystems, field lectures by SFS staff, and visits with local park rangers, government officials, and other local stakeholders. For example, an SFS lecture about water pollution take place not in a classroom but at the mouth of the Tárcoles River, where herons, osprey, egrets, cormorants, and wood storks are just a few of the countless bird species picking their way along a beach littered with plastic bottles, rubber tire tubes, and other trash carried downstream from communities in the central highlands.
At nearby Carara National Park, SFS students conduct research projects that are jointly established according to the park’s needs. Every semester the school holds a symposium at which students present papers or other research that the park can use in its management plans.
When SFS was founded in 1980, one of the key goals was to create environmental literacy in people of all professions, so that they could work together to address environmental issues. This mission remains at the heart of SFS. Students come to the Center for Sustainable Development Studies filled with idealism and passion for solving environmental problems. Through their field experiences they discover just how complicated the issues are and learn how to go about finding solutions that enhance local livelihoods while also conserving biodiversity and natural resources.
Center Director Gerardo Avalos is an ecologist who studied in the United States and completed his PhD research in plant physiology at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, before returning home to his native Costa Rica. He joined SFS after realizing that a pure science degree was less relevant than an interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues.
The work that SFS students do makes a measurable difference in the lives of local farmers, nongovernmental organizations, and government agencies that lack the budget to conduct their own research. At the same time, students develop skills that will serve them well in any profession. “We provide authentic opportunities for research, for community interaction, for people who are basically starting their careers,” says Avalos. “We have the chance to influence very young people that eventually will occupy positions that could be very important for the future of conservation, not only in the tropics, but also in the U.S. and all over the world.”
Project Summary: The Leatherback Trust, Costa Rica
June 4, 2010
Of all the different species of sea turtles, the leatherback is the largest and one of the most endangered. Typically weighing between 500 and 1,500 pounds, leatherback turtles are truly prehistoric creatures; fossils dating back 100 million years have been found.
From October through February, leatherbacks come ashore to lay their eggs on Playa Grande and other nearby beaches in Guanacaste Province on the northwestern coast of Costa Rica. Although 20 years ago as many as 1,500 leatherbacks nested here, the number has declined precipitously to a low of 28 turtles in 2008-2009. The turtles are threatened by a range of factors including climate change, natural predation, land development, and, until the creation of Las Baulas National Park, human poaching.
Fortunately, efforts to save the turtles are well established at Playa Grande. At the center of these activities is the Leatherback Trust, a nonprofit organization founded in 2001 by Dr. James R. Spotila of Drexel University and Dr. Frank Paladino of Indiana Purdue University. Although they originally began coming to Playa Grande for scientific reasons, both Spotila and Paladino have been involved with turtle conservation in Costa Rica for decades and were instrumental in the establishment of Las Baulas Marine National Park in 1991. The park protects three of the main nesting beaches for leatherback turtles: Playa Grande, Playa Ventanas, and Playa Langosta. Together these beaches stretch approximately six kilometers (roughly 3.75 miles) along the Pacific Ocean near the Tamarindo Estuary. Spotila and Paladino founded the Leatherback Trust to save leatherbacks and other sea turtles from extinction because they did not see any existing organizations that could play a similar role, particularly in the Playa Grande area.
Science remains at the heart of the Leatherback Trust’s work. The organization is closely affiliated with the Goldring Marine Biology Station at Playa Grande, where Spotila and Paladino are the lead scientists. Researchers come to Goldring from all over the world to conduct research on the turtles. From October through February, researchers – many of them graduate students who come to Playa Grande for the season – patrol the beaches every evening from three hours before until three hours after the high tide, looking for turtles. The station also operates a hatchery on the beach to help the leatherback population recover. Eggs that are laid below the high tide line or in other exposed areas are moved to the hatchery, where they are placed in holes that replicate the conditions of the original nest but are at less risk for destruction. The research generated through the Goldring Station’s activities has formed the basis for dozens of theses and scientific papers, as well as the backbone for the management of Las Baulas National Marine Park. Outside the nesting season the Goldring Station often hosts researchers studying other aspects of the national park and the surrounding area.
The Leatherback Trust is funded largely through the Earthwatch Institute, and Earthwatch volunteers are crucial for the organization’s work. Throughout the nesting season, the Leatherback Trust hosts volunteers from the Earthwatch Institute, who join the researchers in patrolling the beaches and assist with other monitoring and conservation activities. In addition to providing what Jim Spotila calls “extra legs on the beach” to help with the patrols, Earthwatch serves as the major funding source for the Leatherback Trust, although the organization has also received support from National Geographic, the National Science Foundation, universities affiliated with the project, and private donors.
Another key component of the Leatherback Trust’s work is education. The organization has a close relationship with local schools, including the Matapalo School in a nearby village, as well as with U.S. institutions, from grade schools to universities, that bring their students to Playa Grande every year. One school with a longstanding relationship with the Leatherback Trust is the Bullis Charter School in Los Altos, California, which has been bringing sixth graders to Playa Grande every year for five years. Bullis students learn about sea turtles and conservation and also participate in cultural activities with the Matapalo School.
The Leatherback Trust also works closely with a variety of other local organizations, including the national park, the local guides’ associations, and the local women’s organization, the Association of Women Friends of Las Baulas Marine National Park, which undertakes a number of environmental education and conservation programs in and around the park. Spotila believes that one of the reasons for the organization’s success is that rather than being a bunch of foreigners coming in and telling the Costa Ricans what to do, the Leatherback Trust provides the background support to help local people and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) protect their beaches and their turtles.
One of the great successes of Playa Grande is the involvement of the local community in the national park and turtle conservation. Before the park was established, just about every turtle egg laid was collected by poachers and either eaten or sold for profit. With the creation of the park came education and alternative sources of income. The local people who used to collect the eggs are now working as local guides in the national park and have become passionate about the protection of the leatherback turtles.
Nevertheless, the Leatherback Trust has faced significant challenges, including the uncertain status of the national park. Back in 2001, Spotila says, things were “almost chaotic,” with “a lot of confusion as to what the boundaries of the park were, who owned what land, what enforcement there was.” Together with local communities and conservationists, the Leatherback Trust worked to clarify the legal aspects of the park and rally support for its continued existence. Although the confusion over the boundaries has been cleared up, the park remains under threat from lawmakers who want to eliminate it altogether, as well as developers who are buying up the surrounding land. Landowners whose property became part of the national park are angry because they are unable to build on their land; the Leatherback Trust is working to convince the government to provide fair compensation and is helping to find sources of funding to assist with these efforts. The Leatherback Trust and its conservation partners are determined not to let Playa Grande be turned into another Tamarindo, the community across the bay that has seen rapid and uncontrolled tourism development to the extent that turtles no longer nest on its beaches.
Despite the challenges, Spotila is optimistic. He believes that the leatherback population will begin to rebound as a result of conservation efforts. The 2009-2010 season already saw a slight but significant rise in the number of nesting turtles compared to the all-time low of the previous season, suggesting that conservation efforts are beginning to pay off. Spotila also believes that the status of Las Baulas National Park will be confirmed and consolidated under Costa Rica’s new president, Laura Chinchilla Miranda. He says, “We’re going to try and cooperate with the new president, make her as successful as she can be so that Costa Rica is successful. And the turtles and the people will all benefit from that.”
Project Summary: Rios Tropicales, Costa Rica
June 4, 2010
Ríos Tropicales, one of Costa Rica’s leading rafting companies, has been a pioneer in sustainable tourism and ecotourism since long before they became buzzwords. The Ríos Tropicales Lodge, located in the scenic Pacuare River Gorge, is built to harmonize with its natural setting. Most Ríos guests arrive and leave by raft, the majority on two- or three-day packages that include lodging and meals. Others do the whole trip down the river in one day.
Rafael Gallo, the founder and president of Ríos Tropicales, is a native El Salvadoran who fell in love with river running while studying in the United States. He came to Costa Rica in the mid-1980s and began building the Ríos Tropicales Lodge in 1990 after purchasing the land from Dina Fuentes, a local woman who raised her family on the banks of the Pacuare River and in the nearby community of Bajos del Tigre (often called simply El Tigre). Fuentes now manages the Ríos Tropicales Lodge, and several of her children work as guides.
The lodge itself is an oasis in the tropical forest, with the rushing river providing the backdrop for a relaxing stay far from roads and other signs of modern urban life. Rooms are simple but comfortable, and meals – served in the thatch-roofed dining pavilion overlooking the river – are delicious, buffet-style spreads.
For Fuentes, the coming of Ríos Tropicales changed her family’s life completely. Before Ríos the family struggled to get by, clearing the land for farming and living by other subsistence activities. Ríos provided not only a good job for Fuentes herself but also expanded the educational and employment opportunities for her children. The family has been an integral part of Ríos Tropicales from the start and is proud to contribute to the conservation of the Pacuare Gorge area. One of the first projects that Ríos initiated was the reforestation of areas that had been cleared. “We had to reforest everything that we ourselves had cleared,” Fuentes says with a laugh, “but everything we had done was out of necessity.”
The sustainability ethic pervades everything Ríos Tropicales does. Ríos guides and staff monitor the protected areas along the river for poaching, deforestation, and other illegal activities. On rafting trips, the guides make very sure that no garbage is left behind at the picnic lunch stop, where guests are asked to separate compostable waste for regular trash. The company is also working with the community of El Tigre on a wide range of sustainable community development projects. Located at the top of the Pacuare Gorge, El Tigre is home to about 25 families that previously made their living through agricultural and hunting activities that had a negative impact on the environment. Ríos Tropicales has worked with the local school to improve school restroom facilities and promote recycling. The company is also working to set up a town-wide waste management center and recycling program. Previously El Tigre residents would simply burn plastic together with other garbage.
A key element of Ríos Tropicales’ work in El Tigre has been helping to develop sustainable local sources of income that benefit the local community and provide incentives for protecting, rather than destroying, rainforest resources. El Tigre resident Javier Mora is the sustainability manager for Ríos Tropicales. He says that sustainability was a new concept for him but that the efforts of Ríos have breathed new life into the community. Mora now works with Ríos on projects such as reforestation, forest protection, waste management, and sustainable tilapia farming. Ríos has also helped build an Internet café to provide a source of income for Mora’s wife, Patricia González, and their daughter, Helen. The Internet café will also provide El Tigre residents with a way to connect with the broader world.
Down the rutted road from the Internet café is the Sepentarium, another Ríos-supported project. The project is run by Carlos González, a young local man without formal higher education whose interest in snakes caught Rafael Gallo’s eye. Although not yet fully complete, the Serpentarium will house more than 130 species of snakes, with interpretive signage and glass display cases. More developed is the Pacuare Butterfly Garden, where Ríos Tropicales has helped Mario Achoy Vega combine his two passions, butterflies and plants, into a business venture that is already drawing tourists from local ecolodges. Butterflies fly free inside the enclosed garden and are raised for sale to collectors in the nearby laboratory.
Rafael Gallo believes that El Tigre can serve as a model for sustainable community development elsewhere. In fact, with grant support Ríos Tropicales is already working with the country of Bhutan on developing similar projects there. The idea is that when financial and environmental sustainability go hand in hand, everybody benefits.
One Year Update
May 19, 2010
Questions & Answer: Michael Linke
Have you noticed an increase in the overall cycling infrastructure in Namibia?
No, infrastructure development has been slow to get moving on. The city of Windhoek is however close to releasing a call for tenders on a non-motorised transport master plan for the city, something that certainly wasn’t on the radar when we first started lobbying for it.
Are more citizens choosing bikes as their primary mode of transportation?
Yes, anecdotally cycling is increasing. We feel that BEN Namibia has had some impact on this, as we have now distributed almost 15,000 bikes in the country, most of those in the last two years.
Has BENN partnered with other community-based organizations like Hope Family Services to supply bicycles and training to?
We have 22 partners throughout the country that we have helped to establish community based bike shops, including FHS.
How is the emergency transportation/ambulance service going? Are you seeing an increase in overall community health with this support in place?
The ambulance project has been challenging because of lack of resources within communities to manage their maintenance. We have begun reallocating some ambulances to be within range of our partner bicycle shops to enable maintenance to take place. In locations where they have been maintained, though, they have enabled people to provide emergency medical transport where no other alternatives were available.
Is BENN offering employment opportunities within the organization? What jobs are available to the community?
Each of our partner bicycle shops employs up to 5 people. The shop network currently employs 90 people, exactly half of whom are women.
Is Josh still active on the bicycling circuit in Namibia? What has his progress been since we last saw him?
Josh is still cycling, though he’s based in South Africa where he studies. I have heard that he is racing with a team in South Africa but haven’t been able to confirm this.
One Year Update
April 8, 2010
Questions & Answer: Bradford Zak
Responsible tourism is becoming a popular holiday choice. Did you see a rise (or decrease) in guests at Gibb’s Farm this past year?
Overall traffic lowered due to the ‘great recession’. However, we are experiencing clients that spend more nights on the farm – as there is more to do, learn and proximity to Lake Manyara National Park and Ngorongoro Crater directly. Why spend your time in a standard camp or lodge with little to offer.
Sustainable building practices is at the core of Gibb’s Farm. Is construction on the farm still active? Have you engineered any new furniture or fixtures in your workshop?
Facility construction is presently not occurring on the farm. For the most part, the guest cottage phase Kyle shared in the video has concluded. We did complete 3 more cottages since then, these are a different style in keeping with the originals – actually the oldest on the farm. As part of the Living-Museum concept (download newsletter #3), all cottages are now documented in The Cottages of Gibb’s Farm to showcase the art collections (download art newsletter) and information presented in each. The new cottages are called Anniversary House, Deutsch House, and Oldupai House.
Has the self-sufficiency in terms of crops and livestock of the Farm increased over the past year? New crops added, etc.?
We have improved the vegetable garden’s considerably under the direction of an executive chef who previously worked at a destination spa. Chef Kuntal (announcement download) has taken great care to label the beds, even discovered some that went dormant over the years like asparagus. He is now offering classes around organic living, cooking and propagation. About 60 items are now harvested: vegetables, herbs and a few fruits. A second herb garden has been developed in the guest cottage areas – a formal knot herb garden design. Additionally, we have improved the organisation of the gardens. Instead of just flower and vegetable gardens we now have eleven which is a better way to share the collection as we continue to improve them. They are presented in the SANAA Art website as Garden Art. We are finalising the census listing which may be of interest. The 7 acre historic gardens and 30 acre private forest of Gibb’s Farm represent an array of species: 100 flowers, 40 trees, 15 herbs and 25 shrubs. We are still counting the cactus and roses gardens. Virtually no additional species have been introduced. We have simply been improving the horticultural displays.
Can you tell us more about Dr. Labiki and his educational seminars on traditional medicine? What kind of impact have these talks had on the guests?
We have spent a bit if time developing the Integrated Medicine program (spa newsletter download). As part of the African Living Spa a program currently under development is called Personal Journeys, which we plan to position as an alternative medicine destination to really put north Tanzania on the map for an entirely new travel market. As part of the Living Museum concept, Labiki and others share oral history, legends and fables as part of the Cultural Safari project.
What are some of the employee opportunities at Gibb’s Farm for people from the local community?
From the local community we have appointed 2 naturalists (and now recruiting a third) to support our guide and information programs, as explained in the ecology web pages, a section called community development. These and most of our efforts regarding responsible and sustainable tourism are expressed in terms of Triple TOP Line assessment. There are numerous ways Gibb’s Farm contributes to the community and ecology in addition to employment opportunities. We example these activities by facilitating and preserving Indigenous Knowledge. The outcome offers practical ways for the traveller and community member to use the (re)discovered knowledge through integrated medicine, festivals or lessons. ETC (Educational Travel Community) awarded Gibb’s Farm first place in 2010 in recognition of these efforts (download press announcement).
Last year, we were introduced to Gibb’s Farm’s efforts to promote the Karatu Education Fund’s “Sponsor a Child” program. Can you give us an update on the success of this program? Are there any other give-back opportunities like this one in place that guests of Gibb’s Farm can participate in?
Ways to give back opportunities are many. To highlight a few, lets us consider the ‘helping hands‘ programs recently constituted involving the carpentry of school desks at the Farm’s wood shops for the traveller to construct for a Karatu school; the planting of erosion abating trees in the community farm or shamba.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 16 – Leaving Nicaragua
March 31, 2010
As I’ve mentioned a few times already, you have to be prepared for early mornings as a member of a Green Living Project expedition. On no day was this more true than the day we left Nicaragua. We were picked up at our hotel in Managua at 3 a.m. for the roughly eight-hour journey by car back to San José, Costa Rica, where I would be leaving the expedition due to another commitment that required me to fly back to the States a few days early. The guys, on the other hand, were headed to Panama, where they would visit two more projects before returning to the States. They had a 1:10 p.m. flight to catch from San José’s Pavas Airport to Bocas del Toro, in the islands off Panama’s northwest coast.
With plenty of room in the van to stretch out, we snoozed in the early-morning darkness all the way to the border. As it turned out, we needn’t have left quite so early. We arrived at the crossing at 5 a.m., but the border didn’t actually open until 6. Now wide awake and with time to kill, Ryan and Rob set off to explore with a videocamera. Soon afterward I spotted someone who looked a lot like Rob pedaling toward the van on a rickety bicycle cart like those used by produce vendors. As he approached I realized it really was Rob. He had borrowed a bicycle cart and was now entertaining himself – and quite a few bystanders – by cycling unsteadily down the road calling, “Lettuce! Tomatoes! Carrots!”
Shortly after 6:00 the border opened, and as some of the first travelers in line we completed our documentation procedures on both sides without hassle. We sped down the road to Liberia, where we had to change vans and drivers, and then on toward San José. As the morning went on – and particularly as we began to climb the winding road into the Central Highlands – traffic became more and more of an issue. Knowing the guys were supposed to be at Pavas Airport at noon to check in, we watched the clock anxiously as the traffic slowed to a crawl behind a line of buses and semi-trailer trucks. With no way to pass, there was little our driver could do.
We finally arrived at the airport around 12:40 p.m. to find all the other passengers already on board the Nature Air flight and the airline staff wondering whether Rob, John, and Ryan were going to turn up. Fortunately the guys and their luggage were able to get on the plane, and off they went to a new country and new adventures. I went to an airport hotel for the afternoon and flew out early the next morning, sorry to miss the Panama portion of the expedition but inspired by all the great projects we had visited in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.