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ECUADOR GREEN CITY REVISTED, AUGUST'99
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From: planetdrum@igc.org
To: BIOREGIONAL
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 08:23:03 +0000
Subject: ECUADOR GREEN CITY REVISTED, AUGUST'99
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Reply-To: bioregional@csf.colorado.edu
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Hello,
Some e-gremlins crept into the first version of the following. Please
use this one for any references. There were a half-dozen errors in
the first one.
Peter
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ECUADOR GREEN CITY REVISITED, AUGUST '99
by Peter Berg
When the people of a small urban area decide to pass a law declaring
an "ecological city," it is an unusual and laudable act of public
dedication. If there are already some extensive reforestation projects
immediately nearby, and a non-profit estuary protection agency that
employs local residents along the river as workers and guides, this
city could strive to actually become harmonious with its surrounding
natural systems. And if it is located in the "undeveloped world" and
thereby offers a working model for the entire planet (including the
"developed" world), it presents a glowing vision of sustainabilty to
tempt any fervent reinhabitant, an irresistible opportunity to help
create the first truly bioregional Green City
Planet Drum Foundation (PDF) has begun a long-term partnership with
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador, a community devastated in 1998 by El Nino
mudslides and a severe earthquake. The city decided to rebuild itself
as a "Ciudad Ecologica"and passed a by-law to that effect in February
1999. As PDF's Director, I was invited to assist and spent a month
there organizing community consciousness through strategy meetings,
talks, interviews, media appearances, workshops, and planning sessions
aimed toward an Eco-Gathering for the Bahia de Caraquez Ecological
City Declaration and International Mangrove Day Celebration (described
in DISPATCHES FROM ECUADOR, available from Planet Drum Books).
After the inspiring success of those events, it was evident that for
any future work in Bahia, PDF needed to define a direction of its
own. We decided on developing a proposal to create a consultancy of
skilled practitioners who could focus on finding ecological solutions
for major problems in the city's infrastructure. Areas examined by
this study include: biological waste treatment facilities, renewable
energy power installations, reforestation of the dry tropical
vegetation near the city, public transportation alternatives,
retrofitting buildings for alternative energy use and water reuse,
community-wide recycling, and other beneficial innovations. For each
of these the consultant group would research working examples in other
places, propose several possibilities, and draw up final plans. The
consultancy is envisioned as the first step toward realizing a series
of major long-range transformative public works projects.
While we sought funding for the consultant team from sources outside
of Ecuador (where no financial support exists on a national or local
level because of the current severe economic crisis), we decided to
undertake a survey of positive activities that had already been
started by Bahians themselves, what support they needed, and how their
projects could be tied to large-scale infrastructure improvements. In
order to get a first hand view of the situation since the
Eco-Gathering, a second visit to Bahia was made the following August,
accompanied by Judy Goldhaft, Planet Drum's Managing Director.
First Days as an Eco-City
There has been considerable improvement in public awareness of the
need for sustainability in Bahia and other Canton Sucre communities in
the five months since the Declaration. A profound symbol of this is
the new municipal government sponsored housing project for hundreds of
people made homeless by 1998's mud slides and earthquake. It is now
completely designed, ground has been cleared, and construction will
hopefully begin by 2000 on the bayfront in Leonidas Plazas. In keeping
with the spirit of the Ecological City Declaration, it is named Los
Mangles 2000 (The Mangroves 2000). Planned as a large community of
individual small houses, it features some built-in environmentally
beneficial aspects such as bicycle paths and mangrove restoration on
the bay side. A thorough information campaign will teach new residents
about recycling, water conservation, alternative energy, composting
and gardening, and mangrove protection so that Los Mangles can
progressively become a more ecological neighborhood.
In the temporary housing community of Fanca, a children's "Club
Ecologico" of about two dozen members has planted hundreds of mostly
fruit trees in the settlement and on some hillsides. They also recycle
trash and clean up the streets. Club members hold regular meetings to
learn and exchange information about other aspects of ecology and plan
further projects. They publicize their efforts by wearing specially
designed club t-shirts.
The new non-profit Eco-Bahia Centro de Educacion Ambiental (Eco-Bahia
Environmental Learning Center) has about 100 members who come from a
wide range of social sectors including workers, students and homeless
as well as professionals, business people and activists. The current
president is also an agriculture teacher at Colegio Tecnico San
Vicente. He arranged a presentation by Judy and myself to over fifty
students from his classes and a tour of their hands-on demonstration
projects including a tree nursery with native species. Activities of
the Centro so far include sponsorship and training of an eco crafts
learning group which is developing hand-made recycled paper products
of various kinds. It also carried out two small-scale mangrove
reforestation efforts, one near the plot that Actmang, the Japanese
mangrove restoration group, started near Bird Island and another to
ameliorate the effects of sewage runoff into the bay from some houses
in Leonidas Plazas. Still in its early stage, the Center continues to
reach out for new members in an inclusive democratic fashion, and
intends to become an organizational "umbrella" for grassroots
citizen-generated projects by any of the organizations and individual
citizens in Bahia. The municipal government has just given Eco-Bahia
Centro land to construct a building near Los Mangles 2000 to serve
this purpose.
Nicola Mears and Dario Proano-Leroux have maintained the recycling
program officially begun on the day of the Ecological City Declaration
at the main marketplace to recycle organic waste and make compost.
This remarkably industrious pair also directs Rio Muchacho Organic
Farm, runs a business to recycle paper as stationery and other items
named Eco-Papel, assists in developing the first certified organic
shrimp farm, guides "ethical tours," and teaches sustainability
directed activities. They aim to provide self-reliant working models
while educating both locals and visitors. I visited Rio Muchacho and
was struck by the vision and strenuous effort that has been employed
there. The farm has been completely converted to organic status,
growing bananas in circles rather than rows so that they provide their
own mulch and compost from dead leaves, using "chicken tractors"
whereby moveable poultry cages fertilize and turn over arable land in
small sections at a time, and pioneering other techniques of tropical
permaculture. The beautiful grade school that they initiated nearby
has a strong ecological thrust and is teaching local children how to
appreciate and improve their land-based heritage.
Actmang's mangrove restoration efforts are yielding an encouraning 75%
successful growth of plantings.. It was a pleasure to boat back out
with Taka Tsuji to the spot in the bay where we had worked before and
see young trees which have grown at least a foot high in just half a
year. Residents who live nearby along the banks of the Rio Chone are
now growing mangrove seedlings for Actmang as well as collecting seed
pods.
The Coastal Resources Management Program (PMRC) has rebuilt the
boardwalk and observation tower on Heart Island, a mangrove
information center, and plans to employ up to thirty local inhabitants
there. They will be trained as guides who can teach visitors about
marine resources and traditional sustenance methods and skills. PMRC
works extensively with the estuarine community and will create
employment for hundreds more through a dozen new self-help projects
related to preserving the environment, agriculture, education,
aquaculture, and fisheries. It is an undeniably vital force for
reinhabiting the Rio Chone Bioregion.
We were fortunate to meet Alejandro Bodero Quintero while he was
visiting Bahia. A forest protection advocate from the city of
Esmeraldes, he has visionary plans for new cottage industries and
eco-tourism in the Majaqual estuary. I'll probably make a visit to
that area during the next visit to Ecuador which will also be an
opportunity to see Actmang's elaborate mangrove restoration work
there.
Emergence of Cotacachi Eco-Canton
Ecuador has a surprising amount of locally generated ecological
activity, especially in Cotacachi Canton (County) where there was an
inter-city meeting in September 1999 to discuss making an Eco-Canton
Declaration. A popularly elected committee will discuss by-laws for
six months before reconvening to approve them. Bahians Patricio
Tamariz and Jacob Santos went to observe the meeting through an
arrangement that I had previously discussed with Mayor Auki Tituana
Males to begin a relationship based on mutual interests of the two
eco-governments. Auki will pay an exchange visit in November to
observe sustainability projects in Bahia de Caraquez.
The canton of Cotacachi is an extremely significant ecological area
because of its proximity to the large Cotacachi-Cayapas Biosphere
Preserve established by the United Nations. The territory covered by
the Eco-Canton Declaration can be considered as part of a potential
unified buffer zone to protect the unique biological richness of the
preserve. Judy and I traveled through this zone which also includes
the famous indigenous market city of Otavalo, the large Intag area of
farmland cum wilderness, and the truly remarkable small Reserva Los
Cedros administered by the Center for Investigation of Tropical
Forests.
Inside a Cloud Forest
Reserva Los Cedros is within the "choco" cloud forest vegetation
formation in the western foothills (Pacific side) of the Andes. It is
extremely steep country and mules are required for a six hour trek to
the reserve over a mountain trail that is "camel backed" with long
sections of corrugated ruts a foot or more deep. Starting from Quito,
we were guided by Jose Decoux, the Reserva's founder and manager, in
his vintage Land Rover that I christened "Excuseless" after the
jolting trip over progressively worse roads to a back country
rancheria where we spent the night. The mule-back journey began the
next morning by crossing a swaying narrow plank suspension bridge high
over the rocky rapids of Rio Magdalena. We next wound through banana
plantations with "living fences" of thorny cacti.and corn fields that
ran nearly to the tops of the surrounding peaked hills. Farms and
infrequent houses fell away as we climbed higher to places where the
trail measured only a foot wide with the mountain face like a wall on
one side that fell away on the other in a sheer drop to the Rio
Magdalena - now visible as a thick blue and white cord more than 500
feet below. (The concerned attention I paid at those moments to every
step by the mule I rode was laughably over-absorbed compared to the
truly keyed-up encounter on the return trip when in a similar place we
met another mule train headed in the opposite direction. Our party had
to turn around in that incredibly narrow space to retreat and clamber
up forty five degree angled gullies while a dozen mules squeezed by.)
A cloud forest is lush beyond anything I've seen in the northern
temperate zone: green walls, green ceiling, green floor. Because of
the steep foothill terrain, my visual perceptions were permanently
confused since the view in every direction was nearly always of
roots, trunks, branches, and tops of trees appearing at any height and
all at the same time. Every part of a tree is completely covered with
mosses, air plants, vines, ferns, and other growth so that it feels
like the middle of a cloud of leaves. Plants growing on plants growing
on plants, and the trail is only discernible where it isn't overgrown
because some of its leaves are brown. Climax "choco" forests date from
the Pliocene Era and although they are so dense that glimpsing a
distant vista through the trees is rare, most of the ground area away
from the trail is clear enough to be traversable (albeit slowly)
without chopping a path. Butterflies are encountered constantly, and
incredibly,each new one is usually a completely different looking
species than the last.. One of them is transparent winged except for a
small dot of red at one side resembling a speck of dead leaf, making
it invisible on most surfaces from only an inch away. Another has
thick horizontal blue and black stripes that are as startling as face
paint.The chatter of birds such as toucans and parrots is frequent but
it usually takes prolonged observation to see them through the
vegetation. If they do appear, their sharp color and distinctness of
design tends to be sumptuous. The unique Cock of the Rock has a large
flaming orange knob on top of its head with a cape of the same color
extending part way down its back above an otherwise dark brown body.
Jose begged off providing a name for anything we saw during the week
that we explored different trails because "choco" species are so
numerous as well as not completely listed. But he asked to hear about
anything interesting that we might see because it could possibly be
unknown to the Reserva staff. When I returned from a walk and
described a thick braided-looking mass about three inches wide, two
inches high and a foot long consisting of hundreds of small black
larvae that lay alone in the middle of the trail, there were blank
stares from Jose and other Los Cedros regulars followed by
acknowledgement that another previously unseen "choco" phenomenon had
been found. Some of the few studies of biota that have been undertaken
in this region reveal the reason for difficulty in knowing it well. There is a
greater diversity of species here than in the Galapagos Islands
which are celebrated for their uniqueness, and far
more of them are endemic. Vascular plants alone number over six
thousand species with over one thousand occurring nowhere else on
earth. All of the endemic plants and animals are especially threatened
by logging, mining, and increased settlement. Since only about
one-twentieth of the total forest of western Ecuador remains intact,
protection through reserves like Los Cedros and the rest of the
potential buffer zone around Cotacachi-Cayapas is urgently essential
to save and learn about exceedingly rare forms of life.
Expanding Planet Drum's Role
We are attempting to raise about $70,000 for the consultancy to
determine which projects are the most appropriate for making major
municipal infrastructural changes in Bahia de Caraquez.. Planet Drum
sent a proposal to two dozen major US and international foundations,
and we are waiting for responses. In the meantime, consultancy
participants are being lined up to meet in the San Francisco Bay Area
and later travel to Bahia to carry out site research and make
recommendations. Our intention is to generate the most practical
suggestions for solutions, create public enthusiasm for them, and help
raise more funds to eventually carry them out. The consultancy phase
can be completed within the next year if it is funded soon.The actual
projects could easily take five to ten years and run to tens of
millions of dollars. (In the case of a sewage system, for example,
even the present unfunded municipal plans calling for a conventional
type of sewage plant that would continue to empty pollutants into the
bay is budgeted at $3.1 million.)
During the first visit last January, I became aware of a municipality
master plan for reforesting hillsides immediately adjacent to Bahia
that had originally been designed by PMRC. The City Planning
Department chief stated that it would cost $210 thousand and that he
had applied for an inter-Andean agency loan (not Ecuadorean funding)
and hoped to receive it soon. In August I learned that the needed
funds hadn't been allocated and would not be in the foreseeable
future. I offered to try to raise money for incremental work on those
sections of the master plan that were scheduled solely for native
vegetation and didn't require new landscaping (these sections are the
most bioregionally significant).
The city planner agreed, and both he and Municipio Mayor Cassis wrote
letters authorizing PDF to carry out part of the reforestation plan,
and the Bahia Rotary Club agreed to sponsor it as well. Since then we
have written a $24,750 budget for this project, and are actively
seeking full funding support. Cottonwood Foundation has started the
project fund off with a grant of $1,000 which is already planned for
use in acquring seedlings and planting them during my next visit in
Jamuary 2000.
There are plenty of tie-ins for the revegetation project with ongoing
local efforts. Determining the proper mix of native dry tropical
forest plants and drawing up a working ground plan can be done by
groups that have had success with smaller revegetation activities.
.Seedlings of native trees can be grown at Colegio Tecnico San
Vicente. Paid workers can come from barrios near the reforestation
sites, and volunteeers from various community groups.
With approval for this project already won from so many parties, PDF
needs to have a field office in the municipality to oversee future
work. I signed an agreement with Eco-Bahia Centro's acting secretary,
Jacob Santos, to find a suitable space in Leonidas Plazas, a
predominantly working class district. Our hope is to obtain an office
with a small living space, possibly with additional room for temporary
use by Eco-Bahia Centro or other groups. Planet Drum staff, interns or
volunteers expect to visit Bahia for a few weeks twice a year. When
the office is unoccupied by us it can possibly be used by other
non-resident organizations such as Actmang.
Although the Ecuador projects involve different places and conditions,
this isn't a total change for Planet Drum. We have always advocated
recreating urban environments so that they can become sustainable
within the restored natural systems of bioregions. Now we intend to
help design and build a practical model that will embody this vision.