Sustainability and Systemic Change

(Note: I wrote an abbreviated version of this article for Seattle Net Impact April Newsletter. For more information about the Net Impact click here)

Over spring break my twelve year old son, Evan, and I joined a group of eleven fifth and sixth graders from his school, each accompanied by a parent, on a trip to Costa Rica. The adventure was coordinated by a good friend of ours who worked with EcoTeach. EcoTeach (www.ecoteach.com) is an organization based in Washington which is "dedicated to providing travel experiences that combine education with conservation, and recreation with cultural awareness"¹.

The EcoTeach Foundation is a separate, nonprofit organization that "supports a variety of environmental and cultural preservation programs in Costa Rica. Working in conjunction with community leaders and local projects, the Foundation encourages economically and environmentally sustainable practices through the provision of equipment, volunteers, independent donations and local revenue generated by visiting EcoTeach student groups"². Our eco-trip was one of those wonderful life affecting experiences that combined education, cultural immersion, adventure and fun. We were a group of children and parents keen on learning and experiencing the nature and culture of a different country. I was struck by how the EcoTeach programs targeted cultural and systemic change to create sustainable transformation and conservation of Costa Rica's magnificent natural resources and to provide economic opportunities for the local communities.

Turtle Project at Parismina

Our first major stop was the small town of Parismina on the northeast Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Here EcoTeach organizes and funds a project to shepherd about ten kilometers of shoreline where sea turtles nest. Their population here has declined 75% over the past 15 years. One of the primary reasons for the decline is local poaching of turtle eggs and meat—both of which are traditionally regarded as medicinal by locals. We learned from EcoTeach staff that poachers in the community are known and not really ostracized. In large part this is because of tradition and economic factors. A young man in this relatively economically depressed community can make $50 or more in a night from poaching turtle eggs and then sell them easily in the local saloons and homes. By comparison a part time turtle patroller will make only about $120 a month. In fact, the head of EcoTeach in Parismina admitted that at one time her own sons were poachers. Today, EcoTeach employs about 30 locals to patrol the beaches at night and manage the small, simple hatchery. From what we saw they are highly dedicated and hard working young adults who believe in what they are doing. Staff also performs outreach to the local schools to educate kids about the endangerment of the turtles and the harm of poaching. Groups like ours that cycle in bring badly needed tourist dollars and reinforce the importance of the turtles and the project to the locals.

In three shifts starting at 8pm and ending sometimes early in the morning our group was rewarded by several encounters with nesting Leatherback Sea Turtles. What a thrill it was to watch these massive prehistoric creatures take several hours to dig a nest and lay and bury 120 eggs before returning to the sea exhausted.

Reforestation Project at Garabito

Traveling north our bus landed at the small hillside community of Garabito. Here we dispersed into smaller groups of four to be suited up with local host families. With our families we would spend the next two days and nights eating, sleeping, working and playing together within the hillside community. One of the reasons EcoTeach picked Garabito as a destination for its tours is the reforestation project that the locals have undertaken. The village is in central Costa Rica on the edge of Juan Castro Blanco National Park and the community reforestation project helps restore important tropical rainforest habitat for the endangered Green Macaw and many other species Land surrounding the community has been logged and over farmed by large pineapple farms which used to occupy the area. The reforestation project, lead by a group of retired school teachers, gets support from EcoTeach, the government, and other organizations to replant the land with native trees and plants to halt erosion, create a healthier watershed, and improve the amount and quality of fresh water available to the community. Through this project the organization is attempting to change perspectives about how the land can be used and maintained to create long-term sustainable land use. They are accomplishing this though programs that educate kids in the local schools and engage adults in the restoration efforts. Our group spent a morning working with local adults and youth planting native trees on the reserve.

In out two days in Garabito we became very close to our host families. We were taken by how simply these families live and how close they are to their extended families and community. Above all we will remember how genuinely happy the people of Garabito seemed to be and how kind they were to us.

Don Juan's Organic Farm, Finca Educativa

Don Juan (yes, that's his real name) runs a small farm near the town of La Fortuna where were stayed near the magnificent Arenal volcano in north central Costa Rica. For several years he has been developing techniques for growing and managing community scale farms based on organic methods and sustainable principals. He employs youth from the local school, visits schools and performs community outreach to educate people on his methods, and hosts groups to learn about his best practices. Meeting him, Don Juan is a strikingly chiasmic man who oozes with excitement and energy for his work and with genuine love and warmth to all who visit his small kingdom. Even though we did not understand his Spanish without our guide interpreting he had the kids and adults in our group mesmerized with his presentations as we toured his gardens. He had the kids help harvest potato-like yucca roots, we sampled herbs and fruits, pressed sugarcane and drank the sweet juice, and Don demonstrated how he rotates crops--always planted multiple complimentary crops amongst each other, never needing to rest the soil because it was always being naturally replenished. While he admitted that his techniques are not yet suitable to replace large scale industrial farms, he is part of a small revolution affecting the face of community based sustainable farming in Costa Rica.

Our group enjoyed a spectacular meal together that evening in the large open air kitchen/dining area. All the kids and adults participated in preparing the fresh vegetables, local dishes, and making homemade tortillas. A treat we will not soon forget.

Scarlet Macaw Protection, LAPPA

Our last stay on the trip was at Punta Leona—a resort community on the Central Pacific Coast. Within easy access from Punta Leona are the Guacalillo Mangrove Reserve and Carara National Park. Here an organization called LAPPA (Association for Parrot Protection) receives support from EcoTeach and other organizations to protect the endangered Scarlet Macaw population. The population is threatened by alarming levels of chick poaching in the area. We were told that most of the chicks which hatch each year are taken from their nests to be sold as pets. Our LAPPA guide Roy made an emotionally charged speech to our group about the fact that poaching is bad but the real problem is the demand in the US and Europe. He said there are no known Scarlet Macaw farms in the world yet all macaws sold in the US are purportedly from domestic breeders (a fact which Roy finds hard to swallow given the extremely particular nature of the macaws' breeding and nesting needs. They are monogamous, live for 70 years, require particular nesting sites, and often go years without laying eggs). LAPPAs efforts include nest protection, research, reforestation, and environmental education and outreach. It is a slow, hard uphill battle.

We spent a somewhat uneventful afternoon waiting in the rain for Scarlet Macaws to make their daily flight from Guacalillo Mangrove Reserve, where they roost, to Carara National Park to feed. Just as we began heading for the bus the rain stopped and within seconds the large beautiful macaws, always in pairs of mates or families of three, began to appear for their daily commute. Once more on our trip we were treated to a magic moment and Costa Rica did not disappoint.

Offsetting the Travel Impact

It's hard to be a part of an eco-travel adventure like this without considering the impact of your travel has on the environment. Unfortunately air travel is an order of magnitude more polluting than car travel. One long flight can have the same amount of carbon emissions impact as running a car for two years. I have heard that although air travel currently only accounts for about 3 percent of worldwide carbon emissions it is one of the fastest growing sources of CO2 pollution. Fortunately, there are easy ways to balance out your impact. Organizations like CarbonFund.org make it easy and affordable for any individual or business to reduce their carbon footprint and support climate-friendly projects. So, I started by finding a trip calculator (I used Terra Pass' website) and used their mileage and emissions calculator. It was easy to compute our round trip as being 7,618 miles which amounts to about one and a half tons of CO2 emission (2,971 lbs)! So, back on CarbonFund.org I gladly purchased carbon credits for 10,000 miles equal to 4175 lbs. of CO2 emissions for $10.40. What a wonderful, inexpensive way to support renewable energy, energy efficiency, and reforestation projects and travel with a relatively clear conscience!

Bringing It Home, Net Impact

When I began the EcoTeach trip I had a goal of unearthing some golden piece of wisdom about conservation and sustainability that could be used to aid our local Net Impact chapter in the coming months and years. The wisdom that I gathered was really a cementing of the idea that cultural change is an extremely difficult and slow process, but that is critical for successful, long term sustainable solutions. As we develop the vision and goals for Seattle Net Impact I believe now more than ever that we will be more likely to succeed if we stick doggedly to the Net Impact principles and focus our efforts on positive systemic, cultural change with a long term outlook, determination, and mounds of patience.

¹www.EcoTeach.com
² www.EcoTeach.org