Panama Latrine Team

Mangrove forests in the Gulf of San Miguel, Panama.

In December of 2008, I began working for EcoLogic in Panama’s Gulf of San Miguel where 16% of Panama’s mangroves can be found; the area is rich in biodiversity and has an impressive scenic beauty. In the coastal zone, there are many established fishing communities, which depend on these mangroves and their wildlife populations to exist. Right now, EcoLogic is working in five of these communities: Río Congo, Punta Alegre, Puento Lara, La Puntita, and Arretí.

Part of our work involves coordinating community consultations where we hear from the local people about their lives and circumstances. Based on these consultations, we help them prioritize their concerns and jointly devise solutions to address their primary challenges. In the Gulf of San Miguel main concerns include access to clean drinking water and the effects diminishing fish stock in the mangroves are having on their livelihoods.  This is why our focus in Panama is centered on water, environmental cleanup, and strengthening community-based organizations devoted to the sustainable management of natural resources.



Community members building a composting latrine.

In Puerto Lara and Punta Alegre, we are developing a plan for watershed management and outlining steps to strengthen local water councils. In Puerto Lara, we are also establishing a tree nursery which will have the capacity to produce 10,000 seedlings a year for enriching and repopulating the nearby microwatershed. In Río Congo, we are building composting latrines which will reduce runoff and contamination of the mangroves. In Punta Alegre, all of the community stakeholders are coming together to identify a location where they can build a water aqueduct to provide safe, reliable drinking water to the community. The community has existed for more than 100 years without reliable access to clean drinking water.

In these two and a half years I’ve worked in Darién, I’ve been a part of these communities and their daily lives, and witnessed their joys and their sorrows. Their commitment to our collaborative projects and their desire to succeed is quite obvious because of all the effort and energy they put into all of the projects we’ve undertaken. I was honored that recently, in a community meeting in Punta Alegre, when all the various project partners were present, the water council president, Isidoro Zúñiga, specifically mentioned EcoLogic while thanking everyone for their interest and support. EcoLogic is having a significant and positive impact on the quality of peoples' lives in this area, and I feel proud to be a part of this important work we are doing.



- Yaira Allois Pino, Program Officer for Panama
Yaira is from Santiago de Veraguas, Panama. She works on EcoLogic's projects with our partner organizations in that country. 

Eco-Family in the Field

The entire Eco-Family spent a week together in sunny --, no wait rainy -- no wait- sunny again Honduras at the end of June for EcoLogic’s biennial retreat. We bonded, we learned, and we exchanged ideas. But this was no kumbaya-fest. Our daily meetings consisted of intense sessions on strategic planning, science-based impact assessments, and theories of change. It was intense, it was real, and it was done EcoLogic-style. There is really too much to tell, so I’ll just highlight my favorite moments.

After arriving absurdly late to a quiet hotel in San Pedro Sula, I was ready for bed. Three hours later I find myself in a minibus driving to our projects in the region of Atlántida to see our work in agroforestry, fuel-efficient stoves, watershed management, and tree nurseries. Let me tell you about two of the project sites we visited, which we are implementing with our local partner, the Alliance of Municipalities of Central Atlántida, otherwise known as MAMUCA.

Fuel efficient stoves; hey what can I say? I love these things. We saw several stoves and heard from three different women who own and use them. I was extremely impressed with the maintenance of all the stoves we saw. I asked at one point, “Are these new?” I thought at MOST they might be a few weeks old but nay, I was told that all of the stoves we saw were a year or older. The women have to sand the stoves down every couple of days to keep them in tip top shape. And boy do they shine – I never knew adobe could sparkle. The women form groups of eight and together THEY make a stove for each person in the group. They are trained on how to construct, care for, and use them. The stoves use less fuel-wood, are more sanitary and keep the smoke out of the home. We all know the benefits of a smokeless house but it was NEVER as apparent as when I walked into one of the homes, stove to the right and a teeny tiny infant asleep in an itty bitty hammock not even 3 feet away. The babe was swinging lightly in the breeze and thankfully its little lungs were breathing clean air. It made me feel really good to see the positive difference we are making.

The argoforestry parcel we visited was also pretty impressive. With 40,000 seeds in the ground, the year-old trees (cue music) stood majestically along the hill-side. The trees are there to improve crop yield (here it’s corn), prevent erosion, and decrease the work of the farmers all while attracting wildlife, preventing disease and diminishing the need to encroach upon the surrounding forest. Don Faustino, owner of the land, was enthusiastic about the results and the benefits of guama. The full benefits will not be seen for another 2 years -- but, so far, so good and Don Faustino is happy to tell others about his success so they can replicate this work.

Oh, and we had an all-staff soccer game. There is not a lot to say about this except it was DEADLY (in a good way). It was fun, it was a time for bonding, and the temperature was freaking HOT. My team made it to the finals (yaay) but alas, the elusive EcoLogic world cup escaped my team’s grasp.

Let me just end this with an enormous shout out to EcoLogic field staff and tecnicos who work on a day to day basis directly with the people and places we strive to support on the ground. In getting to know the regional staff better I was awed by their passion and dedication. Their expertise is astounding and I’m so proud to be working with them.


- Gina Rindfleisch, Program Officer for EcoLogic
Gina manages EcoLogic's fundraising activities targeting individual donations. Prior to joining EcoLogic she served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua working in environmental education and holds a BA in environmental studies from Long Island University. 

Long Way 'Round


Greetings from Livingston, Guatemala. I’m out here this week visiting our project with APROSARSTUN, our partner in the region. I don’t think I’ve talked much about this project since being in Guatemala. It’s way out here on Guatemala’s Caribbean coast. This part of Guatemala is really different from the central highlands, where Xela and Totonicapán are located. The area is crazy humid, and the main mode of transportation is boat and canoe. Livingston is a somewhat popular tourist destination, but outside of the tourist center, the rural communities are very remote, very small, and quite underserved. For example, the President of APROSARSTUN is from a village of 15 families. Jose Domingo, EcoLogic’s project técnico is from a community of 35 families, and Samuel, a community promoter recently hired on the project, is from a village of 12 families. Each of these communities are accessible only by boat up small creeks, followed by some walking through the jungle. And each of these communities are part of our project. More than any other EcoLogic project I’ve seen, this one is reaching people way WAY off the beaten path. To me, it’s really cool and really inspiring.

So enough background. This week, I did so many things that each deserve their own post. Thirty-three stoves in Barra Sarstún -- a fishing village on the edge of the Sarstún River-- are being constructed. Francisco, José Domingo, Martín (President of APROSARSTUN,) and I were there to watch/help the first one get built. It was awesome watching the process from the very first brick. I’ve seen so many that are completed and always wondered what it took to build one. As a rule, stove recipients for each EcoLogic project are chosen based on their participation in the project and must help build their stove. In practice, this looks different from project to project. In Barra Sarstún, recipients are members of the Barra Sarstún Fisherfolk Committee, which is the group we work with to develop sustainable fishing practices in the region. The fishermen involved in the committee understand the need to conserve and care for the environment which provides them with their livelihoods (fish!), and are therefore excited to participate in projects which help advance conservation. The stove we watched get built was being installed in a home of a committee member, Don Fabian Vega, who was actually not around to help and got another committee member, Jose Antonio, to cover his labor for him. So Jose Antonio, who is getting his stove in a couple of days, helped our two stove gurus with the construction.

Here’s what you need to build a fuel-efficient stove: cinder blocks, bricks, cement, sand, water, clay/mud (filler in the base of the stove), shovel, machete, trowel, aluminum chimney, and about four hours. And you need to know what you’re doing which is why we hire two men that have built many of our stoves. Oh, I also met some families that really like their stoves and I got to eat some awesome flour tortillas cooked on one. This was the first time I had flour tortillas in Guatemala. They were insanely good. Oh, I also ate a delicious fried fish caught by a member of the fisherfolk committee. Pretty cool. After these 33 stoves are completed, every members of the association will have a fuel-efficient stove in their home.

SO that’s a lot and that’s just the stove. I also visited some agroforestry parcels in some other communities. Come November these parcels will have corn planted in them in rows between the guama trees. The harvest will be in February. I’m coming back down to eat me some guama-protected corn!

While here, EcoLogic also conducted a seminar on conservation and sustainable development project design at  a local school, Ak'Tenamit, which is dedicated to educating students from indigenous families. This school, with which we often collaborate, focuses on ecotourism and rural development, and their hope is that their alumni return to their respective communities to be agents of change. It was great to help facilitate the seminar and hopefully, even if very slightly, help equip these young people with some tools that they can apply in their own communities, to the benefit of their families and neighbors.

Okay, that’s all I got. And it’s starting to rain on me and I’m fairly certain this computer is not waterproof.  Hasta Pronto!

- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

'Tis the Season

It's now the rainy season here in Guatemala, and if you're a true EcoLogian, you know what the rainy season really means: Reforestation Season!


I'm writing to you from my apartment after a day of reforesting in Totonicapan, Guatemala. I'll tell you one thing: after spending a week with our field technicians in Honduras and hearing all their stories about planting trees and building fuel efficient stoves, it was really rewarding to get my hands dirty and to -- at least for a few hours -- experience the life of a "tecnico." If you remember from a previous post, EcoLogic manages 5 greenhouses (soon to be 8) in Totonicapan in the central highlands of Guatemala, where we work in partnership with the 48 Cantones to reforest watershed areas to help protect drinking water sources. The last time I blogged about this project, I had just visited the greenhouses and they were full of saplings. Well, this time around, hundreds of trees were gone! They're now planted in the forest, where they belong.

Today the EcoLogic team had the opportunity to participate in a reforestation activity in a community.  Typically, the village water committees schedule special events when a town, neighborhood or specific group commit the day to reforestation activities. Local people participate in part because a family's "payment" to the 48 Cantones for receiving water in their home is to volunteer their time to protect the area's watershed and fresh water resources. EcoLogic provides the trees and technical know-how to help make these efforts as productive and successful as possible. Today 120 young people from a local high school  -- the Escuela Noral Rural del Occidente (or ENRO) in Totonicapan -- came out to plant trees and learn about their watershed. Teachers at the school wanted the students to learn about the benefits of the forests in a hands-on manner. Of course, EcoLogic was happy to support this goal: Fernando, our field technician in Totonicapan, led the day's activities, providing a practical "how-to" session for the teachers and students, and showing them how and where to plant the arbolitos..

Fernando, a tecnico, explaing the process to students.

It was an awesome event. After a couple of hours in the forest, the students, teachers, Don Augustin (our greenhouse manager), Fernando, and I were able to plant about 1,500 saplings. There's another youth reforestation event tomorrow, as well, and Fernando is guiding that one, too. Oh yeah, and Fernando saved the GPS coordinates of the first tree that I planted so I can always know its exact latitude and longitude and come back and visit it, which I hope to do annually for the rest of my life! I named it Chris. You're surprised, right?

Okay, that's all I can manage for now. This is actually my last week working from the office in Xela. Next week I'll be visiting our project in Sarstun and after that I'll be in Honduras for our all staff retreat.

Hasta la proxima!



- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Me encantan los mapas

Buenas tardes, Compañeros. I just arrived in Guatemala City after a 15.5 hour bus ride from Escuela Agricola Panamericana - otherwise known as Zamorano University -- which is located near Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Despite the many, long bus trips, I had a really great week spending time with almost all of our field staff. The first two days we honed our skills with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which will help our field technicians and program officers document and monitor our project sites with greater accuracy.  The fact I was able to participate and learn about GIS was fun for me, and will likely improve my ability to collaborate and assist our people in Central America  from our Cambridge office. To gain practice with our GIS skills, we visited the local watershed with Zamorano professors and GIS experts to gather data -- which more or less meant defining its borders -- and then we went back to the lab to input and map the data. Really cool stuff if you´re into maps as I am.

The last two days of the week were spent sharing presentations from everyone´s work. All those present -- 13 in total -- gave at least one power point presentation that summed up her/his work in the field so far this year. Each presentation also allowed for questions and answers afterwards so there was a lot of discussion and sharing of successes and challenges. For me, hearing these presentations was amazingly informative. Our field technicians and program officers are really the hands and feet of EcoLogic - and hearing about agroforestry, stoves, microwatersheds, etc. directly from those implementing our projects was invaluable.

I´m really tired, which you can probably tell because I've scarcely made a joke or a pun! Still I wanted to provide you with an update on this incredible week before it concluded.

Buenas noches!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Only Four More Weeks?!

Muy buenos días. I haven’t really blogged in a while other than that crazy quetzal post. To be honest, after being able to blog from EcoLogic project sites about things like water sources, agroforestry plots, and community meetings (things which I find really exciting and I’ll assume you do, too), it’s a little hard to blog about being back at a desk in an office. HOWEVER, I’ve got four more weeks down here in Guatemala and three of those four involve plenty of newsworthy happenings. So this is a blog post to get you pumped up for what’s to come!

Next week, I’ll be joining our entire field staff (12 staff members in total, including Country Program Officers and Project Technicians from Guatemala, Panama, Mexico, and Honduras and our Regional Director and Director of Programs) for a 4 day training/meeting in Honduras. For two days our field staff – which luckily includes me for now – will receive training on the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for Watershed Management. Then we’ll have 2 days of team meetings where each Project Technician and Country Program Officer will present updates on their work, which will include successes, lessons learned, technical advice, and future plans. For me, this is EXACTLY the type of information I want to hear. I’m really excited to listen to our field staff’s experiences and stories – they’re the people making the work happen day-to-day. I’ll be sure to keep you informed…

After this trip, I’ll have one week visiting our project in Sarstún, Guatemala. This area is on Guatemala’s Caribbean coast along the border of Belize. This region is quite different from the highlands where I’ve been. Out there I’ll be visiting with beneficiaries of our project with APROSARSTUN – families who have received fuel-efficient woodstoves, farmers who are implementing agroforestry methods, and fisherfolk who are committing to use sustainable fishing practices. Again, really excited, and I’ll be sure to post plenty.

After that, it’s back to Honduras for another week. This time, for EcoLogic’s All-Staff Retreat which we have once every two years. If you’ve ever been to the “Our People” part of EcoLogic’s website, then you’ve seen a picture from the last retreat. Pre-Chris, and pre-several others now working with EcoLogic. Now the reason for the retreat, of course, is not to get an updated picture for the website (although that will happen -- never fear!). It’s so that our entire staff – those based in Cambridge, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, and Belize – can come together to plan, reflect, review best practices, lessons learned and exciting new opportunities to do meaningful work, and also to simply spend time together and get to know one another.  This year we will visit a project site in northern Honduras and then spend a few days in meetings together, with time set aside for activities in the city of Copan Ruinas, an ancient Mayan site in western Honduras.

For many of us at EcoLogic, our relationships with those in other offices are almost exclusively electronic via email or Skype. It's been very exciting for me to finally meet some of my coworkers in person, and I have no doubt that this time we have spent working "shoulder to shoulder" will make us more effective and efficient collaborators in the future. For some at EcoLogic, the retreat will be the first time they have the opportunity to meet many of their colleagues.  For others the retreat will be something like a family reunion. But one thing’s certainly true for everyone: we're all looking forward to it! 

And after I'll return home, just in time for summer in Boston!

PS - There’s already a rumor that an all-staff soccer game is going to happen at the retreat – field staff vs. Cambridge staff. Bet you can guess which team I’m gonna play with! I know you’ll want to see a video, but I’ll just say right now that any footage I capture I’ll be selling to one of those sports bloopers production companies. Hey, relax, as a fundraiser for EcoLogic -- of course!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Quetzal Catch Up

I forgot to mention that rereading this blog made me realize I haven’t updated you recently on my quetzal bird hunt! Don’t worry, not a real hunt. (The only thing I hunt "for real" are fish.) At any rate, you’ve probably been losing sleep from jealousy while imagining me swinging in a hammock with a slew of beautiful quetzal birds perched around me. But, alas, no quetzal fraternizing for me yet. I haven’t seen a one. Every time I think I see one it turns out to be a grackle or something else that's fairly common. I've got six weeks left to go here. Maybe if I wore one of these hats I’d find one? (A care package idea, Mom!)



- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011.

Guama Mia!

Guama Mia! The runaway Broadway hit about a young boy and his pet guama seed. What am I talking about. Okay, honestly, I just wanted to use the word “guama” in a pun. And that’s what I came up with. Mama Mia is a musical, right? Or am I way off?

At any rate, I want to tell you all about guama today. What’s guama, you ask? It’s the variety of tree that EcoLogic uses in the agroforestry parcels that we establish with rural farmers throughout tropical Central America. I had to throw “tropical” in there because it only grows in tropical climates, not up in the mountains. Guama is a pretty amazing tree and perfect for agroforestry in several of the regions where we work. The idea is to plant guama along with your crop, like corn. So you’ll have three rows of corn and a row of guama trees, three rows of corn, and a row of guama, etc. The guama trees provide shade for the corn, their leaves fall (TONS of leaves) and keep weeds from growing, once the leaves decompose they provide organic fertilizer that replenishes soil nutrients, and their lower branches (that grow really fast) can be trimmed and used for firewood. The result is a better crop, a higher yield, healthier soil, fuelwood, and far less time spent maintaining the parcel because weeds hardly can grow at all. Pretty amazing.

Last week I reported to you from Ixcán all about our community consultations. Well, I also was able to spend some time with a farmer, Don Salvador, who has an EcoLogic-supported guama parcel. Don Salvador is a volunteer “forest guard” for his community of San Pablo, and was in touch with EcoLogic several years ago because of the trainings we provided to local forest guards. He expressed interest in trying out guama on a part of his land, and in 2008, EcoLogic established a guama nursery on his land. Though Don Salvador admits that he was a bit skeptical at the beginning, he is now an unabashed believer.

Sebastian, our Regional Director, calls Don Salvador a guama “predicador” or preacher. He grows corn on his guama plot, and talked about how much he loves the guama plot in comparison to the rest of his land where he uses chemical fertilizers. He just did the year’s first corn harvest a few weeks ago, and he talked about the better product from the guama plot, the greater yield, the fact that he didn’t have to purchase fertilizer for the guama plot, and the healthier soil for the next crop.

Don Salvador also mentioned that other farmers are hearing about guama but are still unsure about the process. Without a doubt, though, he’s been convinced. And so have I. I’ve been to maybe 5 or 6 guama parcels now and keep hearing the same things Don Salvador spoke about. There are so many benefits that can positively impact subsistence farmers and the environment.

Okay, well I’m now back in our office for a few weeks after a few weeks of travel. I’ll keep the blog posts coming though. Hasta la próxima!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

"Good, and how are you?"

Man, it's hot in Playa Grande Ixcan, ya know? If you know a bit of Spanish, the name "Playa Grande" probably gives you images of thatched huts, hammocks, white sand, and margaritas. Well, I'm in the opposite place. Playa Grande Ixcan is here:

Pretty far from the beach. Pretty far from any paved roads for that matter. This is a low-lying, hot, and humid region, and to get here, it's about 3 hours drive on an unpaved road. There wasn't internet in the town for a few days, but it triumphantly returned this morning. So I've been able to check my email and catch up a bit. And write this blog post!

In this region, EcoLogic supports a group called "Mancomunidad de la Frontera Norte," which is an alliance of mayors from neighboring municipalities close to Mexican border who have come together to lead their communities in sustainable development and improve education and healthcare. Ixcan is one of eight municipalities that make up the Mancomunidad de la Froentera Norte, so it's just one particular area where we're working within quite a large region. EcoLogic is helping the Mancomunidad within particular communities located close to forests that are in need of protection and sustainable management. This means, installing fuel-efficient woodstoves, introducing agroforestry techniques to farmers, establishing tree nurseries, and giving trainings to volunteer park rangers referred to as guardabosques, or forest guards.

This week, EcoLogic is in Ixcan to facilitate a total of 8 consultations within communities to the southwest of Playa Grande Ixcan. These communities range in size from 120 to 400 families, one of which is a full two hours out of Playa Grande on even bumpier roads. Though we've been working in this area for several years, we're now able to really ramp up our efforts because of a recently formed partnership we've developed with Heifer International.

Before each EcoLogic project begins, we perform what we call a "Community Consultation" which is sort of a diagnostic to try and identify the top priorities of the community - is it water? schooling? a particular illness? a political concern? This way, we're able to all get on the same page from the beginning and tailor our work to the needs and concerns of community members.

Participating in these consultations has been such a great experience. Our Guatemala Program Officer, Francisco Tzul, has been the main facilitator with the support of the tecnico in Ixcan, named Antonio Chipel. There are 9 steps to the consultation, which takes about 3 hours and ends with a lunch. In the first two consultations, we had between 50 and 70 participants in each with representation and participation from men, women, and youth. Getting people to show up to any meeting is hard work, especially when there's tons of work to be done and no such things as vacation or personal time off from work. Just getting people to come together is a testament to the hard work of Antonio Chipel, the Mancomunidad network, and the relationships and reputation we've already established in the area. It also reflects the interest and concern that community members have to improve their communities and their lives.

I have 2 community consultations under my belt and 5 more to go! Pretty exciting to see a project at the beginning stages. It'll be great to follow the project as it develops.

There's plenty more coming your way soon - more news from Ixcan, and an upcoming trip to our project in the Sarstun region on the border of Belize and Guatemala. Which reminds me that I went to Belize, Tikal, and Semuc Champay during Semana Santa last week and didn't even blog about all that!!! Geez. I wish I wasn't so detailed and I could just quickly write about these experiences, but so much happened and there would be so much to report.



- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

"The trees are absolutely essential"

This Wednesday, I visited the 5 greenhouses that EcoLogic has built and currently manages in Totonicapan, Guatemala. Within each greenhouse are 16,500 saplings of several varieties of native trees. Community members, led by two local full-time caretakers, do everything: collect the seeds from the forest, plant them, water them with water flowing from the forest above the greenhouses, apply organic compost and fertilizers, and then take them into the forest once they're big enough (about 10 months old). The greenhouses are managed by Don Augustin. This man LOVES TREES! Three more greenhouses are currently under construction and will be done this year! We have greenhouses in this region because of the altitude - it's pretty cool and at night it even frosts over. Also, the greenhouses protect the trees from animals and insects and offer the ability to set up irrigation systems.

All the trees will be planted around water sources and in recharge zones (land that absorbs water faster than most) in order to combat erosion and ensure that the water doesn't dry out. In order to get water in your home, you have to do two things: 1) pay a water user fee to your local village water committee (each village has one of these - totally volunteer run) and 2.) volunteer your time in some capacity. The water user fee covers expenses related to the maintenance of water tanks, pipes, etc. The volunteering can consist of helping out in the greenhouses, reforesting, or providing materials for the greenhouses, like soil or compost. Most people opt to reforest, and during the months of May and June - the beginning of the rainy season - groups of community members enter the forest with all the saplings from the greenhouses and plant the trees in strategic places around their water source.

Each village water board has an executive committee that manages the money, goes into the forest to check out and perform maintenance on the tanks and pipes, and ensure that each household is volunteering and paying their fee. Or the water gets cut! Village water board leadership are voted into their position and the leadership changes each year.

So what's a water source? It's basically the ground. That's it. Community members have identified spots in the forest where there's significant water underground, based on the type of plants that are growing and the moisture in the soil. Then, you dig it out, lay some concrete in a way that collects the water, and install a pipe that carries the water to a larger tank. This larger tank collects the water from several of these sources, called "nacimientos" or "births." From the larger collecting tank, the water travels via pipe all the way to a community distribution tank, which could be 10 or 15 kilometers away. From the distribution tank, the water travels to households.

Ain't gravity somethin?

So the water essentially comes from the ground, not a stream or river or well. It's not that deep. The reason you want to capture the water from the ground itself is because it's pure. If you get it out of the stream or river, it could be contaminated with animal waste, algae, tadpoles, trash, who knows? So you get the water before it's exposed to the elements. The trees sort of filter and slow down the water after it rains which enables the water to accumulate enough to be captured. The trees are absolutely essential.

I asked Fernando, EcoLogic's project technician in Totonicapan, how everyone knows that there is a close relationship between the trees and water; if some expert came in and told everyone or if the people have known for generations. I bet you can guess the answer: they knew. They knew based on experiences of villages who cut all the trees in their nearby forests and lost their water. And these stories have been passed down for generations. It was later that the experts came in and essentially confirmed what the locals already understood.


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

We gotta fix them holes!

So much has happened this week! I'm back in the office now after a week visiting our project with the 48 Cantones in Totonicapan. Meetings, greenhouses, water sources, stoves, reforestation zones - all this week! Some of this stuff is going to have to wait for some later posts or else you'd be reading a novel. It's been a really great experience - I've been able to learn so much more about the issues facing the Communal Forest of San Miguel and the communities located around it. This is the forest managed by the 48 Cantones which I talked about last week. The forest houses the largest remaining stand of Pinabete (an endangered variety of pine) and is absolutely essential for the delivery of water to over 100 rural communities. The water doesn't come from a stream, river, or well. It literally comes from the forest ground itself.

On Monday, I attended a meeting about logging. This is becoming a major problem in the forest. Gathering wood for household cooking fuel is legal and accepted by everyone in the community including the leadership of the 48 Cantones. And if you ask for permission from the leadership, you can enter the forest to take a few trees to build a house, a pen for your sheep, etc. But over the last 10 to 15 years, high demand for wood and diminishing resources in areas all around the communal forest has created a livelihood opportunity for many people. People enter the forest, cut down trees, sell them to a driver who fills up his pickup truck, takes the wood to nearby towns and cities, like Xela, Huehuetenango, and Solola for profit.

In attendance at the meeting were members of the Natural Resources Committee of the 48 Cantones, two past presidents of this committee, village water board leaders, and two members of the national police department assigned to natural resource protection. EcoLogic arranged this meeting to focus specifically on this subject and create an action plan with multiple stakeholders. We have been building greenhouses and growing trees to reforest around water sources in the area for over 10 years. But it doesn't make sense for us and the community members who support the cause to work so hard to reforest if we're watching 10 times the amount of trees disappear and doing nothing about it. It's like trying to fill a bucket with water that has big holes in the bottom. We gotta fix them holes! From one of the four exits of the forest there are an estimated 50 pickups full of wood leaving per day according to the police. Which translates to 50 meters squared a day of forest. And that's only one exit. This was the first meeting to really talk about the issue in an open and honest way. What's exciting is knowing that once we do come up with a plan and carry it out, it could serve as a model for so many other regions. This issue is certainly not unique to Totonicipan. It's a national and international concern.

We'll keep you posted on what the working group comes up with.  That was Monday.  Then I met with the one and only Don Augustin. This man LOVES TREES!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Yes We Can-ton!

I'm prepping and anxiously awaiting a field trip to Totonicapan soon.  I'll be meeting with members of the 48 Cantones, our regional partner for around 3 years.  I thought I would take this opportunity to ask Francisco, our Guatemalan Program Officer:  "What is a cantón, anyways?" 

EcoLogic doesn't translate this word into English in our documentation because it doesn't really translate.  It's always been sort of mystifying to me.  So what I discovered is that a cantón is a small, rural community on the outskirts of a more populated town (in this case the town of Totonicapán) that does not have access to the resources of the town, as in the waterline, the waste system, the street maintenance, etc.  A canton is sort of a little village left to its own.  But that's not to say that they're totally lost or without leadership.  The 48 Cantones is very structured and very well-organized.  It is an ancestral structure, centuries old, which Maya Quiche elders maintain.  Each canton has its local leadership to solve land disputes, record births and deaths, plan village improvements, etc.  Then those leaders form a general assembly with other canton leaders, forming the Association of the 48 Cantones.  This association has a regional mandate, taking care of the communal forest, protecting water sources, organizing local water committees, handling larger political and social concerns, and advocating for communities with the more "formal," state government. 

According to Francisco, who was born and raised in Totonicapán and is still a resident, the Association of the 48 Cantones is an extremely well respected and revered authority.  If there was a significant issue that required a community meeting, all he would have to do is call a member of the 48 Cantones Board of Directors and the next day hundreds of people would be there.  Despite the fact that it does not collect taxes or have any kind of legal authority, the Association of the 48 Cantones is essentially the government of these rural villages.  It has a local commitment and focus in small communities that fall outside the reach of the official government.  Few areas in Guatemala have successfully maintained this indigenous, parallel government.  Centuries of oppression against indigenous peoples, including a recent genocide in the 70s and 80s, have rendered most traditional authorities extremely weak if not completely obsolete.  According to Francisco, the Association of the 48 Cantones is the most powerful indigenous quasi-governmental structure left in Guatemala.  It is over 800 years old.  What an accomplishment for them, and what an honor for us to work with them.

So this is our partner; pretty inspiring.  A group of Maya Quiche elders - just everyday rural people - who are doing everything voluntarily as part of their heritage and commitment to their communities.  EcoLogic is helping them protect their water sources through reforestation and forest protection, the installation of fuel-efficient woodstoves, and the transfer of their traditional knowledge regarding environmental stewardship to younger generations.

I'm excited to go check out this project, too.  I'll have much more to share at that point.  But now you have a decent background on our local partner.  And you can impress all your friends with all your new cantón knowledge


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

March Madness

You gotta love the underdog, right? VCU, Butler, EcoLogic. Yep, we were in our own little competition and came out runner-up! 


A water source under a protected
structure maintained by AJAASSPIB

 

EcoLogic was named Runner-Up for the ReSource Award for Sustainable Watershed Management, out of 194 entries. The ReSource Award is an internationally recognized prize acknowledging leadership in sustainable watershed management. What's a watershed? Think of it like an enormous funnel - it's an area of land where water flows toward a single point, based on the land's contour. Rivers and streams are located within watersheds, bringing water to communities. So they're important, wouldn't you agree? We were chosen as runner-up for our work with AJAASSPIB in northern Honduras. AJAASSPIB is an association of volunteer-run water committees located in rural villages to the south of Pico Bonito National Park in Honduras. EcoLogic supports this group with the protection and management of the forested watershed that brings water to their villages. It's not just about have a water tank and pipes; it's also about having a healthy ecosystem that's responsible for producing and regulating the flow of water through those pipes and in that tank. Otherwise, rural people have to buy bottled water shipped in from who knows where. And that's not self-reliant, cost-effective, or sustainable.





A meeting of the AJAASSPIB
in northern Honduras.



I was fortunate enough visit some of the AJAASSPIB member villages last summer and I met some of the protagonists. It truly was inspiring to know that local people have proactively taken the lead to secure water for their communities - not waiting for the government, a massive water project, or a miracle. What would you do if your water supply cut out tomorrow? If nothing's wrong with your plumbing, but there's no water flowing through the pipes. If you're in the States and not far off in a rural area, you'd probably just sit tight and wait for it to get fixed by someone you'll never meet. We're fortunate to know that these things sort of magically happen for us. But in rural Honduras, as in many rural areas on our planet, things don't fix themselves so easily (not to say that whoever the wonderful person that fixes it for us in the States has it easy. I do appreciate you!). In these more marginalized places, you have to organize your community, take leadership, be creative, take action. The folks of AJAASSPIB with whom we work are creating solutions themselves, and EcoLogic is there to support them. In all honesty, this recognition is awesome. Not only for EcoLogic, but for these community volunteers who lead their communities in protecting their water sources.

So this is big news, and EcoLogic is really proud - proud of ourselves, but even more of AJAASSPIB. And we certainly hope that if you're someone who has supported us in any way, that you too share with us this pride.

Tourist Time!

This past weekend, Sara and I joined an EcoLogic intern, another Sarah, on a trip to Lake Atitlán. This, if you didn't know, is one of Guatemala's (and all of Central America's) most impressive places and a major tourist destination. I've always had mixed feelings about major tourist destinations, as you can probably relate to - how unnatural it feels and the sea of all those "obnoxious tourists" (as if I'm not one myself). But as I've told many friends over the years, particularly those who swear to omit major tourist destinations in favor of going "off the beaten path" - the path is beaten for a reason. Places like Atitlán are popular and flocked to by people from all over the world because they're practically universally amazing. Don't get me wrong, I see the value in going off the beaten path. But I'll deal with a sea of other tourists any day for the opportunity to tour the Alhambra, hike the Grand Canyon, or take in Lake Atitlán. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

For me, the highlight was actually probably observing a ceremony worshiping (or at least praying to) Gran Abuelo (also called Maximón, but according to the Tz'utujil devotee who told us what house the ceremony was in, only people that don't understand and respect Gran Abuelo call him Maximón; I started calling him Gran Abuelo at that instant). I have no idea how to sum up the experience, but it was unreal and I encourage you to search for Gran Abuelo next time you find yourself in the town of Santiago Atitlan.

The lowlight was probably the mental and moral handcuffs I found myself in when thinking about the surplus of local people, almost all indigenous, trying to make a living off of selling their wares or a boat ride in the lake to us tourists. There was stall after stall of almost the exact same dresses, coin purses, flutes, hats, etc. and not nearly enough tourists to buy them, despite Atitlan's popularity. This just increases the pressure to make a sale and puts an aura of desperation in the air. We had a man walk with us for about 10 minutes then wait outside our hotel for another 15 just to see if we'd take a boat ride. Later on, Sara and I momentarily pointed at a blanket. Before we knew it, the woman selling it had given us the price, dropped it 50% and as we walked away yelled out lower and lower prices to try and get us to turn around. It makes me realize even more the crucial need for more dignified, non-tourist-dependent livelihoods, where women don't have to sell the beautiful results of hours of work for the equivalent of a few bucks.


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

St. Patrick's Day - in Guatemala

So I missed St. Patrick's Day in Boston! How was it? I did celebrate at work with a quesadilla and some fried plantains for lunch that Sara made. Isn't that how you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? The day doesn't appear to be too big of a deal here. If it was, I wasn't invited to the party. We did see some fireworks going off last night across the city, which had potential to have something to do w/ St. Patrick's Day. But we're not sure. Oh well. I hope you had a good one!


Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Things are pretty tranquilo around the office. Plenty going on around me, but I've just been plugging away at editing some proposals that are soon to go out. EcoLogic's Regional Director, Sebastian Charchalac, just returned to the office after spending a few days with colleagues at Oxfam, learning about their Savings for Change program they are implementing in central Guatemala and sharing some of our experiences regarding institutional capacity building. I'm interested to hear what he learned and what kind of lessons or experiences could be transferred to our work. Understanding some microsavings techniques could prove beneficial for some of our local partners.

This weekend, Sara and I will be heading to Lago Atitlan with another Sarah who is interning with EcoLogic. Expect some pictures of volcanoes and shiny water next week!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Home Sweet Home

It's Tuesday here in Xela (too easy to type to not go with Xela), and I'm sitting outside on the patio of our office. Don't get all that jealous just yet, with visions of a hammock, palm trees, and tropical birds on my

La Oficina

shoulder. It's more of a utility patio where there's a sink, trash and recycling cans, and cleaning supplies. I was actually told that there is no way to recycle here in Xela and that the program was eliminated several years ago. But we've at least got recycling bins here in our office. You can count on the environmental NGO to know how to pull it off! I just need to figure out how to recycle at my apartment.

I had a great first full weekend in Xela. Gaby, our Regional Director of Programs here at EcoLogic, took us on an afternoon-long tour of the city, which included lots of insider info - she was born and raised here! The parque central is so beautiful and there are a lot of great lookouts over the city because it's really hilly. One of the things I love the most about traveling/living in Latin America, and Xela is keeping the passion burning, are the local markets. There are several here - full of people, energy, and everything people with energy would want to buy: baskets, fresh produce, clothes, tortas and pupusas, toothpaste, baby supplies, auto parts, soccer balls, off the wall souvenirs, you name it. Gaby also took us to buy cell phones. Rest assured, cell phone madness is not limited to the States.

Flowers for sale in Xela

There are endless plans, phones, features, and deals to navigate through. My Spanish is totally fine if all I needed to do was get a phone and learn how the system works. But when they start trying to sell me all the promotions and deals, I'm lost. Come to think of it, I'm lost when it comes to stuff like that in English.

Besides the tour, we were able to spend a lot of time Skyping and calling people through Google. Which I still hardly understand but you should check it out - I think it's called Gtalk or Gcall. We've talked to all sorts of people in the States and even in Spain and haven't paid a cent yet. Really quite amazing to think about the ease of communication these days.

This week we've got several visitors here in the EcoLogic office from the States. And I'm having fun welcoming them to my country as if I've been living here my whole life. We have an intern, Sarah, who is currently in the Municipality of Huehuetenango to the north of Xela with Francisco, our Guatemala Program Officer. She's doing a study for her graduate work, focusing on our agroforestry work with our partner, the Mancomunidad de la Frontera Norte. And Melissa, our Director of Finance and Administration is in town as well for a series of meetings with our regional staff regarding budgeting and other administrative things that fortunately my job doesn't require me to know about in any great detail.

Hasta la proxima!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Welcome to town!




Photo: Steve Winter
National Geographic

 So I am a few hours away from the end of Week 1 working in our Quetzaltenango, I mean Xela, office. Wait, I mean Quetzaltenango. If you didn't know, Guatemala's second largest city has two names - the original Mayan name, Xela (shortened from Xelaju), and the more official name, Quetzaltenango. Don't worry, this brief history/etymology lesson has all been confirmed by Wikipedia. I haven't decided which name I'm going to stick with yet; you pretty much hear both of them used equally. Xela is easier, but with the other one you get to say "Quetzal" which makes you think of the majestic bird, and that makes you happy. I'm still looking all over the place for a quetzal. They wouldn't have named it Quetzaltenango without there being quetzals hanging out in every tree, right? Ooh, be right back, I heard a bird chirping outside! (this is foreshadowing for an inexplicable quetzal-obsessed theme that may or may not run throughout this entire blog)

Anyways, I'm really excited to have started working down here and I'm really appreciative of the opportunity. I'll be working out of this office for about four months, taking occasional field trips to sites where EcoLogic implements its projects. My main role at EcoLogic is to write about our work - what we do, what we're planning on doing, and what we've done. It's actually really exciting for me because I like what we do. I like knowing that we're addressing complex issues; issues that arise when you're concerned with both protecting unique ecosystems and improving people's lives. I like knowing we're tackling them head on. But usually, I'm writing at my desk in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Even though down here I'm still at a desk, in front of a computer, it feels different. There's something different about writing about our work from one of the countries where we actually do the work, being surrounded by my colleagues that make it happen on the ground. Being here makes our work come alive even more. More of that to come later, when I visit our project sites...

So overall, settling in here as been quite easy. Sara, my wife, and I have a great apartment, which is in walking distance to her language school and EcoLogic's office. And Skype and Logmein make working in another country a cinch. And wireless internet abounds. Pretty amazing. I'm really excited for what the next four months hold, and hope you enjoy following me along the journey. Even if the journey for now is me typing at a desk in an office. And occasionally running outside in search of quetzals. I'll have some photos coming your way soon, too!

Hasta luego!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011.