Welcome to the neighborhood!

Meet Alvin Loredo, fisherman, contractor, tour guide, and common laborer – a jack of many trades. Earlier this year, Alvin worked with EcoLogic to help install fuel-efficient stoves in two communities in the buffer zone of the Sarstoon-Temash National Park in Belize as part of EcoLogic’s binational work between Guatemala and Belize. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Alvin on the phone to hear first hand how the work went, and why he is so committed to his community.

Alvin giving the lay of the land after a boat ride up the Sarstoon River.

Alvin explains that he first heard of EcoLogic about 10 years ago when he served as a board member to EcoLogic’s partner in Belize, the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM). He accompanied EcoLogic on a learning exchange to Honduras to see projects we were implementing, including the installation of fuel-efficient stoves, and learn directly from community participants in the area. Alvin said when he first walked into the home of family with an EcoLogic stove he was blown away by how clean the inside of the kitchen was, which he described as “white”. In a region where, dirt floors and open-pit fires are the norm he could not believe his eyes.

“I was like, wow, where do you people cook? The pots were shining and I wondered where the smoke was and then I said to myself: the people of Barranco need something like that, too. Since that trip to Honduras, it has always been my dream to get the stoves to Barranco and Belize so that people can see that there are techniques to help us live a little longer.”

So, almost 10 years later when EcoLogic called for his help, Alvin jumped at the chance.

Alvin presenting at a press conference to denounce oil exploration in the Sarstoon Temash National Park.

Alvin was raised and lives in a fishing village on the coast of Belize called Barranco. The population here is roughly 160 inhabitants and it is the coastal gateway to the Sarstoon Temash National Park which is threatened by oil exploration and drilling. Full-time employment is hard to come by in this remote coastal village, but Alvin gets by. He supports his family of three daughters and one boy, through daily labor and fishing the coastal waters. “I know them [the communities] from my heart and would be willing to assist them however I can,” said Alvin.

Installing the fuel-efficient stoves took Alvin about one month. First, he would visit each family in the evening to make plans for the following day’s labor building stoves.

“At around 6 in the morning I would wake, share a cup of good, strong coffee with the stove technician and then go to the first home.” They would then assess the levelness of the area where the stove was to be installed. The “family helper” would begin mixing the sand and cement for laying the blocks and wait for it to set. At that point they would go to the next house to set the foundation. At about midday Alvin would return to the first house to fill the area with mud and red clay, soak the bricks, stomp it down, and make another mix of clay to fill the hole. After that the team would place the outer bricks and plaster the outside to make the stove smooth. This stove design uses about 90 bricks and takes a full day’s work.

“The women could hardly wait to use it, but we told them they must wait 40 days for the bricks to cure. If they use the stove before that, the bricks will crack.”

Here is a recently installed stove in Belize, much like the ones Alvin was helping construct.

Alvin expressed his heartfelt thanks for the work EcoLogic has started in the area he also said it is his hope that it will continue. “There are many more stoves that these communities need. We need to spread the love to as many families as we can.”

Alvin’s island-style charisma, loyalty, and love for his land have made him a leader in his community. He fishes where his grandfather fished, he farms where his grandfather farmed and he does his best to protect the natural resources that the people of Barranco and the next generation depend on.

- 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. 

You have the right to remain informed

¡Hola readers!

This past February and March, EcoLogic began its FPIC process in the three land-holding Mayan communities in La Sierra Cojolita Communal Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico. Workshops and information sessions designed to inform the communities about REDD+ were held in the communities of Frontera Corozal, Nueva Palestina, and Lacanhá Chansayab. As the new human rights research intern at EcoLogic, it has been a whirlwind of activity as I learn a ton about the project area, about REDD+, and about the ins-and-outs of working in a non-profit. If you'd like a brush-up on REDD+, David Kramer, Senior Program Officer, has written an excellent post about the mechanism. But wait, you may be saying, what exactly is FPIC and why is it important? Let me take a moment to unpack this term and its importance for both REDD+ and for the EcoLogic project.

Cattle gather in Nueva Palestina, one of the three communities EcoLogic is working with in Chipas. The pressure of ever expanding cattle ranches is one of the principal threats to the Lacándon forest and its natural resources.

FPIC stands for “Free Prior, and Informed Consent,” and is a rights-based approach that puts the emphasis on the rights of local communities to make decisions about the use and management of their land and natural resources. It was codified in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples over five years ago. For REDD+, FPIC is especially important because forest-dwelling communities are often disenfranchised and historically marginalized groups. FPIC is an approach that is central to empowering communities to make informed decisions about their futures.

EcoLogic is making the FPIC process in La Sierra Cojolita Communal Reserve a central part to the project planning stage. As I mentioned, there were a series of workshops in February and March that had the goal of giving the communities information about REDD+ and of completing a participatory factor analysis in each community.

Participants in the workshop prioritize community concerns.

EcoLogic spent three days with each of the three communities, working to address the specific issues and concerns of each, depending on the community context. While this FPIC process has been, and continues to be, a lot of work for EcoLogic, we are committed to ensuring that the communities are empowered to make a truly informed decision about whether or not they want to take part in a REDD+ project. It’s important to stress that the communities will make the decision, and that EcoLogic's role is that of a facilitator and mediator. Our aim is to inform communities about their options.

In the workshops, there was an overarching agenda that was open to change and adaptation depending on the needs of the individual communities. Generally speaking, the first day was devoted to providing introductory information to all community members about EcoLogic, climate change, and REDD+. At the end of the first day, 20 to 30 people were selected by the community to participate in the second part of the workshop, which was the community analysis of factors that impact the possibility of implementing REDD+.

Andrea Savage (center), EcoLogic’s Carbon+ program manager, meets with community members to assess their interest in the project.

Now that the first steps in the FPIC process have been taken, it will be exciting to see how the conversation with the communities continues to evolve and bring to light new information. The experience has been amazing and educational so far, and I'm excited to be learning about a new and still-evolving development tool under the mentorship of EcoLogic, an organization that is doing so much hard work to “do REDD+ right.”

- Anneliese Abney, CarbonPlus Community Engagement Intern
Anneliese works closely with EcoLogic’s CarbonPlus team on project execution and community involvement. She will be graduating from Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management in 2014.

Under the Weather in Upper Guatemala

¡Buenos días!

Every morning I wake up in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, to the blue mountains of the Cuchumatanes that rise more than 2 miles above sea level. This morning, the temperature in the city is around 5 ° C (40°F). Here, January is typically the coldest month of the year and yet I am travelling from Huehuetenango to the upper parts of the Cuchumatanes Mountains, where nighttime and early morning temperatures can dip even lower, often below freezing.

Passing through the towns of San Juan Ixcoy, Soloma, Santa Eulalia, and San Mateo Ixtatán along the way I pass through fog, heavy rain, and then a little drizzle. Eventually, I arrive at the city of Barillas where it is no drier. In fact, it rains here about 11 months out of the year.

A local villager is all smiles in the early morning fog.

The weather here in northern Guatemala is predictably unpredictable. Sometimes, on days without a cloud in the sky, I’ll  suddenly be in the middle of a heavy downpour. Other times, there will be sunshine day after day and only a light rain at night. It can make travel plans and deciding what to wear pretty difficult.

For example, one day I visited the Maxbal lagoon in Barillas and decided not to pack rubber boots. When it was time for us to hike – since we couldn’t go any further in our truck, I realized just how big a mistake that was. Trail conditions were a mess since it had rained heavily the night before, but I needed to continue on to the lagoon, and so I hiked. I fell more times than I care to admit, but I learned my lesson. Wherever, whenever, and no matter what, you should always bring rubber boots. 

Muddy conditions after a rainstorm.

Another time, last year, I was participating in a community training in the middle of the village of Xapper at a tin-roofed community meeting house. The day was beautiful and bright, and then, around noon, a shower came down so intensely we had to suspend the training since no one could hear anything over the relentless pounding of the rain on the roof! We had to wait nearly an hour until the rain had subsided enough to continue the training. 

A view from the village center, with a tin-roofed meeting house and expansive mountains in the distance.

The weather in this area is much more than just an unpredictable inconvenience, though. The land itself is very hilly and mountainous with large areas that have been completely deforested due to illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture. Without trees and vegetation the heavy rains wash away soil and frequent landslides occur that can destroy remaining trees, cause water contamination and harm people and buildings as well. Additionally, the landslides often spread across highways and streets, restricting reliable transportation access, emergency evacuation routes, and communication with rural communities.

From desert to jungle, from chilly to oppressive heat, Guatemala is a land of diverse climates, in part thanks to our expansive and majestic mountains. The climate is unpredictable, but the work EcoLogic does, and our commitments to communities and to conserving the land are consistent and unwavering. 

Daniel Herrera, Program Officer for Guatemala
Daniel first joined EcoLogic in 2010 as a field technician, and in 2012 became a Program Officer, overseeing all EcoLogic's projects in Guatemala and providing technical assistance to our local partners.

Green and Lean

Here at EcoLogic we have water projects, we have reforestation projects, we have carbon projects. But guess what? I’m going to go ahead and let you know that I have a favorite. That’s right. Out of all of our programs – agroforestry is my favorite.

Why? Glad you asked. It’s because I’m cheap. Wait, let me explain.

For starters, it’s because our agroforestry program tackles so many issues simultaneously – soil quality, forest cover, food security, and climate change. But the real reason that gets me is – and I’ll have to reveal a little secret – is that it just makes economic sense. And that’s extremely important if you want to get farmers to actually make changes to the status quo. The secret I mentioned is that I’m one of those environmentalists that’s into conservation primarily for economic reasons. Don’t get me wrong, I like animals, beautiful landscapes, and I understand the critical importance of healthy ecosystems in keeping us all healthy, but I really love it when doing something “green” also impacts my bottom line. For example, using less energy means paying a smaller bill. Riding your bike to work means not buying a monthly subway pass. I drive a car than runs on used vegetable oil for Pete’s sake! Yeah, my fuel is “green,” but it’s also free!

The left side of this farmer's plot is using agforestry – the other side is not.

When you add trees to farmland, you activate natural processes which help the corn and other food plants grow better. Adding the right type of trees in the right quantity and in the right places makes soil moister and more nutrient-rich. This ends up producing a more abundant crop. Bigger, healthier crops – just from adding trees! And no need to buy chemical fertilizers and herbicides. EcoLogic works with farmers so that they can test out alley-cropping – one type of agroforestry – on their own land. So many farmers in Central America understand that slash-and-burn agriculture – at least the widespread practice of it – is not only environmentally damaging, but also a poor way to get a decent crop harvest.

Jose Domingo Caal, an EcoLogic técnico, giving a maintenance demonstration of the Inga tree.

Agroforestry answers the timeless question of “what’s in it for me?” EcoLogic doesn't have to go to a farmer and say “Hey, the way you’re farming is bad for the environment, so stop.” No, my friend, we flip it. We say “Hey, we can help you adopt this farming technique that can make your corn bigger and healthier for less money and labor. Oh, and by the way, its way better for the environment, too.”

Yeah, I know that a full-on economic lens toward the environment is a slippery slope, and knowing that, I’m able to keep it in check. The thing is, at the end of the day, I love working for EcoLogic because we show people how conservation doesn't have to be a sacrifice. And it’s not people or the environment. It can be transformative, life-changing, and liberating. Our agroforestry program is a great example of how we do that.


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic
Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer writing grant proposals and project reports, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development.

Técnico speaking

Who are these guys, or gals as the case may be?

They are the links that turn EcoLogic agreements with partners and communities into reality. A “técnico” — field technician in English — is an EcoLogic team member that works most closely with the communities executing our projects.

Jose Domingo Caal, EcoLogic's Guatemala técnico in Honduras

When EcoLogic begins a relationship with a local partner based on the social and environmental needs of the area, two steps are critical: a community consultation and the development of a project design agreement. After the initial step of community consultation, this is when the técnico becomes the driver of the commitments. They are the team members who keep the momentum generated during the community consultations moving forward and lead partners in the day-to-day work of the project. They are the human face of this support and bear the EcoLogic "banner" in community interactions. They also relay the project’s needs, progress, successes and setbacks to EcoLogic staff and local partners.

Técnico Reina Cruz, on the left, talking to AJAASSPIB members in Honduras.

Besides working with the communities directly, the técnicos also draft the project profile, a tool that is incredibly important and used for data collection and evaluation by the EcoLogic team. It covers science, finance, mapping, and photography. The técnico has to know something about everything. 

From what I have seen, what really drives the técnicos is a strong sense of community support. This support is what makes it more than just a job to them. They leave much of their lives unscheduled in order to be flexible and best serve the needs of communities, whenever they may arise. They work nights, Sundays, holidays; they travel by motorcycle, car, boat, or on foot for hours on end no matter the rain or struggles. If there is something to do, they do it.

When I've been with them in the communities, I realize how much I can learn from them.

Thank you for reading and regards, wherever you are!

- Rodrigo Morales, Regional Project Officer for EcoLogic
Rodrigo is conservation biologist with particular expertise in protected areas monitoring and management. He works closely with EcoLogic country program officers identifying potential project sites and monitoring existing projects. Rodrigo works out of our Regional Office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  

'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. 

"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.