About Revegetation

I presented the Mandato (See Attachment Below) prioritizing changes to make a better eco-city at the first Eco-Amigos meeting of 2008.  The meeting appears to have been a bit of a rebirth.  At the session we elected a Coordinator and Vice-Coordinator, Ronald and Cheo respectively.  I want to add an official post for a kid to get in there as well.  There’s a lot of representation from kids in the group, it’s great.  There has also been a real opening up on Ronald’s part.  He now shares a lot more information about what is going on and there’s more access to the municipio.  And there are lots of new opportunities opening up for projects and events, especially for the kids.  I feel there is a lot more transparency with the Environment department now, for example with funding and funding opportunities Anyways, the presentation went over well, Ronald and the old representative of PMRC (who’s head is really in the right place) were both present and got copies of the Mandato.  Right now I’m looking for more opportunities to pass the word out.  The next edition of Eco-noticias would be a great idea.  I’ll see how I can edit a bit to get it to fit better, it’s a little long right now for Eco-noticias.

About Eco-noticias.  One of the current volunteers offered to get involved and I sent him out to Saiananda to do an interview about the organic jams they are making (using a lot of local varieties of fruit).  So that’s another article for the next edition.  In bigger news, it appears we will have a chance to get some funding for the project from Canton Sucre (money allocated for Bahia, but from a Canton level?).  Their meeting was supposed to be this past Wednesday but got rescheduled to next Wednesday.  I’ve attached my proposal.  It’s in Spanish, but you’ll get the idea.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for changes since there’s still time to put them in.

About Revegetation 2008.  I’ve also included the Excel document I’m using to keep track of species inventory during the planting season (See Below).  It shows the sites we have and also includes a breakdown by species of the numbers we have at the greenhouse and how many go to each site.  There are different ‘sheets’ for each site, there are only 5 sheets right now (for the sites we’ve been working at so far).  It’s a work in progress as we get trees in the ground.  You’ll notice I still need to pin down a site for Jorge Lomas.

I had a mini-adventure this morning. There was a meeting with Don Eduardo, director of El Nuevo Globo newspaper, to go to his land and talk with some of the members of the community about land usage and some problems we’ve had with them planting crops in our sites.  Cheo came along for the ride and we happened to run into Don Eduardo at the entrance to the watershed. It was raining and he and his driver were wondering if they’d be able to drive in or not.  He cracked a joke about how Cheo and I were both in sandals.  We were able to drive in and then found the woman who previously claimed that we needed to have an ordinance to be able to build the fence we constructed for the ‘Nuevo Globo’ 2008 revegetation site, as well as the fellow who just planted corn for the second year in a row amidst the young trees at the Maria Dolores site (2007).  Fortunately none of the trees were harmed. Eduardo laid it out for the residents explaining that it was his land they were using (and claiming to have governance over) and that they had been using it without asking him permission.  The entire neighborhood there is constructed on his land and was a donation to the people.  There had been previous problems with some residents abusing his generosity.  We are meeting again next week to determine how to handle the issue of the baby corn that has been planted at the Maria Dolores site, but there shouldn’t be any more conflicts in the future.  It was one of those times where things come together and several problems get resolved at once.  Also it was amazing to see Don Eduardo’s deep passion for the projects we are doing on his land.

It’s been raining for the past 3 days, a nice steady rain.  Perfect.

Clay

 Attachment:

 Perfil de Proyecto

Ecuador

22 de enero del 2008

Titulo del Proyecto:        Eco-Noticias, la difusión de noticias sobre Bahía Eco-Ciudad, los proyectos que existen dentro de allí y el medio ambiente

Solicitante:        Amigos de la Eco-ciudad

Organismo Ejecutor: Amigos de la Eco-ciudad y la Fundación Planet Drum

Beneficiarios:        Población de Bahía de Caráquez

Monto Total:        US$ 800 (2 años)  

I.  Marco de Referencia

Como Bahía de Caráquez es una Eco-ciudad es importante que la ciudadanía este informada de las actividades que se realizan, el municipio, los amigos de la eco-ciudad, las fundaciones y organizaciones a temas relacionados al medio ambiente.  En este proyecto habrán ocho publicaciones de los informes ‘Eco-Noticias’ durante dos años.

II.  Objetivos y Descripción

Objetivo general

Informar al público los eventos, actividades, y proyectos que se están realizando en la ciudad.

Objetivos específicos

1. Investigación de todas las noticias que tienen que ver con el medio ambiente y Bahía de Caráquez.
2. La publicidad de más que mil copias de un informe, una hoja de dos lados, cuatro veces al año por dos años.
3. Concienciar a los estudiantes, habitantes, y oficiales de la ciudad del trabajo que se están realizando el municipio, los amigos de la eco-ciudad, las fundaciones y organizaciones.

Costos (US$ dólares)

III.  Beneficios y Riesgos

Apoyaremos los habitantes de la ciudad con la difusión de las noticias que contribuyen al mejoramiento del medio ambiente en la ciudad de Bahía de Caráquez.  

Species Inventory Sheets:

Number 1:

Number 2: 

Number 3:

Number 4:

Number 5:

Number 6: