Clay Plager-Unger is the former director of Planet Drum Foundation's Eco-Ecuador project.
Ten students participated in this year’s study abroad program, “Sustainable Development in Latin America.” The course ran from July 8th-August 5th, 2017 and was a collaboration between the University of Oregon, USA and Planet Drum Foundation’s Ecuador Program. The students explored issues related to sustainable development including the tensions, challenges, and possibilities for reconciling development and conservation in Ecuador. Accompanied by Professor Jesse Abrams, the […]
Planet Drum hosted a group of participants from the Sustainable Summer organization’s Ecuador: Seeds of Change program at its greenhouse for a revegetation workshop. The group of ecologically-minded young adults learned about bioregional practices and then got their hands dirty transplanting native fruit trees. Thanks for the visit!
During the rainy season, older trees at the greenhouse are distributed to local landowners for planting at revegetation sites. Meanwhile, the production of new trees continued with the planting of seedlings from the seasonal fruits that are abundant during the rainy season: Mango, Oranges, Mandarins, and Limes among others.
The rains continued falling… Planet Drum planted a new 2017 revegetation site at the Bosque Verde ecological reserve where it has been planting trees since 2005. Heather Crawford (Planet Drum Project Manager 2005-06) returned to visit Bahía and the projects. While here she got to plant trees at Bosque Verde, one of the areas where she worked twelve years ago! February 23rd marks the 18th anniversary of the […]
With the onset of the rainy season, the Dry Tropical Forest landscape turns from dusty brown to vibrant green. It also makes for excellent revegetation conditions. Planet Drum connected with local landowners to assist in grassroots tree-planting initiatives throughout the region. Planet Drum hopes to expand its revegetation work by creating more greenhouses at regional communities and schools. Plans for building a new greenhouse in […]
Work on the greenhouse infrastructure continued with the construction of a new shade structure. Seedbeds burst with the germination of Orange seedlings. And in late January, the rainy season really got going.
In November, volunteers and Orlando worked on improving the new greenhouse by cleaning up, arranging trees and supplies, preparing materials for mixing soil, and building new tools, such as a soil sifter. More soil was collected and sifted and was used as a substrate for transplanting seedlings to plastic bottles. There were also opportunities to work with local communities. Planet Drum was invited to a […]
Planet Drum’s new greenhouse location behind the Catholic University in Km. 8 is officially open and functioning now that we have a connection to the university’s water infrastructure. The greenhouse is now located at a safe and comfortable distance from University buildings which are undergoing simultaneous demolition and construction. All of the trees and nearly all of our supplies have been moved and are available […]
Although landslides caused by the April 16th, 2016 earthquake weren’t all that widespread, there were a few areas where they occurred. Slides along the road from San Vicente to Canoa covered the highway and crews are still cleaning up the damage.
In 2014, Planet Drum did a Dry Tropical Forest Revegetation workshop with the Los Algarrobos elementary school in Canoa. Recently we returned to the school to do another workshop. We arrived Friday morning with a truckload of native fruit trees (one for each student and faculty member and began showing them how to plant the trees. A total of 12 trees were planted at the […]