Posts

Bioregional Education Workshops

By Clay Plager-Unger / August 21, 2019 / 1 Comment

Bioregional education workshops at the Planet Drum greenhouse teach the importance of forest conservation and practical information about how to restore this threatened ecosystem. Participants engage in hands on activities related to tree production and revegetation. In recent months, Planet Drum hosted workshops at the greenhouse for school groups from Los Algarrobos School (Canoa) and […]

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Seed Collection

By Clay Plager-Unger / August 16, 2019 / 0 Comments

In July and August various seed collection expeditions have yielded seed bounties of native Dry Tropical Forest species. Pechiche seeds were collected off the ground in the El Toro watershed. Fresh Algarrobo seed pods were harvested in the Astillero neighborhood. And Ceibo seed pods were collected straight from a tree along the main road into […]

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Hillside Revegetation in El Astillero

By Clay Plager-Unger / August 16, 2019 / 0 Comments

Planet Drum maintains a satellite greenhouse operation and revegetation site in the Astillero neighbor just outside of downtown Bahía de Caráquez with cooperation from our longtime friend José María. The extremely steep and eroding revegetation site was planted with 75 trees in December, 2018 – January, 2019. Today we visited the site to monitor and water […]

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Youth Volunteerism

By Clay Plager-Unger / August 15, 2019 / 0 Comments

In recent months, there has been a noticeable increase in youth volunteering in the region. Many of them are involved in environmental work, often tree planting, which means that sooner or later they find out about Planet Drum’s revegetation project and want to participate. One group, Fuerza Equitativa Juvenil de San Vicente (Equitable Youth Force of San Vicente), […]

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Vía Segura Project

By Clay Plager-Unger / July 20, 2019 / 0 Comments

Planet Drum Foundation has been invited by the Sucre County Municipality to participate in an ambitious project to improve 32 kilometers of highway between Bahía de Caráquez and San Clemente, the closest town to the south. The project plans to improve the security, cellphone reception, emergency services, and the environment over the next four years […]

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Katowice (COP 24) 2018
Summary Report

By David Simpson and Jane Lapiner / July 16, 2019 / Comments Off on Katowice (COP 24) 2018
Summary Report

Summary ReportDecember 2018By David Simpson and Jane Lapiner Summary Report (COP 24): Katowice, Poland 2018 As the great 24th Conference of the Parties (COP) wound down in mid-December and a fleet of trucks began hauling the dismembered pieces of the of the event’s enormous structures back for storage in Lyon, France, 23,000 government and civil society […]

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Bahía Eco-Club Collaboration

By Clay Plager-Unger / July 10, 2019 / 1 Comment

There is a new ecological club in town, Bahía Eco-Club, which connects youth volunteers,  local students and international volunteers on environmental projects, such as tree-planting. Planet Drum has been assisting them with technical advice, volunteers, and trees. In cooperation with the Eloy Alfaro school in Bahía de Caráquez, they are implementing a new greenhouse operation […]

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I Am Looking at a Picture of Home

By Raymond Dasmann / June 25, 2019 / Comments Off on I Am Looking at a Picture of Home

Looking at the Okamura-Breedlove map, and speculating about the area that it represents, I am aware that I am looking at a picture of home. I’ve been over and around and across and through most of it at one time or another. It’s really a map of coyotes and billy owls, hawks circling in the […]

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The Green City As Thriving City: Implications for Local Economic Development

By David Morris / June 25, 2019 / Comments Off on The Green City As Thriving City: Implications for Local Economic Development

(From Raise the Stakes: The Planet Drum Review #13, Winter 1988) In discussing the greening of cities, one is reminded of the slogan that the French students used in 1968. On their posters they said “all that we want to change is everything,” which comes from that famous ecological dictum, “everything is connected to everything else.” When […]

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Photographers without Borders

By Clay Plager-Unger / June 14, 2019 / 0 Comments

Professional photographer Matt Timmins from Photographers without Borders joined Planet Drum’s Ecuador project in early June to document the work and provide photos and videos for promotional purposes. While Matt was here, he documented city life in Bahía de Caráquez. Together we visited the greenhouse at the Catholic University, taught bioregional education to neighborhood children […]

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