Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador A month late, the annual rainy season has begun with a drenching vengeance. It began lightly, just sparkling the night pavement shortly before I arrived in Guayaquil, and continued intermittently a few days later while waiting to pick up new volunteers Darcie Luce and Lisa Kundrat at the airport. On the six hour bus ride from there to Bahia we encountered […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador We closed the first community meeting to initiate the women’s compost/garden project in Fanca feeling as though it was the last hundred yards of a mile long race. Here’s a field spotter’s view of how the whole event developed and finished. Nicola Mears met with me to discuss being hired as a consultant for demonstrating, training, and assisting people in composting […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Coastal Ecuador seems to breed imaginative future scenarios. It could be the sheer biological richness of the country, mixed with hard-pressed economic necessity, but something definitely inspires a sense of starting over in new and different ways. People aren’t generally inhibited about having large visions. One Bahia friend enunciates new ideas as a constant aspect of our conversations. Here’s one that […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador The home for most life on our planet is in water. It is a soupy, form-shifting medium where food can be chased, nibbled, or just plucked as it floats by. Plants and animals that don’t actually live in water require it anyway. All plants need to absorb moisture. Terrestrial animals manage their days around water holes, ponds, lakes, creeks, and rivers. […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador August is the “gringo month” on the coast according to Patricio Tamariz, who believes it brings weather that resembles the Pacific Northwest. Days usually begin with gray clouds that can last into the night, but occasionally surrender to the radiator hot sun of the equator for a few hours in the afternoon. When this acquiescence occurs, there is a peculiar phenomenon […]
Three Dispatches are below from Japan, China and Mongolia(most photos by Judy Goldhaft, some by Peter Berg and some by Kimiharu To) Bioregionalism Finds Eager Audiences In Japan Planet Drum Foundation concluded a three week, five city tour of Japan on May 30th titled “Bioregionalism: Proactive Approaches to Sharing the Earth.” Peter Berg and Judy Goldhaft presented over a dozen talks, map-making workshops, and performances of […]
The Post-Environmentalist Directions of Bioregionalism a lecture by Peter Berg given at the University of Montana, Missoula, April 10, 2001. The central subject I’m going to be talking about is the biosphere, the thin skin of life that surrounds our planet. A very thin covering, like our own skin. And the question is: how do we biosphere? It sounds like a verb, doesn’t it? This […]
Por Amy Jewel (Assistente de Campo, Fundación Planet Drum) Municipalidad de Cantón Sucre (Versión Español) Antecedentes La recolección y destrucción de los desechos sólidos es un desafío que enfrentan todas las municipalidades. Mientras que el número de gente viviendo en las ciudades continua creciendo, la cantidad de basura generada también crece. Es necesario manejar toda esta basura responsablemente. Como muchas otras municipalidades, el Municipio del […]
By, Amy Jewel (Field Assistant at Planet Drum Foundation) Municipality of Canton Sucre [versión en español] Introduction The collection and disposal of solid waste is a challenge facing all municipalities. As the number of people living in the cities continues to grow, the amount of waste generated also grows. All of this waste needs to be handled in a responsible manner. Like many other municipalities, […]
Report #6 from Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador The “Ecological Plan for the Development of Canton Sucre (Bahia de Caraquez)” is finally finished! Last Thursday, February 15, six months after the first tentative draft was circulated to instigate a community process for its full development, a public meeting in City Hall solicited and added final comments and suggestions to complete the document. An openly invited group (that […]