Projects
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Eduardo “Cheo” took on the role of locating owners of land on the eroded hillsides above Leonidas Plaza to enroll them in revegetation activities out of his dedication to ecological betterment of the Rio Chone Bioregion. A high school English teacher by profession, he has often aided other dry tropical forest restoration efforts and led or sent student volunteers. Cheo visited […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador The shredded comic strip atmosphere of Carnaval has infiltrated the city and holds us in a friendly but insistent grip like a grinning drunk. We aren’t always sure what to say because we aren’t sure of what we’ve really seen. The invasion began almost imperceptibly on Monday when I saw a man walking alone in the middle of the street with […]
Why Take on the Winter Olympics, and What Came of the Effort? Planet Drum Foundation has opposed the environmental impacts of the Winter Olympics since 1996. It was then that wildlife biologist Kimiharu To who was studying ptarmigan birds in the Hakuba Mountains of Nagano, Japan and working as a part-time ski guide and rice farmer contacted me for assistance in informing the local residents […]
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 […]
OLYMPICS; Greenest Games Ever? Not! Los Angeles TimesFebruary 3, 2002 Opinion; Part M; Page 1; Editorial Pages Desk It will cost nearly $2 billion to stage the Salt Lake City Olympics–almost $800,000 per athlete–with U.S. taxpayers picking up about a quarter of the tab. Partly due to increased security, the Utah Games, which start on Feb. 8 and continue for 17 days, will be the most […]
Bioregional Olympics: Roots of Action In 1998, the Director of Planet Drum Foundation and another member of the Bioregional Association of the Northern Americas trekked to Nagano, Japan and spent several exciting weeks working with Guard Fox Watch, a bioregional action group whose aim was to raise consciousness around the issue of the Olympics’ effect on the watersheds and environment where the Games took place. In […]
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 […]