When we started the planting project in Maria Auxiliadora, it was clear that this could be a testing ground for ideas about recovering eroded land with major potential locally if not throughout coastal Ecuador. Here are some of the factors that make work on only a few hectares of earth so significant. To start with, it consists of either denuded small cliffs or piled up […]

Each trip to Bahia de Caraquez starts with ideas about what will happen that become transformed in profound ways before the visit is over. Two mutations in plans have occurred so far this time. Our revegetation project has morphed into a proposed city park, and what began as a tentative outline for an overall ecological city plan has become an action document. Vicente Leon of […]

Bahia de Caraquez is a small city but its regional importance magnifies its size. How small depends on the particular perspective that a question might require. How many people? Twelve thousand or three times that depending on who is answering and why the number is important. (World Watch Institute uses 25,000 population as the standard for defining a city, so Bahia qualifies at the high […]

September has been overcast nearly every day since we arrived nearly two weeks ago. Some locals have taken to wearing sweaters and jackets and making mock shivers when the say ‘Esta frio (It’s cold)!” But most continue to wear T-shirts as Judy and I do who feel that it’s pretty reasonable weather for San Franciscans. It reminds me of the opposite sweating and immobilized reaction […]

I. Introduction — The need and purpose of a plan to create an ecological city. A) Need 1. Ecological City Declaration 2. Understanding, coordination and participation with all ecological endeavors a. Projects and activities — government and private b. Public participation — consult and assist in developing various activities and projects. Public information — government, schools, media, visitors, etc. B) Purpose 1. Guide activities toward […]

Bahia de Caraquez has already lost its earthquake-struck look. Some prominent buildings of several stories that retained cracks and holes where cement was lost in 1998 have been patched or otherwise restored, and the absence of those particularly eye-gouging open wounds has an uplifting effect.. The people have a similar forward looking attitude. It’s an accepted fact that the economy is pathetically unstable, and in […]