Eco-City Declaration First Anniversary Celebration

By Carey Knecht (Planet Drum Foundation field staff person overseeing revegetation project)

I joined up with Planet Drum and the Eco-Bahia project because I was deeply inspired by the task of integrating nature and a city. That is a task that requires not only reforesting one hillside, but actually changing culture. Sometimes I wonder how these projects relate. Sometimes I feel like the only nature I’m bringing into the city is in the mud on my boots. But sometimes the parallels jump out at me. 

This past weekend, I participated in events that brought the reforestation work down from the hill, into downtown Bahia, in a festive, concrete way. This past weekend was the celebration of the One Year Anniversary of Bahia’s Ecocity Declaration. The events of the weekend started with a parade through the town. The children in the Clubs Ecologicos marched in lines, holding signs with environmental messages. “Queens” decorated in skirts of leaves and flower necklaces rode on triciclos festooned with palm leaves. This river of young life and vegetation flowed through the streets of Bahia for two hours. 

After the parade, the Fiesta Verde began in an open park on the beach front: theatrical acts and clowns; music including Latin rock, merengue, cumbia, and even The Police; the singing of Anja Light. The music, the party attracted a large group of onlookers — bringing ecology to the people. 

The next day, nature came again to downtown Bahia. The patio under the Municipio (city hall) was filled with seedlings, demonstrations, and posters — an exposition of many ecological projects in Bahia. Enthusiasts brought tubs filled with mud and worms, samples of every seedling we’re planting in the project and many more, a formidable (meter high) chunk of Paja Macho grass. Next to the composting-worm folks, we set up a display with posters showing where we’re located, happy to finally be able to thoroughly explain what we’re planting and where. 

At the same time, inside the building, experts gave speeches on the wildlife of the region and the environmental law in Ecuador. Although the large venue left many seats open, I was surprised at the number of adults interested in listening to semi-technical information in the middle of a Saturday. Still, to me, more telling than the number of adults scattered throughout the back of the theater, were the children, who filled the two front rows. 

To finish off the weekend, Sunday and Monday were work days — short projects like trying to create a healthy home for Miguelito la Tortuga — a tortoise from the Galapagos Islands — and ceremonially planting mangrove trees for the Dia de Mangles. 

After the weekend, back to the hillside, to plant again. To dig a hole, put the clump of grass in, cover it up, wish it well. (To do this on a 75-degree slope of loose dirt clumps or, even worse, wet clay.) After three days of rain, I returned to a whole section of grass that had seemed completely dead. Out of every brown dried-up clump of grass, every one, was one small green blade of grass — a new sprout. 

This week, in two days we planted 924 seedlings — 500 frutillo and 424 guayacan — and three-and-a-half pickup truck loads of grass. Now, after three cool days of alternating rain and sun, when I walk on the hill, the ground no longer looks barren — I no longer envision it washing away. I imagine the sprouting stakes and the lines of grass merging into a forest. 

Last weekend, in two days, the Eco-Bahia Celebration planted many more than 924 seedlings. Now, when I walk through town, it no longer looks barren — I no longer imagine the concrete winning. I remember the parading children, the dancing crowd. I imagine the seeds of thought they planted in the minds of the onlookers, blossoming into a town where nature is welcomed.