My contribution to reducing GHG…

Dumping 1116 liters of pig manure per week into your local water source tends to become a problem, especially when you add land degradation and heavy chemical use. This is the case of the town of Jaris de Mora, a rural community in the highlands of Costa Rica.

Last Wednesday I was at the official event announcing a strategy to reduce water pollution and land degradation, and provide alternative means for production. For over a month I have joined a group of people working to find a local strategy to solve this problem without sacrificing local livelihoods. This has been a joined effort of the Ministry of Agriculture, the United Nations Development Programme, the Global Environmental Facility SGP, and the UN University for Peace.

What are we doing?

We will be implementing biodigesters to capture all the manure going to the rivers. The biodigesters will capture the methane for cooking and for heating and produce organic fertilizer to be used in sugar cane production. The town has been slowly switching their production methods to export organic sugar cane, and fertilizer created in the community will allow to reduce production cost. Also, the biodigesters will, hopefully, allow women to save time by not having to go out looking for wood for cooking and reduce the health problems related to indoor air pollution.

What I have been doing…

In order to mainstream this type of efforts, the GEF needs clear indicators of the gains of this type projects. For the last month I have been compiling information to create baselines to measure the success of the project in a year. Thus, I have spent a significant amount of time measuring gas emissions and inspecting pig farms. I have developed simple indicators to measure water use, gas emissions, energy use, methane production, and improvements in infrastructure.

I swear it is more fun than it sounds… Fun times!

I am also working on a different project not too far from Jaris, which aims at protecting the local watershed with community efforts. More to come soon…

The Lora snake strikes back

This past weekend I had the the opportunity to visit Manuel Antonio National Park with some wonderful friends. Manuel Antonio is located on the Costa Rican Pacific Coast, and it contains a breathtaking combination of tropical forest, beaches and coral reefs. White sand beaches are backed by exotic rain forest that grows right up to the high tide line, and it is inhabited by awkwardly friendly fauna. For example, the Lora Snake (Leptophis depressirostris)...

The Lora snake strikes back

I thought it was the apocalypses. It was a peaceful Saturday morning, we were crossing the rain forest taking only pictures and leaving only footprints -except for the occasional tree bark bite (yes David, corteza!)-. All of the sudden, a weird noise came from sky. Branches breaking, leaves falling, and a hasty commotion on the tropical floor less than 12 feet from us. What´s it? It is snake. A Lora snake, one of the most poisonous snakes of the Costa Rican rain forest.
Yes, right there. The adrenaline rush made us hectically approach the snake with video cameras and with other devices to assure that the discovery was real (yes, Japanese style). Amusement.. nervous laughter...bewilderment at the idea that we could have worn the green beauty as a deadly collar.

A few seconds later...

Wait? what is that new noise? It is a cat.. no, it is a bird.. NO, it is a another Lora snake falling 4 feet from us, and less than 10 feet from the other one. The enchanting noises of the rain forest were suddenly mixed with louds puta madre, hijueputa, joder, and other nuisances proclaiming our dispathy to the rain forest. Snakes falling over us. We ought to run!Soon we realized that the snake was eating a frog, and the struggle made the snake impact against the floor from its comfortable branch 60 feet above us. The scene was of National Geographic profile, and we stayed around for a few minutes!
Enough is enough, time to leave the trail.

Later we realized that we had actually seeing a fake Lora snake, a non-poisonous one. I like to think, however, that it was a real one . Also, I am truthfully happy that the apocalypses calls for frogs raining from the sky, and not fake Lora snakes.

Manuel Antonio is buckets of fun, and the local fauna is worth the trip... except for the more-or-less poisonous snakes that approach girls on the dance floor to ditty jingles of reggaton - a mix of Panamanian reggae with chants from hell, and Sodom and Gomorrah. See more photos...

Climate Change Threat to Pacific Ocean Mangroves

Coping Strategies for Coastal Zone Managers Outlined in New UNEP-Backed Report

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today studies indicating that some islands in the region could see over half of the mangroves steadily lost by the end of the century, with the worst hit being American Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
Action is needed to conserve mangroves in the Pacific amid concern that rising sea levels, linked with climate change, are set to drown large areas of these precious and economically important ecosystems.


The study, which has assessed the vulnerability of the 16 Pacific Island countries and territories that have native mangroves, finds that overall as much as 13 per cent of the mangrove area may be lost. It makes a series of recommendations to coastal planners. These include several adaptation tools, such reducing pollution from land-based sources in order to make existing mangroves more healthy and resilient, alongside restoring lost or degraded mangroves wetlands.

Setting back coastal infrastructure and development to allow mangroves to spread inland may also be possible along some sections of Pacific island coastlines, says the report.
Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director, said: “Industrialized nations must meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, the international emission-reduction treaty, as a first step to the even deeper cuts needed to stabilize the atmosphere”.
“There are many compelling reasons for fighting climate change–the threats to mangroves in the Pacific, and by inference across other low lying parts of the tropics, underline yet another reason to act” he added.
“But there is also an urgent need to help vulnerable communities adapt to the sea level rise which is already underway. This report provides sensible and sound advice on management regimes needed to boost the health and resilience of coastal zones and coastal ecosystems like mangroves in the face of current and future threats,” said Mr Steiner.
The new report, “Pacific Island Mangroves in a Changing Climate and Rising Seas”, has been compiled by the Regional Seas Programme of UNEP, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) based in Apia, Samoa, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council in Honolulu, United States, and well over a dozen additional agencies and organizations from the Pacific Islands region.
They underline that, in common with other terrestrial and marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangroves provide an array of valuable goods and services upon which local people and industries like tourism depend.The true economic value of ecosystems like mangroves is now starting to emerge as a result of landmark reports such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the work of some 1,300 scientists and experts.
According to some estimates, the goods and services generated by mangroves may be worth an average of $900,000 per square kilometer, depending on their location and uses. Roughly half the world’s mangrove area has been lost since 1900 as a result of clearances for developments like shrimp farms. 35 per cent of this loss has occurred in the past two decades.

A round trip to the mountains

yesterday Paula and myself traveled all the way to the heart of Mora County for a meeting with a local development association to find out that the meeting was cancelled. Here is our rant after traveling under the rain for 4 hrs ...

A new way to solve problems

Ok, this is really funny. Something less serious for this blog.





credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js0vOgjBfD8

Blockade of Power Plant in SW Virginia

This post is from my good friend Liz Veazey from the Southern Energy Network. I am taking her blog from Itsgettinghotinhere.org

Mountain Justice Media press release.
July 10, 2006, Carbo, Virginia - Early this morning, activists with Earth First! and Rising Tide North America set up a non-violent blockade of American Electric Power’s (AEP) nearly 50 year old Clinch River coal fired electric facility. Emitting millions of pounds of pollutants yearly, the Clinch River coal plant threatens the health and lives of thousands of downwind residents and the surrounding environment. Burning coal is not only a primary factor behind global climate change, but also drives the expansion of large scale strip mining. Large scale surface mining destroys forests, streams and communities as it alters the Appalachian landscape forever.
Over 50 activists arrived at AEP’s Clinch River plant at 9:00 this morning. An Earth First!er attached a rope to the bridge and stretched it across the road while another suspended himself below the bridge over the Clinch River. One activist locked himself to the axle of the coal truck.
Earth First! and Rising Tide demand the following:
1. Shut down the Clinch River facility and all aging, dirty coal burning power plants.
2. An immediate halt to mountaintop removal and other destructive forms of strip mining. 3. A nationwide response to the reality of global climate change marked by a move away from fossil fuels, transition towards cleaner sources of energy and vigorous promotion of electricity conservation.

“The Clinch River facility is a symbol of all that is wrong with King Coal. Dirty air, ravaged landscapes and global climate disruption are the legacies of a corrupt, inefficient and destructive industry that kills with impunity” said Patrick Garnett of Lexington, Kentucky.
“The coal industry and its government puppets are ignoring widespread public concern over large scale strip mining, air pollution and global climate change” said Erin Mckelvy of Blacksburg, Virginia. “Concerned citizens are forced to take direct action to call attention to the devastation caused by the irresponsible mining and burning of coal” she added.
The Clinch River coal burner releases 4.25 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the air annually, contributing to an unpredictable change in the global climate. Particulate pollution from burning coal has been proven to worsen asthma for residents across the nation. Mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia has destroyed over 800 square miles of the most biologically diverse temperate forest in the world. Over 1200 miles of streams have been buried by valley fills and mining waste.

“I was born here in southwestern Virginia. The mountains here are part of my soul. They are sacred to me, and also to God” said Ernest Wayne Cantrell of Clintwood, Virginia. “I fight back because I can’t continue to watch the world’s oldest mountains be leveled forever” he continued.

Earth First! is an international environmental action movement focusing on protecting wild nature. Rising Tide North America is part of an international network focusing on the root causes of global climate change.

More information available at www.mountainjusticemedia.org/test.php and www.katuahearthfirst.org,
Contact: Mountain Media Center - Claire Jones - 828-277-8729 or E-mail
mtrmedia [at] gmail.com

Context Matters

It has been more than a month since I arrived to Costa Rica, and I have miserably failed to maintain track of my own work. I shall attempt to recollect some thoughts of the last two weeks working with the rural development projects with the UN University for Peace and the Global Environmental Facility, operated by the United Nations Development Program.

As my friend Tiffany Elnston said once, “context matters”. The people of Mora consider themselves a forgotten county; Mora isn’t part in the eco-tourism boom blessing most of the country, or being placed in the map of the high-tech industry revolutionizing the country’s economy. But survival is compulsory, and agriculture and food industry are some of the main activities employing the 21 800 inhabitants of the region. The industry, however, is being driven into extinction by food commodities imported from the United States. These imports (corns, cereals, soy, sorghum, etc) are subsidized by the US government and introduced to the market at virtually unbeatable prices. In addition, the Costa Rican government is about to sign the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, which will make importing food commodities –amongst others- even easier. The people of Mora are fully aware of their opportunities and threats, and they know they need to act otherwise they will pushed to the cities to work as unskilled workers – feeding the country and living in the countryside is considered barbarian in a world striving to become an homogenous mega urban slum.

So, what am I doing? Before I start my rant, I shall clarify that I am not been deceived to believe that we are going to bring magical solutions. I am working with the 6 communities in the county of Mora: Picagres, Piedras Negras, Jaris, Tabarcia, Llano Grande, and El Rodeo. We are collaborating with the local grassroots development associations to create a strategy to cope with the unavoidable change facing the county. We are organizing community gatherings to facilitate the cognitive process of creating solutions to the threats identified by the community members. From that collaborative process we will draft a strategic plan for each community that will address the environmental and socioeconomic problems and propose solutions conceived by the community as they envision their lifes 10 years ahead. We are trying to connect the GEF operative programs to the strategic plans to carry out the goals of community orchestrated with the goals for the GEF. There are many ideas already proposed by different community members, but it is know a matter of finding a common ground that reflects the common interest of the communities…. It is a matter now of redefining progress.


I am working with group 9 people in the projects, four Spanish, two Americans, one Canadian, one German, and one Chilean. We have a very diverse range of expertise, from anthropologist to environmental engineers in the group, and that has allowed us to use Rapid Rural Assessments techniques to collect information. In addition, we have the support from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment and Energy, and a few local NGOs. There will be a lot more to share as the time goes on, as for now, I want to listen to the voices buried under the development paradigm.