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The Paradigm Shifted:
The Renaissance of the Rainforest
Article for ReSurgence
By Gunter Pauli
Member of the Club of Rome
Founder of ZERI
Summer 2005
When the Club of Rome visited Las Gaviotas in the Colombian
Orinoco in 1984, it was clear that Paolo Lugari had a great
dream. It was clear to all participants that Paolo was a
dreamer. Paolo, a young man who was home schooled by his father,
imagined that this desolate region where he spotted a seagull
far from any coast, could one day become an inspiration for
sustainable development. This region is hardly visited by anyone
has a population of less than one inhabitant per four square
kilometers. Long periods of extreme heat are followed by months
of daily torrential rains. This lead to the conclusion that the
reconversion of the savannah to the rainforest it once used to
be is more than a dream. Nearly all scientists described Paolo's
quest as a pipedream.
The Club of Rome, chaired by its founder Dr. Aurelio Peccei,
witnessed the planting of the first Caribbean pine trees back in
January 1984. This club of systems thinkers, Nobel laureates,
prominent international public officials and business executives
left inspired by the determination of the diverse group of
Gavioteros. They already had a proven track record of creativity
and innovation. This included locally designed and produced
renewable energy systems from a windmill (without a tail), a
seesaw which combines joy for kids with the pumping of water,
and a water pump with a moving jacket and a fixed piston which
is four times more efficient than the pumps with a moving piston
and a fixed jacket pipe.
The American author Alan Weisman, funded by the Ford Foundation,
and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation set out to
document Las Gaviotas in the early nineties. The book 'Las
Gaviotas' offered a mid-term romantic review of where Gaviotas
stood in 1995. It became a bestseller. Yes indeed, against all
odds the environmental research center Las Gaviotas had by then
succeeded in planting some 5,000 HA. Whereas the forestry
academia continued to claim that the rebirth of the rainforest
in a soil with a pH of 4 is impossible, no one could negate the
fact that the newly created forest stood tall and beautiful. To
everyone's surprise, the symbiosis between the pine tree and the
mycorrhizal fungus not only permitted the treelings to survive
the harsh conditions of the savannah, as soon as the young pine
offered shade, and the pH turned less acidic, a completely new
forest emerged.
The Colombian Orinoco has the vocation to be a tropical
rainforest, just like its Venezuelan alter ego on the other side
of the river that became so famous thanks to the music of Enya.
The geologists explain that the crash of the Nazca and Latin
American tectonic plates first created three mountain ranges in
Western Colombia. The subsequent volcanic eruptions and massive
erosion simply covered the part of the rainforest West of the
Orinoco River some 800,000 to 1 million years ago. All the
rivers, including the Amazon, which used to flood towards the
Pacific Ocean, were forced to find their way to the Atlantic. It
is no surprise that this dramatic reversal of hydro systems
caused biodiversity to explode. Nature embarked on a fantastic
path of adaptation and co-evolution exemplified by the 550,000
HA National Tuparo Park in Vichada, just outside Gaviotas. It is
claimed that there exists the largest biodiversity of birds in
the world.
The Vichada is void of industry, and agriculture is sparse.
However, the young forest creates conditions that permit the
natural tropical ecosystem to retake its natural course. The
planting of a monoculture, i.e. the Caribbean pine quickly
resulted in the arrival of over 250 tropical plant species. This
converted the hypothesis into a thesis: indeed this zone is a
natural rainforest waiting to re-emerge. The regenerative model
is very encouraging indeed. Each pine tree generously offers 7
grams of resin per day, which is locally processed into
colophon, a key ingredient for the paint and paper industry. The
planting of the trees, the tapping of resin and the industrial
processing brings value added and jobs to a part of the world
where the creation of jobs had never ever been heard of.
The power of the Las Gaviotas pilot project, which completed
8,000 HA in 1998, is that it rewrote the science of forestry. It
also redrafted the framework for social development. The Vichada
population suffers from gastro-intestinal diseases due to the
lack of adequate drinking water. Traditional solutions offer
antibiotics or the digging of a deep well. These options hardly
work in the Vichada for the simply reasons that there is no
electricity to keep the medicine cool, and whenever the pump
needs a spare part, the delivery could take months if not years.
Paolo Lugari realized that the regeneration of the rainforest
would bring additional benefits to the local population beyond
jobs and the regeneration of the humus cap, the thriving
undergrowth and the diverse forest, it also increased
precipitation.
The meteorological statistics confirm that the arrival of the
forest generates an additional 10 percent rainfall (an estimated
13.75 cubic meters of extra water per day). Thanks to the
healthy undergrowth with a higher pH and the excellent
filtration through the soil, this water is quickly becoming a
key ingredient in preventive health care and a revenue generator
for Las Gaviotas.
How often do we wonder about the financing of sustainable
development? Las Gaviotas planted trees, brought back
biodiversity, regenerated the rainforest, created jobs, fix
carbon dioxide while offering a permanent solution to the health
issues that had dominated the region for decades. Today the
local population has free access to drinking water. This is
considered a basic right at Las Gaviotas, and combined with the
regular exercise everyone gets since the only means of
transportation is the bicycle; the local population has now the
best health indexes in the country. The surplus water is sold in
Bogota competing with Evian and Fiji water.
Gaviotas never committed to publicize its achievements. On the
contrary, Paolo Lugari refuses to be considered a model for the
world, and claims that he has the right to be wrong and correct
himself as he learns new things every day. His genuine act of
modesty is a hard act to follow, but the systemic evolution he
and his 200 colleagues have brought about is an exceptional
inspiration. Actually it demonstrates that this initiative in
the middle of nowhere, where most consider that there is
nothing, and the future is bleak, actually offers us an insight
on how the paradigm has shifted towards true sustainable
development.
The shift that Gaviotas demonstrates is that it is impossible to
solve one problem with one solution. Gaviotas moved from a one
problem - one solution approach, to a system approach where all
problems are tackled at once, and all solutions jointly provide
more opportunities than ever imagined thanks to an autopoetic
process that seems unstoppable. How come we are so obsessed by
tackling one issue at the time, when the system solutions
require you to link numerous problems and provide flexible and
adaptive solutions that can evolve over time? This is so simple
and easy to understand once you had the chance to see Gaviotas
with your own eyes.
I was fortunate to be amongst the first to visit Las Gaviotas in
1984, and have accompanied the strides of Paolo Lugari for over
two decades. After twenty years I realized that time had come to
bring this pioneering example from its pilot phase of 8,000 HA
to a megaproject. Colombia is a nation where 52% of the
population lives in poverty, and where millions are refugees,
fleeing from the violence and the chemical warfare against
cocaine farming. The total agricultural land is a mere 4.1
million hectares. This business cannot absorb the millions
displaced families and the young population looking for the
chance to meet basic needs, a peaceful sustainable livelihood.
The whole Vichada has an estimated 6.3 million HA of land
similar to the ecosystem that Gaviotas reconverted to a
rainforest it once used to be. The available land is no one's
land, and excludes private farms, the thin forests along the
rivers, national parks and land reserved for the native
population. This piece of land is twice the size of Belgium, and
with the proof offered by Gaviotas it was not difficult to
convince HE Alvaro Uribe, the President of Colombia to reserve
this area for the largest sustainable development project ever
imagined. The realization of a dream formulated in 1984, now
gives rise to a new dream. Utopia becomes reality and creates a
new utopia.
Whereas the goal of the 'Renaissance of the Tropical Rainforest
in the Colombian Orinoco' is only reached in 20 to 25 years, the
first intermediate goals are not only set and legally secured,
the execution of the second phase of regenerating the rainforest
has already started. The short term plan foresees the expansion
of the present 8,000 HA of Las Gaviotas to 80,000 HA, and the
creation of a new 45,000 HA tropical rainforest development pole
in Marandua, about one hour to the East of Gaviotas. Whereas
Gaviotas can obtain land adjacent to its present site, the
availability of the area around Marandua is in itself a paradigm
shift. Indeed, the military obtained title to the land but
concluded that peace and development is only feasible if and
when this land generates income. Whereas task of the military is
well define, the absence of combat and the absence of human
rights violations is not yet a sustainable livelihood.
Therefore, it is key to recognize the leadership of the military
who are under contract committed to turn over the land to those
who live off the land sustainably. It is the first time in my
experience that the military command has been prepared to look
at peace and development in such a pro-active manner.
Under these conditions, slowly but steadily this initiative will
create self-sufficient settlements and perhaps even biocities.
The natural dynamics are surprising and the regenerative
capacities of the ecosystem now offer insights in the new
economics that will underpin this shift in paradigm. The
paradigm shift offers a financial and business logic that
surprises even the most hard-nosed economists.
Over and above the planting, tapping, processing of non-wood
products from the newly generated forest, Gaviotas recently
started bottling drinking water. The catalytic effect of
purchasing this water, versus any other kind of water is
impressive. Say a university or a large company were to buy
drinking water from Gaviotas at the rate of one cubic meter a
day, the equivalent of 2,000 half liter bottles. Then this
purchasing decision maintained over 25 years offers Gaviotas the
financing to regenerate 6,000 to 9,000 HA of rainforest1.
It is the first time that we realize that our purchasing power
indeed has power to shift the paradigm of development and bring
the rainforest back were it used to be. However, this is only
the very first step in a catalytic process that simply gets
better all the time. Finally we see autopoetic systems evolve
before our eyes.
If one plants 1,100 trees per HA, then after the sixth and
before the 10th year some 500 trees need to be removed in order
to let the tropical rainforest grow through in its full
biodiversity. The space so created permits the birds and the
bees, the wind and the dormant seeds to populate the enriched
soil that is now well protected from the heavy rainfall and the
harsh sunshine. The one cubic meter of water purchased overseas
and the subsequent renaissance of 6 to 9,000 HA of rainforest
now offers 3 to 400,000 tons of wood and wood pulp2.
Did you ever imagine that you could have wood pulp while
regenerating biodiversity and sequestering up to 18 tons of
carbon dioxide per hectare3 per year? This is
becoming a powerful case of autopoesis considering that this
process at first only aimed to tackle all social, economic and
environmental problems at once.
Gaviotas has now decided to include 100 palm trees amongst the
1,100 trees planted. Some 300 varieties of oil producing palm
trees thrive in the Amazon forest. After at least 36 months
these palm trees could generate a vegetable oil, which can be
pressed and used crude as biodiesel. The one cubic meter of
drinking water purchased is now generating 3 to 4.5 million
liters of biodiesel4 making the whole region
independent of petroleum while generating one permanent direct
job per 40 hectares. Drinking one cubic meter from Gaviotas each
day thus generates 150 to 225 permanent jobs forever!
The work force is well paid, and the health services are free.
Actually housing, food, electricity and water are all free. It
is no surprise that over the past 21 years this region has been
free of combat, free of kidnappings and that no one has
denounced anyone for human rights violations. Whereas nearly the
whole country is colored red as a symbol of insecurity, this
green spot in this seemingly desolate region is perhaps the
safest on Earth. The concept of development, the re-emergence of
peace, and the thriving path of co-evolution towards a tropical
rainforest with peaceful self-sufficient settlements is indeed a
surprise for a country that is all too often only known for its
violence, corruption and human rights violations.
If we take a peak into the year 2030 when this project -as
imagined today- is coming to its full fruition, then we could
imagine a population of 5 to 10 million, self-sufficient in
water, food, health care, housing, energy and of course
generously sharing its learning processes. There will be many of
jobs, and the land known for its poverty will be the land of
abundance, especially when it comes to water, the spring of life
and the symbol of peace. Since it was possible to create a
sustainable livelihood out of nothing for a community of 2,000,
why not imagine multiple centers throughout the Colombian
Orinoco, each zone adapting to the unique characteristics that
the tropics bring to the world.
The key question is IF the transformation from a pilot to a mega
project is feasible. Paolo Lugari and myself are convinced that
there is no other way than to wholeheartedly go for it. In the
end, maturity in life is only achieved when we realize our
dreams & and if you have no dreams then you must be asleep!
About the author: Gunter Pauli has visited Gaviotas dozens
of times over the past decades. He has been inspired by this
prime case of sustainable development, and the remarkable
paradigm shift that has been implemented. Trained as an
economist, leading an international network of scientists and
vigorous operators who are keen to make things happen, he has
taken the responsibility to finance the 'Renaissance of the
Tropical Rainforest in the Colombian Orinoco' through a fund
managed by the United Nations Development Programme. The Fund
was launched in 2005 in Japan, Europe and North America.
1 2,000 half liter bottles x 365 days x 25 years x
0.33 cents = US$ 6,022,500 and the cost of regenerating the
rainforest starting with Caribbean Pine is US$ 1,000 per HA.
Thus the purchase of water permits the funding of approximately
6,000 HA. If on the other hand the client would purchase 4,000
quarter liter bottles of water with arazai fruit rich in Vitamin
C, then it would fund more than 9,000 HA of rainforest since
4,000 250 mil bottles x 365 days x 25 years x 0.25 cents= US$
9,1250,000.
2 500 trees provide each 50 kg of wood for a total of
25 tons per HA multiplied by 6,000 and 9,000 HA offers a total
of 150,000 to 225,000 tons of wood for pulping and paper.
3 The carbon fixing is considerably higher than what
is traditionally expected from a pine forest since we have three
mutually reinforcing fixing agents: the regeneration of the top
soil, the growth of a lush undergrowth, and the arrival of
multiple fast growing tree species.
4 One tree generates some 50 liters of oil, or 500
liters per HA, over 6,000 HA are these 3 million liters, over
9,000 are this 4.5 million liters (or one million gallons).
For more information, visit our
case study page for this project.
Contact ZERI: info@zeri.org
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