The Earth Lab’s Community-First Approach – A Conservation Conference Recap

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What is a community-first approach to environmental action? What are the challenges and considerations of partnering with local communities? How can diversity, equity and inclusion be incorporated into these approaches?

These are the questions that Jorge Calderón Trueba and Jorge Calderón Álvarez answered during their Breakfast Briefing session on Day Two of the 2022 WHC Conservation Conference. They’re a father-and-son team — Trueba is the Founder and CEO of The Earth Lab, and Álvarez serves as International Liaison.

Based in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, The Earth Lab (TEL) provides tools and guidance on how to create sustainable projects with a goal of helping their clients reach carbon neutral while advancing business goals. Much of TEL’s focus during this session was on their work with ejidos, or state-owned lands that are used communally for agriculture, in Yucatán, Mexico. Support from Ban.CO2 de Carbono Mestizo (BCO2M) and TEL makes it possible for ejidos to sell carbon credits, and through a collaboration with WHC, TEL has gone even further to add biodiversity uplift efforts to these projects. This made for a natural fit to have WHC’s Sara Cook, Director of Business Development, serve as moderator of this session.

Trueba began the session by defining community, a helpful start in understanding how businesses can interface with the broader community. While the more formal definition of community is “an aggregate of people who share common interests in a particular locality,” Trueba used ejidos as an example to illustrate other elements shared by communities, including land ownership, spiritual beliefs, symbiotic relationships with the environment, daily work and income and federal and local laws.

Working directly with communities is not always easy — often, it can present challenges. Trueba explained that communicating effectively, building confidence, practicing empathy and having a constant presence can be some of the obstacles that come along with community-first approaches.

Of particular importance, he noted, is taking care to preserve the communities you’re working with and within. Each community has their own traditional knowledge and values, social structures, heritage, culinary traditions, folklore and craftmanship – all developed and honed over generations. Community participation, then, is key to ensuring that environmental actions will benefit the community rather than disrupt it.

One of TEL’s signature methodologies is the use of Earth Charrettes, which are intensive workshops that include multidisciplinary audience members. These charrettes involve community members in the decision-making process, recognizing their immediate needs and taking local values and interests into account to ultimately make sure the community’s vision for a solution is realized.

Building trust with community members is one of TEL’s top pieces of advice. “Through trust, we can create in them a sense of belonging to their projects and vice versa,” said Álvarez. “This is a key component for their sustainable existence.”

While their community-first actions with ejidos focused on carbon credits, TEL has gone beyond carbon sequestration to provide biodiversity uplift as well. The Ejido Sisal site, which was WHC-Certified earlier this year, provides several great examples of conservation, education and management of natural resources. Located in the Hunucmá Municipality, Ejido Sisal is home to the “Bonos del Jaguar” carbon capture project. This project’s goal is to mitigate climate change by sequestering CO₂, recovering mangroves, protecting jaguars and educating the community about these efforts.

“The Earth Lab Mexico brings vital perspective and expertise to WHC members working in Mexico and Latin America,” said Sara Cook, WHC Director of Business Development. “The model of engagement used by TEL provides many social and environmental benefits, including providing resources and technical expertise to partner ejido communities and preserving cultural heritage and value alongside biodiversity and environmental value.”

“We hope we conveyed to our audience that communities and their participation are a fundamental part of our nature-based solutions (NbS) projects,” Álvarez said,  “because only by achieving a joint effort can these projects turn out and remain sustainable.”

 

TEL offers third-party certification as well as expertise in cities, geo-forestry, corporate/industrial areas, green finance management and even social development and gender equality. To learn more about TEL, visit , follow them on Twitter @TheEarthLabMx, and connect with Jorge Calderón Trueba and Jorge Calderón Álvarez on LinkedIn.

Restoring Eden in our Communities with Edible Forests – A Conservation Conference Recap

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On June 14-15, WHC welcomed over 400 attendees to our first in-person WHC Conservation Conference since 2019, and our first-ever conference held in Detroit, Michigan. During these two days, sustainability and conservation professionals shared their expertise on topics ranging from climate resiliency and remediation to environmental education and stakeholder engagement.

Naim Edwards kicked off the Conference with a session at the start of Day One. Edwards serves as the Director of MSU-Detroit Partnership for Food Learning and Innovation (DPFLI), Detroit’s first urban agriculture research center.

Edwards opened his session with the example of Zaruma, El Oro in Ecuador, where local fruits grow along the streets and in parks. In particular, Edwards noted that fruit is always freely accessible and affordable to buy at the market, tying this into the concept of food sovereignty. Food sovereignty, Edwards explains, is “the power to determine how food is grown and accessed.” He remarked that, even despite poverty in Zaruma, food sovereignty means that locals can still access and afford food.

Looking back to the U.S., Edwards recognized a separation between communities and food production. “A part of the issue historically with agriculture is throughout the 20th century, it became very industrial,” Edwards said in a video about the DPFLI, “and that played a role in separating people from even knowing how food grows and where it comes from.”

This separation is not only metaphorical, but physical as well. About 19 million Americans live in a food desert, where lack of access to a car or nearby supermarket cuts them off from healthy and affordable food. On this subject, Edwards suggested a change in language use — rather than the term “food desert,” which can give a negative connotation to deserts and ignores the fact that many foods thrive in deserts, Edwards recommends using the phrase “food apartheid.” This shift helps place a focus on the discriminatory policies and structures that have historically kept marginalized populations from accessing healthy food.

With food insecurity a growing problem worldwide, Edwards turned to the solution of growing food in our own neighborhoods. He focused specifically on Michigan, which, he explained, is the second most agriculturally diverse state in the country. Michigan’s climate and soil create an ideal environment for fruits such as apples, pears, berries and even figs as well as nuts like almonds, pecans and hazelnuts – all components of a healthy diet. Edwards also shared about foods that are typically difficult to find in stores, such as pawpaws, which makes the ability to grow them at home even more valuable.

So how can food sovereignty address the issue of food apartheid?

Edwards suggests the answer lies in edible communities. Edible forests, like the Fargo Forest Garden in Portland, Oregon or the Cascadia College Food Forest in Bothell, Washington, provide crops, typically fruit and nut trees, that community members are encouraged to pick. These forests are designed to grow without the use of pesticides or maintenance like mowing or weeding.

The benefits of edible forests and communities are far-reaching – not only do they provide bountiful food for local residents, but they also help reduce poverty by creating jobs. Ecologically speaking, edible forests have a wide range of positive impacts, from sequestering carbon and managing stormwater runoff to regulating the climate and enhancing biodiversity.

When starting an initiative like an edible forest that requires involvement of the community, Edwards recommends taking into account the knowledge of community members. “Often times,” he says, “we may enter spaces with the intention of teaching and ‘showing’ people a way. We may not recognize that they already know and have ways and solutions to conservation problems.” Sharing knowledge and developing community-driven solutions helps build strong relationships between conservation professionals and the local community.

“I felt the session was well received by the audience,” said Edwards when asked about Conference attendees’ reactions to the ideas he presented. “I hope the audience realized how intentionally most Americans have been systematically removed from experiencing how food is cultivated, and I hope they learned about fruits and nuts that are typically unavailable for purchase in stores.” As he showed in this session, edible forestry is one agricultural strategy rooted in food sovereignty that can restore our connections to nature and food while protecting the environment.

 

Naim Edwards earned his master’s degree in science from the University of Michigan before moving to Detroit, where he now works to connect the urban agricultural community with research opportunities. The goal of the DPFLI is to conduct urban agriculture research while engaging with the people of Detroit by providing programs, mentorship, outdoor recreation and more. Follow the MSU Extension on Twitter and connect with Naim Edwards on LinkedIn. To learn more about the DPFLI, visit https://www.canr.msu.edu/detroitpartnership/

5 Creative Ways to Reuse Invasive Species

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You may be surprised to learn how many plants and animals you see every day are actually invasive species – non-native organisms that overtake an area and make it uninhabitable for native species. For example, Japanese honeysuckle, English ivy and European starlings are all common invasive species. They may be ubiquitous, but these invasive species, like most, cause both environmental and economic harm.

Why are invasive species so harmful?

Invasive species are detrimental, first and foremost, because they compete with native species for resources. With a lack of natural predators, invasive species can spread quickly, and as they do, they take sunlight, water, food and space away from other species.

Invasion of non-native species also changes the food chain. When invasives proliferate, they may destroy food sources for native species while simultaneously not serving as a food for predators. When native species die out due to lack of food, biodiversity — which is key to a healthy ecosystem — decreases. For example, zebra mussels are an invasive species brought to the Great Lakes from Eurasia in the 1980s. These mussels eat plankton from the water, cutting down on the available food for native fish and thereby decreasing the fish populations.

The economy also suffers when invasive species take over. Invasives can impact property values, agricultural output, tourism opportunities and more. In fact, a recent study estimates that, since 2010, invasive species have cost North America more than $26 billion a year. Controlling invasive species also proves very expensive. Since 1960, managing invasives worldwide has cost at least $95.3 billion, with management strategies costing about $4.2 billion a year in the 2010s.

The importance of removing invasive species

Invasive species can be managed by using pesticides and herbicides, introducing predators, changing human behavior through education, physically removing or destroying invasives and even setting controlled fires.

Removing invasive species is an immense job, which is why having support is so valuable. Hosting community-wide events where volunteers dig up, capture or otherwise get rid of invasive species is a great way to not only solve the problem but also educate community members about the environment.

Once you’ve removed invasive species, what can you do with them?

So you’ve recognized that you have an invasive species growing on your property, and you’ve gotten a group together and worked to remove it — now what? You may be tempted to safely burn or compost the invasive species you’ve removed, but there are plenty of ways that invasive species can be reused to benefit all of us. Here are just a few things you can upcycle invasive species into:

1. Food

Invasive species can be used to feed both animals and people. Several dog food companies have started making blends that include the invasive Asian carp, and zoos can recycle local invasives like acacia trees into feed for their animals. There are also lots of recipes for humans that incorporate invasive plants, from knotweed hummus to autumn olive tarts. One New Hampshire distillery even utilizes green crabs in a whiskey drink! While the thought of eating an invasive species may seem daunting at first, using them as an ingredient creates more incentive for people to harvest and therefore control them.

2. Eco-friendly building materials

Many invasive plants and trees are perfectly suited to construct homes and other buildings. Bamboo, for example, is a highly invasive plant that is incredibly durable. It’s a particularly good choice of building material in locations where earthquakes or hurricanes are prevalent. In fact, WHC member Ramboll has been constructing bamboo houses in Indonesia that are designed to withstand earthquakes better than concrete.

In terms of interior finishes, Japanese knotweed and American signal crayfish shells can be transformed into bio-concrete tiles. This sustainable process, still in development, would reduce the amount of invasive species waste being incinerated. The raw material can be cast into any shape and can vary in appearance and finish to resemble rough stone or even marble.

3. Useful, everyday products

Beyond construction, the properties of various invasive species make them ideal raw materials for products we use regularly. In Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, an interdisciplinary group of conservation partners encouraged volunteers to gather dried winter knotweed stems that were then processed into paper products such as notebooks and paper bags. Knotweed isn’t the only invasive plant that can be turned into paper – phragmites and giant salvinia are also great candidates.

Water hyacinth is an invasive aquatic plant that is incredibly absorbent, which led a group of students from Texas State University to develop a compostable menstrual pad made out of water hyacinths. Not only would this process make use of an invasive species, but incorporating an easily accessible material could also help reduce period poverty. Other examples of invasive species being repurposed for everyday uses include an ice melt made from starfish and charcoal produced from invasive trees.

4. Further conservation efforts

The removal of invasive species alone is a positive step towards conservation. But you can go a step further and use invasives to clean up the environment. Water hyacinths are capable of absorbing heavy metals, which means they’re useful for cleaning water. One large-scale example of this is Disney’s Water Hyacinth Project, which utilizes phytoremediation, or the use of plants to clean an environment, to treat wastewater. Once the water hyacinths became too saturated to filter effectively, a process called anaerobic digestion turns them into a gas to be used for fuel.

In order to help prevent erosion along stream and river banks, invasive ivy can be woven into netting.  Some invasive plants, like Himalayan blackberry, can be used to make small fences to protect vulnerable habitats and wildlife.

5. Pieces of art

Just like other plants, invasive species can become beautiful works of art. Bittersweet vines can be twisted into wreaths, lamps, sculptures and even furniture. Sculptures made of invasive ivy and placed at the base of a tree not only beautify an outdoor space — they also encourage passersby to avoid compacting the soil around the roots. This kind of public education is another added benefit of using invasive species as art.

It can be easy to only think of invasive species as harmful additions to an ecosystem that are a nuisance to remove. But, with careful management, these plants and wildlife can actually serve very useful functions that are a net gain for the environment.

Read more WHC blogs.