Abstract
In 1971, Civil and Environmental Engineer Paolo Lugari established The Village Las Gaviotas in one of Colombia’s most remote and inhospitable places, the Eastern Plains. Initially started as an adventure, Las Gaviotas evolved into a sustainable community where different initiatives haven taken place. From groundbreaking renewable technologies to the reforestation of 8,000 hectares in the savannah, Gaviotas has managed to do the unthinkable. Nowadays, the village has a robust economy that is the result of trial and error, as well as their “we will see as we go” philosophy. An oasis of harmony amid madness and terror is how Gaviotas is described.
1. Introduction
Although there is no universally agreed upon definition of Sustainability, the United Nations defines it in The Sustainable Development Agenda as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” But what if there are no resources to meet such needs in the first place, and how can Sustainability even be part of the picture in such scenarios? To answer these questions, we travel to a world wonder, a village like no other located in one of the harshest and most inhospitable places of Colombia, The Village of Las Gaviotas.
Originally started as an adventure by a man of vision called Paolo Lugari, Las Gaviotas has proven that in a world where resource depletion is always a concern, “the real crisis is not a lack of resources, but of imagination” (Buick 2010). Lugari, as a firm believer that one day the world would be so crowded that “humans would have to learn to live in the planet’s least desirable areas” (Weisman 1998), decided that the savannahs were the perfect setting to experiment with sustainable practices and ways of living. Guided by the idea that social experiments are always placed in the most fertile places, Lugari decided that he wanted to place his experiment in a harsh environment because he figured that “if we could do it there, we could do it everywhere” (Weisman 1998). After more than forty years of trial and error trying to solve problems specific to the savannahs of the tropics, Las Gaviotas has been able to survive sustainably in the Colombian savannah. It also has been recognized by the United Nations as a model of sustainable development and even made it to the front page of The Wall Street Journal (Guevara-Stone 2011). Other well-distinguished editorials such as the New York Times and YES! Magazine have also released pieces where they highlight how the unthinkable happened in one of Colombia’s most remote and impoverished places (Guevara-Stone 2011).
2. Regional Context
“A Tropical Wet Desert,” these are the words used by most agronomists when they refer to the Eastern Colombian Plains or Llanos. A desert where nothing except for nutrient-poor savannah grass would grow and where agriculture would only be possible along the river banks due to the infertile acidic soils of the region with a pH level of 4 (Prinsen 2016). During the December-to-April dry season, the region faces a ruthless sun, while during the rest of the year, severe rains flood the savannah, destroying the unpaved roads for several months and keeping the small population of the area isolated from rest of country (White and Gonzalez Marino 2007). With a predominantly hot and very humid climate, the temperatures of the savannahs can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (White and Gonzalez Marino 2007).
The region is also a war-torn zone controlled by drug traffickers, guerrilla fighters and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). One of the most influential and feared paramilitary drug lords in the region was Pedro Oliverio Guerrero, also known as Cuchillo (Knife), who would use the savannahs to transport his cocaine and illicit drugs into Venezuela (Romero 2009). Additionally, the people of the region, mostly Guahibo Indians and Colonists, would greatly suffer from gastrointestinal diseases due to their dependence and consumption of untreated surface water (Guenther and Vittori 2008). In other words, the Eastern Plains of Colombia were not just an inhospitable environment with extreme weather conditions and scarcity of resources, but also a hostile area isolated from the rest of the country due to political turmoil and violence.
3. Beginning of Las Gaviotas
Paolo Lugari first visited the savannahs in 1967 while exploring the region with his father and brother (Weisman 1998). Amazed by the potential of the region to support a bursting human population in the future, Lugari kept slipping off to the savannahs whenever his duties in the Choco region, one of the world’s best preserved tropical forests, permitted. In addition to going through a dozen tires for his jeep, Lugari “frequently got lost, waited days for ferries, … camped on river sandbars amid the rustling of mating turtles, … and contracted malaria twice” (Weisman 1998). Then one day, while exploring the savannah with his brother, Lugari came across a pair of long, concrete sheds filled with weeds that used to belong to the former warehouses of a road construction camp (Weisman 1998). Immediately, he determined that these sheds could serve as the founding structures for a community willing to thrive in the region, and while staying overnight he saw two yellow-billed terns (Sterna Superciliaris), locally called Gaviotas. This inspired the name of the project and represented the beginning of what would be one of Colombia’s biggest success stories (White and Gonzalez Marino 2007).
After arriving from Bogota in 1971, Lugari created the Experimental Center Las Gaviotas in the Department of Vichada with some donations from family members and his own savings from working in the interoceanic canal of the Choco region (Torres Duarte 2011). The village, which is about 500 kilometers from the city of Bogota, was built right where the abandoned road construction camp was situated (Weisman 1998). Lugari obtained the 10,000 hectares that make up Gaviota’s holdings trough Law 34 of 1936 of the previous Colombian Constitution (Suin Juriscol). The law, which was Colombia’s equivalent of squatter’s rights, stated that “raw and unused land could be yours as long as you promised to live and work on it for two years” (Kaihla 2007). Nowadays, however, this law does not exist (Kaihla 2007). While his father, a scholar from Rome married into a Colombian political dynasty, supported him, others said that the region was too chaotic and out of order. They believed that he was delusional for trying to create a self-sustainable community in such an arid place (Torres Duarte 2011). At first, villagers would extract water from dwells, bring food from neighboring villages and use the battery of his Nissan jeep to turn on two light bulbs at night (Torres Duarte 2011). Then, while still unfolding the journey of Gaviotas, Lugari undertook a thorough search for knowledgeable individuals who could help his vision come true.
3.1 Key Stakeholders and their Respective Roles
While visiting the savannah, Lugari learned of a soil chemist at the National University of Colombia named Dr. Sven Zethelius who was delivering lectures on how to grow food in the tropics (Weisman 1998). Hoping to meet a fellow visionary, Lugari visited Zethelius at the University and asked what could be planted in the 10,000 hectares that he had obtained in the savannah. Zethelius was doubtful anything would grow since the soils of the region were the worst in Colombia (Weisman 1998). After Lugari’s persistence, Zethelius and two of its students agreed to go to the region to find areas where food could grow, as well as sand and clay deposits they could use to build the village (Weisman 1998). Guahibo Indians and colonists from the region were also hired to begin reconditioning the abandoned road construction camp and this way allow for people to move in (Torres Duarte 2011). An itinerant teacher stayed in the village after she got 10 pupils and a nurse from a close region would visit often whenever the weather conditions would allow. Dr. Oscar Gutierrez eventually stayed in the village and provided medical service as part of his rural service requirement for medical school (Weisman 1998).
Another key stakeholder in the project was Dr. Jorge Zapp, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of the Andes in Bogota. Unlike Zethelius, Zapp didn’t need to be persuaded into joining the project and brought undergrads he had taught in university to Gaviotas to work on renewable technologies that could power the village, as well as facilitate its operations and daily activities (Weisman 1998). Zapp would eventually quit his job at the University of the Andes to work fulltime in Gaviotas. Paolo Lugari became a civil and environmental engineer without being to college and simply passed his exams (Weisman 1998). In 2007, Carnegie Mellon University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science and Technology, being the first Latin American to receive such distinction (Mouton 2013).
4. Initial Innovative Technical Strategies
Initially Gaviotas’ innovations centered around the creation of renewable technologies and growing food. As Lugari explains, the countries of the tropics got used to importing solutions from Europe and the United States, without realizing that by doing so they were also bringing their deficiencies. He further notes that the countries of the tropics are different in terms of climate and culture; therefore, solutions from the tropics and for the tropics were needed in order to solve the problems of the region (Weisman 1998). As per Lugari, some of the world’s largest ancient civilizations, such as Tenochtitlan in the Aztec Empire, were created around the tropics in times when the communities of Europe were hamlets (Nieto de Samper 2015).
4.1 Renewable Technologies
Over the course of over 40 years, Gaviotas has developed an extensive portfolio of renewable technologies that made their sustainable operations possible. In 1989, the United Nations had published a three-volume set of books filled with appropriate technologies for developing countries – Gaviotas accounted for more than 50 of them (Weisman 1998). Most of Gaviotas’ technologies, however, hardly have a specific creator, given that many individuals would collaborate with their creation in different ways (Centro Las Gaviotas). Some of the most beneficial to the village and surrounding areas include:
The Dual-Sleeve Pump: To access the pure water in natural underground reservoirs, one of Dr. Zapp’s former students, Alonso Gutierrez, invented a dual-sleeve pump that didn’t require the application of force against atmospheric pressure, thus allowing to draw water from deep within the ground. Another engineer Luis Robles and some local children then developed the idea of attaching it to a seesaw, which as part of Colombia’s Water for All Initiative reached over 600 villages in the country (Guevara-Stone 2011).
The Hydraulic Microturbine, which produces 20 kilowatts and thousands of revolutions per minute (RPM) with just a one-meter drop in a low-fall dam. This is the main source of electricity for the homes in Gaviotas (Kaihla 2007).
The Tropical Wind Mill, which pumps water up to 25-meter-deep with winds that are three times slower than traditional mills. It took them 58 attempts during nine years before they could create a model that would work in the tropics (Centro Las Gaviotas). The successful model barely weighs 100 pounds and the tips of its blades are shaped like wings of planes to rotate with the soft equatorial winds of the tropics (Van Gelder 1995).
A Solar Kettle for Sterilizing Water uses a passive solar design to sterilize water. The kettle is composed of a laminated copper plate that heats up under the sun, evaporating the water. The evaporated water gets stored into a stainless-steel tank, where it cools to palatable temperatures (Centro Las Gaviotas).
The Solar Kitchen uses low-viscosity cottonseed oil inside piping heated by the sun to heat pressure cookers. During sunny days, the oil might reach temperatures of up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Insulation and batteries powered by a 40-watt solar panel keep it running 24/7 (Cocina Solar of the Terra Foundation).
4.2 Hydroponics
Lugari was going back to Gaviotas from a Conference in Rio de Janeiro, when his plane landed in Port of Manaus, which is located in the middle of the Amazon forest, to refuel. Surprised by the existence of fresh vegetables in a place of soils poor for agriculture, he proceeded to ask a local from the region who mentioned of “some priests deep in the forest [who] had a garden” (Weisman 1998). Lugari proceeded to look for them and encountered vegetables planted “in box planters made of palm wood, set on blocks above the slick clay jungle floor” (Weisman 1998). Turns out that they had engineered the soils by determining which minerals were not present and simply added them manually to fertilize it (Weisman 1998).
Inspired from what he saw, Lugari returned to Gaviotas and told Zapp and Zethelius. Zethelius was worried that in addition to the lacking minerals, root disease was a big problem in the savannahs because introduced species such as carrots and lettuce had no natural defense against the local insects and bacteria of the soil (Weisman 1998). Zapp proposed using wastes from nearby rice farms as the growing medium and adding minerals to the water instead of the soil (Weisman 1998). After a few years, “greenhouse enclosures covered a third of a square kilometer, filled with Spanish onions, tomatoes, chard, lettuce, cilantro, … and radishes” (Weisman 1998). Hydroponics had been finally established in the Village of Las Gaviotas.
4.3 Las Gaviotas Hospital
In 1978 Colombia was facing a political turmoil due to the president’s decision to declare war against la guerrilla, or paramilitary groups. As a result, arbitrary arrests, torture, and assassinations became routine in the savannahs, which were turned into a war zone where all residents were viewed as political suspects by the government (Weisman 1998). This did not stop Gaviotas from helping the surrounding communities. Their policy was to never ask who anyone was, which is why “like the Red Cross, all factions respected Gaviotas” (Weisman 1998). At the same time, a measles epidemic erupted throughout the savannah, infecting thousands of Guahibo Indians who had not been immunized with the vaccine. The Ministry of Health and all Colombian newspapers decided to disregard the outbreak, which would ultimately disperse throughout the savannah and into Venezuela, killing thousands (Weisman 1998).
After experiencing such frustration, Las Gaviotas submitted a funding proposal for a hospital to the Ministry of Health in 1978 (Weisman 1998). As they highlighted, the people of the region were suffering from gastrointestinal disorders attributable to unclean drinking water, occupational accidents related to forestry were also increasing and women needed medical assistance with childbirth (Guenther and Vittori 2008). Their submission got declined by the ministry, however, because as Lugari explains in Weisman’s piece for YES! Magazine (1998), no one cared about the health of the Guahibo Indians since they did not vote. The savannah did not have many votes; therefore, the government would simply overlook the problems of the region and let people die.
Things turned around after the United Nations provided funding for the construction of the hospital in 1979 (Weisman 1998). The facility, which took four years to build, consisted of a passive design that used the conditions of the area to provide comfortable temperatures all year round (Gomez-Gonzalez 1995). Using bioclimatic architectural technologies that included the combination of wind corridors and a self-cooling ceiling, the facility allowed for an operating room regardless of external temperatures that can surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the hot season in the savannahs (White and Gonzalez Marino 2007). To increase the cool moisture of the air, they integrated a central patio fountain paired with underground ducts that would capture the prevailing breeze, and to further enhance the facility, a maloca built by the Guahibo Indians was added for the family of patients to stay in (Weisman 1998). By integrating renewable technologies, such as the solar kitchen and solar kettles, the facility was a rural self-sufficient hospital (Weisman 1998). It would eventually become a symbol of achievement for the village.
4.4 Reforestation of the Savannah
As previously mentioned, the soils of the savannah were extremely acidic and infertile for anything to grow. However, while in Venezuela, Paolo heard of a pine tree (Pinus Caribaea) that grew in different types of soils in Central America and which could survive in the Colombian savannah (Weisman 1998). Beginning during the early 1980s, after getting seedlings from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize and Honduras, Zethelius noticed that the hondurensis variety performed best. The magic turned out to be the symbiotic relationship between the pine tree and the mycorrhizal fungi (Prinsen 2016). The fungus protected the seedlings root system during the first years and helped it digest the acidic soils, allowing the tree to adapt to the “poor soils” faster (White and Gonzalez Marino 2007).
Nowadays Las Gaviotas has reforested 8,000 hectares of forest and the results seem almost inexplicable. The new canopy provides shade, decreasing the temperature of the soil and keeping more condensation in the air, increasing the pH from an acidic 4 to a 6.5, and bringing back life to the soil (Prinsen 2016). Consequently, the newly planted forest also changed the microclimate of the region and increased precipitation during the dry season by ten percent (110,000 m3 per day), replenishing their aquifers and restoring more than 190 different plant species (ZERI 2013). Animals have also followed, resulting on an emerging ecosystem that will continue to grow as the trees mature (White and Gonzalez Marino 2007).
5. Funding and Recognitions
Although Gaviotas started as an adventure funded by Lugari’s own savings and donations from relatives, it got some funding throughout the years from different organizations and entities. For instance, after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo of 1973, Gaviotas gained momentum. Journalist appeared and American newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, published front-page articles where they would depict the village as the community that “solved” their energy crisis (Weisman 1998). Following these events, a delegation from the United Nations Development Programme arrived, and in 1976, shortly after the embargo, Gaviotas was designated as a model community to the United Nations (Weisman 1998). This recognition included a substantial research grant that included a travel budget for Gaviotans to explore ideas and solutions from other countries. One example of such trips includes the conference in Rio de Janeiro Lugari attended, upon which hydroponics was inspired.
In addition to receiving funding for their hospital, the reforestation of the savannah also received some funding. Though Gaviotas initiated such efforts with the profits obtained from selling their renewable technologies in adjacent communities and Bogota, the Inter-American Development Bank funded some reforestation efforts in 1994 (Weisman 1998). Loan officer Joel Korn visited Gaviotas and was impressed by the regenerating forest. As part of the contract given by the bank, 2,000 hectares had to be planted by the end of the year, which Gaviotas accomplished (Weisman 1998).
6. Barriers and Opportunities
Since its inception, Gaviotas has been through constant struggles and obstacles. The single fact that the village was established in a “tropical wet desert” of barren soils in the middle of a conflict zone highlights the ability of Gaviotas to rise above all barriers. At the same time, the village had to deal with lack of support from the government, as it was the case when trying to establish the hospital (Weisman 1998). Additionally, after the price of oil collapsed in 1986, the sale of renewable technologies stagnated for Gaviotas, leaving the village without their main source of revenue. To make things worse, The United Nations announced that they would not be funding new projects in 1989 (Weisman 1998). During those times of hardship, Lugari found a new source of income after reading a newspaper article that highlighted how Europe had shortages of colophony, which is a natural pine resin. (Weisman 1998). Once again, guided by their philosophy of “we will see as we go along” (Buick 2010), Gaviotas was set to experiment tapping their pine trees for the first time.
Another major obstacle Gaviotas had to overcome, was having to let go of the hospital they fought so hard for. After the Constitution of 1991 was promulgated and Law 100 of 1993 was enacted by a Colombian Senator who wanted to socialize medicine, the hospital had to close its door due to governmental regulations (Gomez-Gonzalez 1995). As part of the regulations, in order for medical facilities to remain open, they needed to have a minimum of 2,000 patients per month, which was way above Gaviotas population of 200 people, as well as having a full-time obstetrician, pediatrician, surgeon, and orthopedist. Once again, resources Gaviotas did not have (Gomez-Gonzalez 1995). Consequently, taking advantage of the increased precipitation and the replenished aquifers in the region, Gaviotas turned the hospital that once signified its glory into a water bottling facility (Weisman 1998).
7. Las Gaviotas – Systems Design
The uniqueness of Gaviotas relies upon the fact that they achieved what many experts thought was impossible. The people of Las Gaviotas put windmills where they should not have turned, installed water pumps where they should not have worked and planted a forest in soils that were considered to be dead. Like a bunker during wartime, Gaviotas drew peasants from the region who wanted to seek a better future for them and their families. It gave them hope during times when people needed it the most. Nowadays, after years of hardship and constant struggles, Gaviotas enjoys a sustainable economy where they produce much more than they consume. The village provides its 200 full-time workers, and over 2,000 seasonal employees, with salaries of $500 a month, which is twice the minimum wage in Colombia. Gaviotas also provides its citizens with free food, water, housing and education (Prinsen 2016). In fact, as of 2007, four gaviotans were on pension after working 25 years (White and Gonzalez Marino 2007).
Las Gaviotas has become a driving force of change in the Colombian savannah. Their operations touch across different sectors of the economy, the environment, education and healthcare. Gaviotas not only provides a salary to the workers, it also invests in their wellbeing and future. By buying a simple bottle of water, turpentine, colophony or one of their renewable technologies, the consumer is helping a community that takes care of its people, while also restoring a forest and the ecosystem that have emerged with it.
8. Short-Comings
Gaviotas is a vivid example of success, therefore evaluating the shortcomings of such an adventure is difficult. On the other hand, we cannot say that Gaviotas is perfect. During an interview with the New York Times, Jorge Zapp mentions that “Like all imperial regimes, Gaviotas centers around one person” (Romero 2009). We experienced this ourselves while doing research about the village, since most of the sources would not even mention the names of key individuals such as Zapp and Zethelius. Lugari has been credited for all the successes, while the fact that Zapp left his job as Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of the Andes to work in Gaviotas went unnoticed. Many of the inventions Gaviotas is credited for were created thanks to his abilities and knowledge, yet Lugari is the one who has received all the recognitions (Romero 2009). Another aspect we came across is the fact that in the village there are no titles. In other words, engineers, architects and scientists are all just called by their names. However, Lugari is called Doctor by everyone in the village (Romero 2009). We found this to be somewhat contradicting and imperialistic.
After the political turmoil intensified in the savannah, Gaviotas lost momentum and went unknown in the country. While doing this report we asked four Colombians, whose ages range from 30 to 54, if they had ever heard of the village and the response obtained from all was a clear “No.” What they advised us, however, was not to go there, after we said where it was located. Lastly, we do believe that the school of the village should be improved. As Lugari explains to the newspaper Listin Diario, Gaviotas offers an “alternative education,” which translates into learning how to read, write and basic arithmetic (Lopez 2012). On the other hand, we must remember that Gaviotas was able to make all the accomplishments previously described because they had the support of brilliant minds that worked together on complex problems. If all the gaviotans of the future were to have only an alternative education, we do not think that the breakthroughs and accomplishments Gaviotas is known for would be able to continue.
9. Replicability
Las Gaviotas with its simplicity and innovations could very easily be implemented in many tropical regions. Lugari explains that South America alone has about 250 million hectares of savannahs like the Eastern Plains of Colombia. Then, there is also Africa and Tropical Asia (Weisman 1998). On the other hand, Lugari explains that even within the tropics, there are sub-tropics and sub-sub-tropics, which simply means that every region is different. Therefore, Gaviotas should not be replicated, but used a source of inspiration for other communities (Lopez 2012). What should be replicated around the tropics is the Gaviotan way of thinking and philosophy of life (Guevara-Stone 2011). Las Gaviotas made all its progress because of its trial and error approach. They never gave up and persisted, until the unexpected, the unthinkable, the amazing, happened.
10. Recent Years Update
Each bottle of water sells for about a dollar with a gross profit of 30 percent after the transportation and retailer mark up (Kaihla 2007). Gaviotas also struck a deal with Juan Valdez Chain, which is Colombia’s equivalent of Starbucks, to exclusively distribute Gaviotas water (Kaihla 2007). Part of their current technological initiatives include the creation of a Remote-Controlled Airship to monitor wildfires in the savannah, which they funded with the profits obtained from their water bottles (Romero 2009). It has been calculated that the 8,000 hectares of reforested land can sequester about 144,000 tons of CO2 per year (Dean). Further reforestation efforts are underway.
11. Conclusion
What originally started as an adventure by a man who defied all odds and barriers, has become an example of sustainable practices and ways of living. Throughout the years, Gaviotas evolved into a comprehensive living community that made the unthinkable come true and it did so without leaving anyone behind. People from different backgrounds with different religions learned to coexist together in an equitable way, which reminded us of our environmental justice discussion. The readings by Wen Stephenson and Robert Bullard highlight how minorities and people of color are often segregated from environmentalism because they are assumed to not care about the environment. Yet, here we saw how people, who were mistreated and ignored by their own government, participated and were at the forefront of resurrecting 8,000 hectares of savannah, proving this misconception wrong. We understand that Gaviotas is related to almost every single reading and topics we had in class during the semester. For instance, those related to renewable energy, mitigating the urban heat island effect with vegetation – even though this is a village of 200 people -, water security and others. However, we were impressed by the high levels of environmental justice that exist in the best village of the Colombia, if not the world.
Gaviotas represents a chapter in human history that every single individual should read and get knowledgeable about. It is a story of hope, ingenuity, collaboration, struggle, sacrifice and achievements, which really makes us question what is our excuse for not living sustainably in developed countries that have so many resources. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to deliver this report on such an amazing topic, since Gaviotas has demonstrated throughout the years that when there is determination and hard work, anything can be accomplished. As Lugari mentions, “creativity is at its peak when individuals work together all the time” (Kaihla 2007), just like Sustainability in the Urban Environment.