thumb|265x265px|Vichada department

Centro Las Gaviotas is an ecovillage located in the Llanos region of Colombia, in the department of Vichada. It was founded in 1971 by Paolo Lugari, who assembled a group of engineers and scientists in an attempt to create alternative and sustainable modes of living that were specifically adapted to the tropics in developing nations. Gaviotas has developed many internationally recognized technologies such as windmills and water pumps specifically designed to be low cost and adapted to tropical environments,

History

Early days and support from the United Nations

Paolo Lugari first saw the Colombian Llanos in 1966 when his uncle, Tomás Castrillón, who was the minister of Public Works at the time, took him on an inspection flight to the Llanos. Paolo was captivated by the seemingly empty landscape and soon after travelled to Vichada by car with his brother. At a conference in Caracas, an agronomist suggested that Lugari test pine seedlings from Honduras. The first Caribbean pines were planted from seeds brought from la Mosquitia by Lugari. The first trees were planted in 1983, when they were 8 years old, incisions were made on the bark to see if resin could be collected, every 12 days a new incision was made higher up the tree according to the instructions of a Venezuelan pine plantation. After 36 days the yield of pine resin was equivalent to what should be produced by 25-year-old trees according to manuals. Through this pine resin, Gaviotas found a way to become financially independent, since the resin is used in the manufacturing of paints, varnishes, and other products, and Colombian companies had been importing resin for decades. Gaviotas was able to serve this market and also found other commercial applications for the resin.

thumb|326x326px|Mycorrhizal network

In 1982, Sven Zethelius had theorized that the pine trees would require help from mycorrhiza to properly digest the Llanos soil, which was later confirmed during their visit to a Venezuelan plantation. A Venezuelan company donated 3 kilos of Pizolithus tinctorius, which does not occur naturally in the Llanos. Soon they realized that only one application of the fungus was enough, unlike the Venezuelan plantations which had to reapply fungus continually. In fact, studies suggest that a large portion of the Orinoco watershed, covering most of the Llanos, could have continuous tree cover according to rain and temperature patterns. Vichada itself sits in the transition zone between the Amazon and Llanos ecosystems, local vegetation and floristic relationships in the gallery forests where Gaviotas is located resembles many aspects of the Colombian Amazon. The Orinoco watershed in general has a wide mosaic of forests, shrublands and grasslands, but the area surrounding Gaviotas for hundreds of square kilometers is defined by grassland.

Fossil pollen records show that the Amazon rainforest has expanded and contracted through the region across glacial periods. The rainforest expanded through the Holocene but throughout the Llanos it has receded over the past 2.3 thousand years giving way to a savanna ecosystem dominated by grasslands. It has been theorized that human impact has had an influence on the recent retreat of the rainforest, evidence of human impact on the savanna ecosystem seems to be quite strong, particularly in the late Holocene. In any case, it is known that the grasslands Lugari chose to develop Gaviotas in have been covered by forest in the past, but in the present it is notoriously hard to grow anything on this land. The soil is highly acidic, thin, and has aluminum levels that are close to toxic. Large amounts of fauna have moved into the Gaviotas forests including deer, anteaters, capybaras, eagles, armadillos, tapirs, pumas, and more. Structurally diverse and complex forests with canopy closure are key for species richness and species diversity; it often takes decades after tree planting to reach structural complexity, but this happens faster in the tropics

Solar energy

Gaviotas has leveraged many forms of solar energy. They developed solar heating panels to provide hot water, which were installed in Gaviotas homes and housing developments in Medellín. The hospital is no longer operational and the building is now used as a biofuel factory.

See also

  • Llanos
  • Caribbean pine
  • Afforestation
  • Reforestation
  • Biodiversity
  • Renewable energy
  • Climate change

References

Further reading

Books

  • Weisman, Alan. A Good Harvest. In Context #42, Context Institute: Fall 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070210075741/http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC42/Colombia.htm] accessed February 20, 2007
  • Gaviotas Rising. All Things Considered. National Public Radio: Segment #06. August 29, 1994. Transcript #1589
  • Calderón Rivera, Mario. Renacimiento en el Trópico: Paolo Lugari O Los Tiempos de Gaviotas

Articles

  • Nothing Wasted, Everything Gained
  • Time for Utopia
  • Gaviotas: In a War Zone, but Not at War
  • An Ecologically Sound Paradise in the Middle of a War Zone
  • Living on Sun, Water, Wind, Grass, and Community
  • Gaviotas at University of Iowa
  • Las Gaviotas: proving sustainable living possible where it shouldn't be
  • 50 years of green entrepreneurship with Paolo Lugari, founder of Las Gaviotas in Colombia, whom Gabriel Garcia Márquez called “inventor of the world”
  • The man who brought back a rainforest
  • "Friends of Gaviotas"