“Soil erosion is second only to population growth as the biggest environmental problem the world faces,” said David Pimentel, professor of ecology at Cornell. “Yet, the problem, which is growing ever more critical, is being ignored”^[4]. It has nowadays reached a point where, to save the world from agricultural collapse, an in-depth rethink of soil management in view of sustainably improving soil fertility is needed.

I have already exposed in previous posts how good agricultural practices, including natural farming and the preservation of untouched spaces could contribute to a more fertile land. Today I want to discuss weeds.

Weed control is a relatively new concern of mankind. Available literature indicates that relatively few agricultural leaders and farmers became interested in weeds as a problem before 1200 AD or even 1500 AD. Real emphasis, both on a legal and technical standpoint, only appeared in the late 19th century^[5]. In actual facts, overlooked knowledge from the past use to consider some of the wild plants we call weed as companion crops, food or even medicine.

Professor Cocannouer has been teaching conservation and biology for close to fifty years, but has always thrived to go on the field (literally) to learn from nature, not only in his home state of Oklahoma where he has spent much time learning from the Indians, but also in other part of the world such as Europe, India and the Philippines.

From a lifetime of researches on weed, he concludes that overall, controlled weed are beneficial to the land by the following aspects:

1. Deep-rooted weeds feed in the lower soil and by doing so bring nutrients back to the surface and reduce the effects of leaching. This is particularly important for trace nutrients which are not added to most standard fertilisers, but could also have implication for the leaching of nitrates. Since weeds and crops do not feed in the same depth of the soil they do not excessively compete for nutrients and water.

2. The strength of weeds roots is able to break hard pans and restore the nutrients circulation between lower soil and the topsoil. This could have interesting applications in environmental restoration where hard layers effectively lock toxins and salts in the topsoil.

3. Weeds roots also help open the soil and increase its fibre content, which then make it easier for crops, the roots of which are generally weaker, to reach further into the ground and gain additional access to nutrients. Without those fibres the soil particle settle close together into a compact condition. Ultimately the lower soils becomes so agglutinated that the upward movement of capillary water is severely hampered, and the soil is then endangered of becoming thrown out of balance.

4. When they die, weeds roots increase the ground’s organic content, which then is being eaten by a multitude of micro-organisms, insects, worms and fungi, and processed into fertile dirt upon which the plants and crops can in turn feed.

5. Deep-feeding weeds will cause a capillarity movement of water along the outside of their roots, thus bringing back toward the surface some of the water which ran too far down to be available for the other crops. The upward moving moisture will become immediately available to the crop roots that are feeding in the surface soil, therefore a thin crop of weeds interspersed into conventional crop will help go through drier parts of the year.

6. Weeds are sources of food for many birds, whose dropping will in turn serve as natural fertilisers for the crops. Some of the birds attracted by the weeds will also prey on the insects and help to control their population.

7. Some weeds can provide a ground cover which will prevent direct exposition of the ground to the sun and help retain moisture.

However, anyone who expects to take a mediocre or poor piece of land and get a good crop of vegetable from it solely through mothering the vegetables with weeds is likely to be in for some disappointment: the weeds, if handled correctly, will do constructive work in the soil, but they won’t perform magic. The whole art of correct weed handling is to strike the right balance in weed control: neither left loose nor eradicated. If the weeds are growing too thickly, their roots will fail to develop into those useful deep-divers, and the weeds will choke the other plants. Also, in order to fulfil their potentials of bringing nutrients back to the surface, weeds need to be returned to the soil after they die (by turning them in for instance).

Now, in his work Joseph Cocannouer specifically refers to a number of weeds as specially worth investigating:

This non-exhaustive list goes on in the original book: Weeds, guardians of the soil

Obviously this approach is not even in its infancy. Professor Cocannouer was a pioneer, but no one really continued his work on weeds. If weeds deserve better consideration than what they had until now, a fair amount of careful experimentation is needed by anyone who would like to use them correctly.

Sources:
[1] Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, David R. Montgomery

[2] Global Survey of Human-Induced Soil Degradation http://www.fao.org/nr/land/information-resources/glasod/en/

[3] telegraph.co.uk: Britain facing food crisis as world’s soil ‘vanishes in 60 years’ http://goo.gl/Yx2O

[4] Cornell University: Slow, insidious soil erosion threatens human health and welfare http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/march06/soil.erosion.threat.ssl.html

[5] F. L. Timmons, Weed Science Society of America, Volume 53, Issue 6 (November-December 2005) http://goo.gl/86Ip

Stopping the world’s ecosystem collapse into an irreversible nose-dive requires more than dramatic action: it requires a massive culture shift. It requires us to learn how to live in harmony with and in nature, develop sustainable communities and develop a real sense of care for life in general.

Today I want to give a new community the opportunity to share their fantastic work on building and pioneering a sustainable way of life at the very heart of the rainforest. Erica Hogan has kindly answered our questions about her community, Finca Bellavista, in Costa Rica. Here is the transcript of the interview:

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Dear Erica, thank you for joining us today. I would first like to introduce Finca Bellavista to our readers. Can you tell us about your story, how the project came about?

Thank you for having me. Matt (my husband) went on a surfing trip to Costa Rica with some of his friends in 2006. After falling in love with the beauty and serenity of the Southern Zone, he called me to plan a trip down together. Both of us wanted to explore the option of finding a little getaway in the tropics to escape the doldrums of the Colorado ‘mud seasons’… maybe a fixer-upper surf shack or a bungalow in the rainforest. The idea was to create something simple… nothing too complicated.

In general, Finca Bellavista has been a mix of luck and serendipity. We couldn’t have planned for things to go as well as they have or for the idea to be as well-accepted as it has been so far. We “started” the project in our heads less than 4 years ago, began construction less than 3 years ago, accidentally sold out of Phase 1 in our first year and have sold 45 parcels thus far. Matt and I aren’t developers by schooling or training, we go with our hearts. I think that people can relate to that and appreciate that. We are just two normal 30-somethings that had a crazy idea, followed through with it, and shared it with others. In general, the idea of living in the treetops resonates with people from all walks of life and different corners of the world… whether they are 6 or 60, black or white, from Britain or Borneo. I think that’s most of the reason for our success in creating this community so far. While it might seem unusual to think of at first, there’s really just something very primal, simple and necessary about living in the trees that people want to experience.

That’s a pretty sustained pace, to say the least, considering how novel your concept is. Can you describe what is the state of your community?
Because we are still in our beginning stages there is a mix of personal situations going on. A fair amount of our owners want to live and work on-site within the next 5 years or so. As you can imagine, because this is a relatively new frontier in living, a lot of people are waiting to see how things are developed, how they can contribute, and in general are a little hesitant to pick up and move their lives.

Though we consider ourselves to be in the infancy stages of this project, there has been a lot of progress getting the community “off the ground”. Our community center is finished, complete with a large kitchen area and dining hall, an open-air lounge and WIFI zone, a rancho, and a bath house. Nearly one-third of our Sky Trail network is now up and running, offering stunning canopy and pristine river corridor views. Treehomes are starting to speckle the skyline. We have quite a few owners in various stages of creating and building treehomes, bringing lots of new energy and excitement to our growing neighborhood.

Does the Finca Bellavista have or envision having facilities dedicated to catering for tourists?
We have an on-site property management company to manage rentals for our owners and to provide a revenue stream for those who plan on using their homes a portion of the year. Currently our owners can place their home in our rental pool when they aren’t here, so in a way Finca Bellavista functions like a resort community for the time being, but that will change within the next couple of years to more full-time residents, families, and activities.

Also, we are in the planning phases of creating a space that can accommodate larger groups seeking an intimate and truly unique location. We envision weddings, yoga, meditation and relaxation retreats, family reunions or student groups utilizing this area in the years to come. There will be a lot of ways that this community will grow, and we are excited to see the directions it will go!

I understand. There must be something magical in seeing all of this taking place and growing in such a surreal setting. But all this activity in the rainforest… what is the effect on the surrounding wildlife?
Right now we are in the infrastructure stages of the project – constructing living and community spaces, building trails, improving the access road, installing hydropower. These are higher-impact activities that obviously have effects to the land and the wildlife. These activities will phase out over time, and it will be a little quieter here overall. It seems a little strange, but when there are more people, more noises, and things like heavy equipment around, we seem to see more wildlife, which is strange to me. We hope to blend in a little better over time, and I think that will be easier to do without so many large distractions.

Maybe the animals are curious of what’s all that noise about. I guess it gives an opportunity for you to interact with them as well… by the way, what is the effect of the wildlife on the community?
So far, it’s been an amazing process to watch. As a little bit of background on our exact piece of land: we are in an area of secondary growth rainforest… the majority of our land has been clear cut before, and many areas were replanted with homogenized, harvestable trees or turned into pasture land. The area where our “base camp” is located is a reclaimed gravel pit. Everything is in various stages of regrowth, and to be honest, it’s not a very healthy piece of forest in the grand scheme of things – lots of introduced species, replanted and homogenous patches of forest, relatively little diversity in the flora sense of things for what the area should have in its natural, unobstructed state, which it hasn’t been in decades. But, we are located in an interface zone: everything below us topographically speaking is cultivated and agricultural lands, and the land above us gradually phases into primary rainforest mountains.

This is a critical migration corridor between the Talamanca Mountains and the Osa Peninsula. As such, there are things that we recognize that we need to do in order to improve the connectibility of this corridor and the overall health of the land. For instance, the botanist we work with – Gerardo Rivera – has suggested that we start selectively removing trees that were planted as harvestable timber, and begin the process of replanting them with native and fruiting species to better draw in the wildlife and further the reforestation process. To the untrained or innocent eye, this appears to be a healthy patch of forest and is literally crawling with wildlife, yes. But it could be so much more. In fact, we recently began working with a non-profit organisation called ProCAT to begin documenting and inventorying the exact species found here and to contribute to the body of evidence and conservation efforts in the immediate and regional area. I believe this forest will be healthier 50 years from now than when we first bought it.

That’s very interesting. In some way by being there you allow the forest to heal from a previously deeply damaged state. But of course for this way of life to be truly sustainable, I guess you would want to decrease as much as possible getting your resources from elsewhere for fear of just moving issues around. How much self-sufficient can the community be?
We want to do as much as we can to reduce our reliance on the outside world. But, we will always have some reliance on the outside world, whether we want to or not. Some things just make more sense and use fewer resources outside of the Finca – whether that means we buy our rice, beans, chickens and eggs from neighbors (to me it certainly makes more sense to buy locally, and keep our neighbor’s livelihoods healthy than convert more of our land into food production and pay employees to do this separately), or gasoline to run generators during the construction process or having taxis pick up and drop off visitors rather than create reasons to leave and go pick people up from the airport.

Are you 100% off-grid?
In keeping with our vision to live sustainably we opted to utilize the natural resources present on site to provide our residents access to carbon-neutral electricity. This decision made better sense to us as the thought of tying into the country’s national, monopolized grid (with its rolling brown and black-outs) seemed reason enough to go with an alternatively sourced power system. However, after more research on the country’s traditional power generation and its underlying social and environmental impacts, alternative energy seemed to be the only way we would bring electricity to Finca Bellavista. We are proud to currently power our community by harnessing the energy of the sun, using a 1200-watt photovoltaic DC power system to operate Finca Bellavista’s “base camp” and community amenities. Our residents future energy needs will be met with a combination of solar and hydro assets, which we are in the process of manifesting. Living within our means on alternative energy sources often means having to make lifestyle adjustments. Though many people are accustomed to using items like televisions, air conditioning, and hairdryers on a daily basis, they aren’t necessities and actually take large amounts of electricity that alternative energy systems cannot provide. Small and large adjustments must be made when considering a move towards using alternative energies and living off the grid. Very small things, such as using a traditional Costa Rican “coffee sock” to make a morning cup of Joe versus a pot of coffee in an electric coffeemaker, hanging laundry out to dry instead of using a dryer, and unplugging lamps, computers, and other appliances while not in use really make a difference in conserving energy, and are “laws of the land” here at the finca.

Do you grow your own food? A large portion of it, yes. Gardens take time to grow, and we are phasing into our food production. The number of people on site and eating at any given time varies greatly from day to day, so it’s hard to hit our food production perfectly.

Did you have to do some clear-cutting to dedicate land to food production? No – since a large portion of this property was pasture at some point. There were already many food bearing trees and plants growing. Most of the things that grow here are integrated with the forest and it’s sustenance farming – so there aren’t long rows of corn or rice paddies or anything like that… there’s yucca next to banana plants next to squash next to big trees and trails

Can you give us an idea of what food can people eat at Finca Bellavista?
Our gardens are flourishing here, and there always seems to be a great variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs available. Selections vary from day to day, but could include fresh spinach, mustard greens, zorrillo or butter lettuce greens, pejibayes, chayote, naranjilla, yucca, limes, tomatoes, plantains, papas de la Montana, bananas, papaya, passion fruit, palmito, cacao, mushrooms, basil, oregano, cilantro, lemon balm, ginger, lemongrass or spicy pepper
Generally people imagine the rainforest as a chunk of inedible forest… you prove here that it doesn’t need to be so. This is really an exciting project overall. Thanks! We agree – it’s been quite a life-changing experience for us. And actually that perception seems to only be a Westernized view of the world’s forests. Remember, the majority of Westernized countries considered forests and the wilderness were places to conquer and subdue… Westerners didn’t understand how to harvest and use the elements found in “The New Worlds” and therefore they were deemed useless.
Can we say this is the pioneering birth of a new type of eco-community, truly in harmony with wildlife? Of course! But I would say it’s in “better harmony”, not perfect harmony. I’m sure the sloths, monkeys, kinkajous, and tamanduas that encounter a treehouse for the first time are a mix of perturbed and excited to have human company.

Could the replication of such communities around the globe actually help save the world’s endangered rainforests? We can’t fool ourselves… there are impacts to us living in the rainforest, even if we aren’t cutting it down. We have found a way to keep the trees (by living in them) as one way to help preserve this specific piece of rainforest. If every stretch of rainforest in the world contained treehouses, that could obviously be just as impactful as bulldozing subdivisions all over the place.

We want to catalyze positive changes here… while this will never be a primary rainforest again, we can do things to improve the overall health and function of the land by managing it and working with NGOs and government entities to further research, and conservation efforts.

I have seen video on Youtube of people bringing in fridges inside their treehouse. Obviously there is a trade-off between modern comfort and the implication of living in a rainforest. I can think of the difficulties to generate enough electrical power, damp might also be an issue for most soft furniture (mattress, sofa..), there might be a weight limit inside the house, piping work might give you headaches… Can you tell us how you overcame those issues?
Actually, things are simplified significantly living here. Minimizing living spaces (a necessity when considering living in a treehouse) creates smaller amounts of headache. Though the finca is a bit more rustic and simple in nature than most people are used to, there are certain creature comforts to be found here. We believe there is beauty in simplicity. Simplicity also seems to allow people to fully enjoy the wonderful ambiance of what Mother Nature has provided here at Finca Bellavista. You want lights or a fridge or a radio: we have treehouses with electricity, and WIFI and other amenities that people choose to have. You can have windows too, or open frames only. I personally choose not to have windows because I don’t want to block out the sounds and smells and ambient temperatures present here. You collect spring or rainwater, gravity feed it downhill and up a tree, turn on the shower or flush a toilet just like a normal house, run wastewater in pipes down the trees and hide them with vines, and process waste through a biodigestor without electricity in the ground. Easier and simpler than what people think. And, come to think of it, why has humankind complicated so many things in the first place? One needn’t be tied to the grid in a city to have electricity or water or food to survive. And why do people create sterilized concrete boxes to live in?

Accessibility, health and safety may be a concern to some member of families who would consider coming to Finca Bellavista. How much child-friendly is it?
I can’t think of a more nurturing environment to raise a child honestly. Of course, everything is dependent on a person’s or parent’s comfort level.
To be honest, I can only think that most children would love to move in a house like that… Can someone come if he is disabled? Base camp is accessible with ramps and more level trails and access points… obviously, there are limitations for the elderly and the severely disabled here. But we have many friends that are differently abled and make adjustments to snowboard, ski, rock climb, etc. There’s no reason why they couldn’t do the same here. I worked at a special needs camp in Oklahoma for many years and we are actually in the process of trying to facilitate one of their groups to come here and experience the finca. And, we have a friend that has an amazing non-profit (www.adacs.org) that is going to try and bring a group of adaptive athletes down soon to test our accessibility.

How about the risk of fire? It’s the rainforest… last year was the driest “dry season” on record here at the finca in 40 years, and the spring fed rivers still flow and there is still 100% humidity some days even when it hasn’t rained in a month. Sure, fire could happen anytime anywhere, but we don’t necessarily worry about it as much as I worry about it in the Rocky Mountains during a summer lightning storm.

How does strong wind affect people’s life in case of storm? It depends on attachment methods. Our treehouse – Mis Ojos Miran la Catarata is attached to three trees with artificial limbs that allow for the house and its foundation to move about 6 inches in any direction. If there is a wind or an earthquake, it can dance and move with the trees without damaging the foundation. The rainforest and trees in general are very dynamic and there are never any guarantees as to how long a given tree may live. This is why the botanist’s close review and the process that follows is very important. The due diligence process in building a treehouse takes some time and takes many things into consideration in order to design and plan accordingly. There are obviously many adaptations that must be made to build a house in a tree, and luckily there are intelligent engineers out there that have created a variety of tools and attachments to make treetop living not only possible, but safe and secure as well. Even being a very dynamic environment, just like others in the world, the rainforest is no more dangerous than living elsewhere. We do get a lot of rain during certain times of year (though we are outside of the hurricane belt!) and there are sometimes earthquakes in the Southern Zone. Treehomes are often engineered and constructed to move with the winds and with earthquakes so while a conventional structure’s foundation might be damaged after an earthquake, a treehome’s foundation -- its root system -- has evolved during its entire lifespan to absorb the vibrations far better than a slab of concrete. Isn’t it dangerous to live in Oklahoma where there are tornados, or in Florida where there are floods and hurricanes, or Australia where there are fires or… you get the point?
Indeed, and in some aspects, if you live in a highly seismic area it sounds as if a treehouse could actually be a good idea -- certainly a cheaper option than an anti-seismic concrete construction. What about snakes, spiders and the like? Sure, there are snakes, spiders, cats and other critters that have a bad reputation in the jungle. Though none are inherently dangerous, a snake that gets stepped on might be tempted to defend itself. Using a flashlight at night, watching where you step, and wearing boots are the best ways to prevent harmful contact with a snake. A small amount of common sense can go a long way here… obviously if people molest or feed the wildlife, things will happen. It goes without saying that poking a snake or throwing a stick at a puma would both qualify as bad ideas. We ask that people observe all wildlife at a safe distance and don’t give them reasons to run off.

Can anyone build his own house there, is the actual work always done by some contractors?
Homes at Finca Bellavista can be designed and built either by the owner, or by one of our preferred builders, who are listed under our Friends link on our webpage. We now have an in-house construction company that can manage and implement construction projects for owners as well. The majority of folks tend to use our company since we have more experience building in this environment. All home plans and designs must go through a review process with our Environmental Review Board, and obtain a municipal permit.
Can you describe the process of getting a house at Finca Bellavista?
Once an owner closes on his/her property here at the finca, there are several things to consider before moving forward with building a treehouse. As whimsical as treehouses are, there are many practical considerations to make! Many of those items require the patience, creativity, and desires of the owner. Treehouses are like snowflakes, no two are alike. We have found that the most frustrating phase for our owners of creating a living space here at FBV has been the overwhelming amount of possibilities given starting from scratch. Because this isn’t your typical cookie-cutter subdivision, you can’t really waltz into the office, sign a check and point to design A, B or C. Most people want to be involved in the creative stage of building their dream treehome here, but it does involve a fair amount of forethought, planning and patience. It’s always best to plan ahead, and we have a few suggestions to consider based on several seasons of construction experiences we’ve had here at the finca. Weather and rainfall are factors to take into consideration when scheduling any construction project. We will forever recommend shooting for a dry season start date here at the finca, which begins late November-ish most years. Working during the rainy season has many pitfalls and normally equates to time and money lost. However, construction schedules and timeframes are 100% dependent upon the budget and design of a home.
The processes leading up to treehouse construction take time and planning, and we suggest a staged approach.

The building process can take varying amounts of time. At the finca, this process has been as short as 2 months and as long as 6 months. Building timeframes are dependent on the size, style and finishes of your treehouse, and depend on variables like weather and materials availability.

That’s rather quick compared to the construction time of a concrete house. How much does it typically cost? Tree and stilt-built houses can vary greatly in price and go as high in price as imagination and budget will allow. Prices of structures certainly depend on the size, type of construction and finishes. We have built homes for as little as $35,000 and as much as $150,000.

You have a nice transportation facility you call Sky Trails. Can you tell us a bit about it? For starters, Finca Bellavista is a pedestrian-access community. Primary means of accessing homes are via the community’s ground or Sky Trails. Construction began in 2007 on the Skytrails, which is simply a network of zip lines and platforms for the exclusive use of residents and their guests (not electric or anything – just put on a harness and pulley and attach to the cables) throughout Finca Bellavista that allows residents and visitors a unique and adventurous view of life in the rainforest. Many areas of the Finca Bellavista community are accessed by these aerial trails and canopy platforms. This network of aerial trails has been designed with a primary focus on the transportation benefits, minimal ecological impacts and the aesthetic values of the surrounding environment. In addition to the great network of ground-level trails around the community, the zip lines provide an exciting and efficient means of accessing the various parts of the unique preserve that is Finca Bellavista.


You certainly hear it all the time, but it really recalls the Ewoks tree houses from Star Wars: the return of the Jedi. (That was actually my first thought when I saw it). Was this intentional? Yep… from the very start!
This is great. Finally, how can our readers get in touch with you, should they wish to come to Finca Bellavista? Just send them to our website… www.fincabellavista.net All of our contact information is on there.

Thank you very much for your time. I am aware this is a lot of question, but your community really is right on target for the challenges we have ahead. Thank you Herve! We realize that in the grand scheme of things we are just one project, one community, and a relative few amount of people. But the momentum shifts all across the world start small. If we can show that living off grid is not only possible, but a beautiful way to live and costs people far less in the long-run, it might prove that we aren’t crazy to be doing this… just simplifying our lives and enjoying more of what God and Mother Nature gave us and less of what the modern world has. It’s really not all that different or unusual at all… humans evolved from this in one way or another, and people all over the world could stand to make a few small changes to simplify their lives and therefore lessen our impact.

The recent events in the gulf of Mexico are cause for terrible concern, both for the ecosystem and for the nearby populations who have seen their livelihood disappear in a matter of a few weeks. This only remind us how helpless we are in front of disasters and ecosystem collapse.

There is no magic solution and the fragile ecosystem of the gulf will take time to recover, if at all. However, here is a clue on how we could potentially help the recovery inland, and help save our world’s endangered environment.

This tool is natural, safe and inexpensive: we are talking about the amazing digesting power of mycelium. Mycelium is the name given to the root-like system which support mushrooms (In actual fact, mushrooms are the fruits of mycelia).

Mushrooms are an amazing part of the natural world. They were one of the first type of life to colonise the land, terraforming and preparing the emergence of life on solid ground, ahead of plants and animals. They are primarily digestive networks, versatile and rapidly adaptable. Their ability to break down carbon bonds is remarkable, decomposing away variety of organic molecules as their main source of food. This has practical implication when it comes to petroleum hydrocarbon contamination as we will see in the experiment detailed below.

Oyster mushrooms producing on oil contaminated soil

restored pile

This is a very low-tech affordable way of dealing with some aspects of the problem we are currently facing in the gulf of Mexico. We urgently need more ideas of this type to restore and protect the world’s ecosystem.

To know more about mushroom and their amazing power to restore environments and save the world, learn how to differentiate major beneficial strain and how to grow them, read Paul Stamets’ book Mycelium Running

Masanobu Fukuoka

With this came a second realisation: why on earth is man trying so hard to do differently what nature has forged over millenniums of evolution? Why for instance farmers work very hard tilling the land when crops have evolved over millions and millions of year to germinate on untilled land?

Masanobu left at 25 a successful soil scientist career to devote his life to taking this path of humility. With his scientific mind, he worked over several decades to achieve how best to understand nature, questioning one by one every assumption of modern agriculture, and finding ways to get better results by copying nature and working with it.

You recognise a true scientist by the way he questions commonly accepted dogma. It is by doing so that mankind made its most spectacular advances. And the results of his life of patient observation are truly extraordinary. He found out that to achieve very high agricultural yield there is absolutely:

• no need to plow nor till the land: as tilling compacts the soil, increase erosion, kills beneficial organisms and reduce fertility.
• no need to apply fertilizer or compost: since need for fertilisers is the result of monoculture and tillage.
• no need to remove weeds by tilling or herbicides: as controlled weeds improve soil fertility.
• no need to use chemicals: the best path to pest control is a balanced environment and healthy crops. Spreading poisons on the ground imbalances the food chain and leads to the emergence of pest and harmful fungi.

In addition to the four above root principles, there is a number of practices discovered by Masanobu to get to making a natural farm truly efficient. It includes:
• rotating crop to improve soil fertility,
• broadcasting seeds in clay pellets to prevent pests eating them,
• scattering straw over the field and let ducks run wild to create natural “compost”
• using clover as ground cover to control weeds and fix nitrogen in the soil
• growing rice without flooding the field
• using no heavy machinery
• not pruning trees (except tree previously damaged by pruning)
• growing vegetable below trees in his orchards

The huge added benefit of this agricultural technique is how it saves energy and money. By removing the need for some of the hardest work and highest expenses of the farmer, Masanobu was able to feed himself with only a few hours of work a day, using virtually no fossil fuels, and this without compromising yield while vastly increasing production quality, to the extend he nicknamed his technique “Do-Nothing agriculture“. In fact, he reckons a quarter acre (1,000m²) can produce more than 600kg of grain by growing season using his natural method. His yields were actually comparable or higher to the best yield obtained using conventional or scientific methods.

Crop over ground cover of clover

A natural farm takes time to set up. The reason that man’s impoved techniques seems to be necessary is that the natural balance has been so badly upset beforehand by those same techniques that the land has become dependant on them. Besides, due to novelty of this natural approach there is no manual for every microclimate in the world, and some experimentation is necessary.

Masanobu Fukuoka’s work has had a global impact, and he is regarded as a major pioneer of the organic agriculture and permaculture movement. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 95.
His methods reached countries in Asia, Africa, Europe… In India, Fukuoka is fondly-regarded and his work has found a number of practitioners who have termed their method of farming ‘rishi kheti‘ literally meaning agriculture of the sages. He travelled extensively to desolate places in Africa, Europe and elsewhere to teach how to grow food naturally while restoring wasted ecosystems.

The natural farming the way he describes it is a pinnacle of simplicity and beauty, and it strikes a chord deep in one’s heart: nature is not evil, and man can live in harmony with it. One of my long term goals is to develop this type of agriculture.

Just a last word of warning to would-be natural farmers:
• this is no “do nothing”, natural farming is hard work at the beginning, and requires manual work.
• it took Masanobu Fukuoka years of trial to learn the right way to do it. This little post has no pretention to be a how-to guide. You can start to get a better understanding of his technique by reading his little book: One Straw Revolution.

Sources:
• world food program http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats
• U.S. Energy Information administration on peak oil (see chart page 8.)
• Energy Use in Production of Food, Feed, and Fiber (D.R. Mears) for energy in food production calculation (here)

And these statistics do not even start to consider people who have an amputated limb. Each year, thousands of children are mutilated by landmines in countries such as Cambodia or Angola, thousands suffer amputation, a majority of which is due to vascular issues but we cannot ignore armed conflicts and road accidents as other causes.

Yet there is hope. Really amazing new technologies are arriving very quickly, as you will see in the video below. We cannot quite reproduce a whole leg overnight yet, but there exist working solutions for most of the essential organs.

Salamanders can regenerate a whole arm in a matter of weeks. Dr. Anthony Atala, pioneer of regenerative medicine at the Wake Forest Institute, explains that human body has the potential to do the same, but instead seal itself to prefent infection. Although the body can naturally regenerate on small scales, it is clearly insufficient in many cases.

Using “smart bio-materials”, one can build a “bridge” between bits of tissues and then encourage regrowth over a maximum distance of roughly a centimetre. This ways blood vessels, urethras… can be regrown.

For larger and more complex organs, such as muscles, this first approach doesn’t really work. The idea developed then is to take a small piece of tissue from the organ to replicate, grow them outside the body and add them on a complex scaffold of smart bio-degradable bio-materials. It is then placed into a reactor and grown into a working organ, and trained if applicable, before being transplanted back into the patient’s body.

In this video, Dr Atala demonstrate an impressing list of achievement using this technique. Researchers at the institute have been able to rebuild muscles, urethras, bladders, heart valve, ears, fingers… they are now researching into more complex organs such as the heart, the liver or the kidneys, and have even developed and experimental “heart printing device” based on a desktop printer which can recreate a working heart in 6 hours!!

This is a whole new field of medicine which hold great promises. As added benefits, such technology may decrease the waiting list for an organ, remove the need for immuno-suppressants and close many ethical debates on embryonic stem-cell research.

Few countries in the world were originally more thoroughly covered by rainforest than the Philippines: Brazil has extensive savannah and brush, Indonesia has many dry islands, Kenya and Tanzania have only small patches of rainforest…

Cebu Flowerpecker

The Philippines are home of the Philippine Eagle: heaviest second-largest eagle in the world, and definitely one of the rarest, most powerful bird on the planet.

Philippines eagle

Philippines Eagle

At the end of more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule (1898), old-growth rain forest still covered about 70% of the country, with most of the high lands untouched. In a 1992 survey, old-growth forest cover had declined to a shocking 8%, which represent the most rapid and severe loss of old-growth forest in the world. This destruction is the primary reason for the Philippines ranking as having the most severely endangered mammal and bird fauna in the world. The degradation and loss of forests is also the reason behind increasing floods and droughts, massive erosion, coral-reef siltation and death, and ground-water depletion. Even in an economic point of view, the cutting of the forest cannot be justified, since tourism alone brings in more revenue than wood, but tourism decreases as the wildlife is going away (in the end, no one would pay to see a bit of dry land covered in grass or beaches washed with soil erosion).

Getting into the reasons behind this waste would be far too long for a blogpost and is not the subject of this blog. One could just quote individual greed, corruption, lack of true leadership, ignorance and extreme poorness of some part of the population as the main factors (plus I think the weight of hundreds of years of colonisation).

Thankfully, solutions exists (see our string of article on reforestation). Even better, mentalities are changing quickly, and some local solutions have already been put in place with noticeable results. I would like to talk here of two cases which came to my attention.

How local communities can help: a case study

The Haribon foundation is one of the very few conservation group that had remained active and vocal under the rule of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. In 1990, the Haribon foundation initiated a program in the communities surrounding mount Isarog to help poor farmers in the area develop an understanding of the ecology of the forest, of environmental economics and park management. Local people were taught how to write proposals for funding, how to use their constitutional rights and had some form of legal training.

Waling-waling, the Queen of Philippine flowers (Euanthe sanderiana)

Beneficial impact of ecosystem preservation: case study

Apo is a tiny island, less than a square kilometre, which has recently pulled itself out of a seemingly desperate economic and human decline. What began as a small fishery management experiment in the 1980s has grown into a twenty-fold increase in local fish population, secured future fish stocks, and growing businesses.

Apo’s small population (about 500 -700 residents) main source of income and livelyhood has been provided by the sea for centuries. But in recent years, destructive fishing practices (including dynamite and arsenic) had severely damaged the island’s coral reefs which provide critical fish habitat. And as the magnificent reefs were being converted to lifeless rubble, local fishermen had to go further to catch anything, which decreased the profitability of their activity. The disappearance of the reefs also drove tourism away (there was nothing left to see).

But Apo’s fortunes began to change when a marine biologist from nearby Negros Oriental, Dr. Angel Alcala, introduced the concept of community-based marine reserves to the Apo community. The concept was simple: leave 15% of the 104 hectare surrounding coral reef off-limits to fishing.
By 1982, the “no take” zone was in place and accepted by the community. Within a few years, fish abundance and diversity within the “no take” showed improvement, and restoration of coral cover became apparent. Fisheries in the adjacent reef areas improved, as fish populations migrated outwards from the reserve zone. Ultimately, the fish biomass increased from approximately eight tons per square kilometer to about 155 tons per square kilometre.

Apo Island

While these businesses are modest in scale, they provide a big impact to an island with a small population. The success of the small marine reserve has likely touched the entire community.

Perhaps the greatest success of Apo’s community-based marine reserve has been the inspiration it has provided to neighboring communities facing similar fisheries resource depletion. Today there are over 500 small reserves in the Visayas island group, with many small communities looking to mirror Apo’s success. And while only 1% of the world’s oceans are currently set aside as marine reserves, the concept is gaining attention worldwide as a realistic and manageable solution to building sustainable fisheries for all.

The Philippines is a country full of not very well known natural wonder, and there is much more to see than this post can cover. Click on the image below to learn more about the riches of the Philippine Rainforest

Do you know of any other initiatives taken in the Philippines to save the rainforest? Do you know of some places so badly affected by deforestation that it has become a virtual desert? Please let our readers know and put a comment below…

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Most of the fight against corruption until now has been down to law makers only, with little effect. In the midst of this lack of political will, Shaffi Mather from India came up with a really audacious business plan aimed at fighting corruption.

In 2003, Shaffi Mathers  abandoned a promising career to found 1298 for ambulance: the first self sustainable life support ambulance service in India. This service lives only from the revenue it generates and is affordable to anyone. It has transported 100,000 patients, and has no recourse to public funds.

With his acute and out-of-the-box entrepreneurial thinking, he decided out of compassion to start a new kind of business: fighting corruption. Inspired by his work on medical emergencies, he realised there is no such thing as a 911 call for corruption cases. Yet he managed to make a successful business out of helping people with his ambulances, and 3% of the economy is a huge market, virtually untouched at present. So he started out building his business case for a bribe-buster service.

So far, all of the 42 pilot cases have been a complete success. He managed to win his cases, make money and ask people much less than what the corrupt officials were asking for.

Instead of using high-tech ultra-expensive only-for-rich-countries solution promoted everywhere, this one is cheap and benefit the poorest. In actual fact, it creates a proper green economy by taking a desolate arid valley the size of Belgium and turns it into a lush oasis of life and abundance, creating wealth and taking subsistence farmers out of poverty.

All over the world, the same process of desertification seems to repeat itself and lead entire ecosystems into death.
Poor agricultural practices, misunderstanding of the way the nature works, excessive logging, uncontrolled over-grazing… leads to soil erosion, reduction of fertility, poor moisture retention, droughts and floods, and catastrophic failure of the ecosystem and the economy.

John D. Liu has been working and documenting the changes of the Loess plateau in China for over 15 years. In 1995 The Chinese Government, acted very strongly to rehabilitate the plateau, and local people – both perpetuators and victims of the devastation – became part of the solution. This was a long process and people worked hard, but they are proud of what they achieved – and rightly so!

Human impact on the climate is not simply from the flagrant emission of carbon dioxide and began long before industrial scale emissions. Carbon disequilibrium is a symptom of a larger systemic failure – we are reducing biodiversity, and this has altered fundamental earth processes that we rely on for life. We must act as a species to restore ecosystem function wherever it has been disrupted. We know what is needed; we know it works; and we know from the history of other civilizations that have collapsed what the consequences are of failing to act.

Is there a place you believe would benefit from the lessons of the Loess plateau? Please comment…

It does not need to be. The following videos prove it and show a way to solve the problem.

In these videos, Geoff Lawton, from the permaculture research institute, show his work on greening the desert. He proves that, when intelligently designed and maintained, a piece of land can develop into a rich, fertile and profitable ecosystem.

This short documentary creates hope for our planet. It clearly demonstrate that the need to turn down our way of life is a misconception, but what really matters to solve the climate crisis is the way we tend and manage our planet. Permaculture shows that instead of acting like grasshopper, men should act as the gardeners of the earth, as is advised in many of the traditions of old.

Permaculture is a young fast-growing solution-focused grass-root movement. The concept has been developed in the 70s and means “Permanent agriculture”. Opposed to traditional monoculture, permaculture aims at recreating whole ecosystems and have plants and animals work together to recreate the soil, produce life and fruits in abundance. Most of the design is inspired from the natural nature is working and try to replicate beneficial interactions betweens animals and plants.

Instead of using water heavily, little water is needed, since the populated soil and keyline design irrigation systems retain water for a very long time, despite drought and weather difficulties. It also reduces the risk of flash floods. It challenges the claim that the world is heading for a scarcity economy.

Do you find those videos inspiring? Are you involved in permaculture or do you believe your place would benefit from this technique? We would love to hear from you.