On Thursday, May 8, vocalist Fernando “Fher” Olvera of Maná, the biggest Latin Rock Band in the world, joined supporters of Project Selva Negra in inaugurating a sprawling “Endemic Plant Nursery” near Ahuisculco, a small town located 30 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara, near Tala.
The nursery is already caring for over 100,000 seedlings and will soon be supplying trees for planting to organizations like CONAFOR (National Forest Commission) and Carlos Slim’s Carso, the company which is constructing the Macrolibramiento which promises to divert heavy traffic around, instead of through, greater Guadalajara.
I dropped in on Selva Negra project leader Francisco “Paco” Quintero the day after the inauguration to ask a few questions about the nursery, but not really expecting much of a story. To my surprise, I left with an insight into what seems to be an ecologist’s dream come true: a project that benefits nature as well as local communities with funding from organizations seriously interested in reducing their carbon footprints.
“The nursery,” Quintero told me, “employs local people and its sales will directly benefit Ahuisculco; however, it represents only a small part of a much bigger picture.”
To help me understand this bigger picture, Quintero took me back to 2010 when Arturo Balderas Torres of ITESO published a paper on reforestation and climate-change mitigation, arising from a project funded by the UK Darwin Initiative. “In his paper Balderas suggested that individuals and organizations should evaluate the damage they are doing to the environment and make up for it in practical ways,” explained Quintero.
Karina Aguilar, a member of the Primavera Forest Authority and currently a Darwin Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, had been thinking along exactly the same lines and was searching for a way to create biological corridors which would link the Primavera to other forests and assure the survival of wide-ranging animals like pumas.
Aguilar decided to approach Maná’s founder Fher, who happened to be a former classmate of hers: would the band consider “buying” credits for the damage it was doing to Planet Earth?
Well, Maná said yes. They looked at a world tour they were planning and calculated they would put 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the air transporting themselves and their entourage around the globe by planes, boats, trains, etc. To make a long story short, it was calculated that they could “pay back” this carbon debt by reforesting and preserving 80 hectares of land.
Aguilar and Maná approached Forest expert Quintero: Where can we find a stretch of land that big which would really benefit Jalisco’s environment?
Quintero pointed to a beautiful forest near Ahuisculco that was adjacent to the Bosque la Primavera, but in danger of disappearing. The two woods could, hypothetically, be connected by animal bridges over the two highways separating them, saving the Primavera fauna from “strangulation by motorways.”
The Ahuisculco ejido was enthusiastic about the idea of saving their forest and a deal was struck. Farming, ranching and housing projects would stop while reforestation and other projects would begin, under the sponsorship of groups like Maná, Coca-cola and Pronatura.
“The ejido also asked for specific socio-economic benefits like this nursery, a University of Guadalajara High School and a computer center,” said Quintero, “all with the end of encouraging local people to live in Ahuisculco instead of migrating to the big city. As you can see, the nursery has now been built and the other projects are on their way.”
The reality of the plant nursery was right there for me to see. Two young employees took me on a tour. “We are both from Ahuisculco,” said Sofi Murillo and Sandi Soto, pointing out that normally “There are no jobs whatsoever for women in Ahuisculco.” Along with four other members of their team, these young ladies collect, plant and care for the seedlings of huaje, tepame, tepehuaje, guácima and guamúchil trees. These are cared for using sophisticated modern techniques and a special mist watering system developed in Israel. The nursery has a capacity for 178,800 plants and sales to organizations obliged to plant native species are guaranteed.
A few years ago, Jon Lovett, Chair of Global Challenges at the University of Leeds in England, who led the original Darwin research project with Arturo Balderas, visited Guadalajara and spoke about the need for the city and the forest to recognize each other’s contributions, pointing out that the city should be willing to pay for the benefits the forest brings to it.
It sounded like a dream to me. Nevertheless, with ideas from people like Lovett and Balderas, action on the part of people like Aguilar and Quintero, and a new sense of responsibility from organizations like Maná and Coca-cola, creative solutions to environmental and social problems are quietly coming into reality in out-of-the-way places like Ahuisculco. “The local people are delighted,” commented Paco Quintero. “Last year alone they earned over one million pesos working on conservation and reforestation projects … and now they have their own self-sustaining micro-business: this plant nursery.” Somebody seems to be doing something right out there in the Selva Negra.