Gaviotas is an
ecovillage
An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural envi ...
located in the
Llanos
The Llanos (Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, sav ...
of the
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
n
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Vichada. It was founded in 1971 by
Paolo Lugari who assembled a group of engineers and scientists in an attempt to create a mode of sustainable living in one of the least hospitable political and geographical climates in South America.
History
Gaviotas' pragmatic approach to its survival disassociates the village from many philosophies and political ideologies. Originally, the project received funding from the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
and similar groups seeking environmentally friendly solutions to
population growth
Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...
and
Third World development.
When these original donors began to pull funding from Gaviotas in the 1990s, the villagers looked elsewhere for their income. They realized that the impressive
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...
forest was a
sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
source of pine
resin
In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...
used in the production of a wide variety of products like
turpentine
Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...
and
violins
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
.
Their
terraformation of the llanos allows Gaviotas to thrive, but it is not an example of low
impact ecology practised by many eco-villages. Gaviotas is largely apolitical, a strategy which has allowed it to grow amidst the
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
growers,
paramilitary
A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
and insurgent guerrilla groups, and
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
troops present in the llanos. The village is further separated from many
eco-anarchist movements because of its early ties to the United Nations and the Colombian government.
Climate
Gaviotas has a hot and humid
tropical monsoon climate
An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Am'') with a short dry season from December to February.
Environmental impact
It is estimated that, in
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
times, the llanos were an extension of the Amazonian rain forest, but the rainforest border has been receding from the area for centuries. The Gaviotas village is noted for the planting of over 1.5 million trees in the area. While the trees were originally part of an experiment to see if any significant growth could occur in the desiccated soil of the llanos, they have become a significant feature of the grasslands. As a result of the shade these trees provide and the tropical climate of the area, the
groundcover
Groundcover or ground cover is any plant that grows over an area of ground. Groundcover provides protection of the topsoil from erosion and drought.
In an ecosystem, the ground cover forms the layer of vegetation below the shrub layer known as t ...
began hosting tropical rainforest species which are native to the region. Resin harvested from the planted trees has provided Gaviotas with a sustainable source of income.
While the village is largely self-sufficient, it regularly uses diesel fuel during certain seasons. Currently, a BioDiesel project is under way for market and local use.
Technology
The community has produced a number of inventions and innovations over the years – notably including a children's
seesaw
A seesaw (also known as a teeter-totter or teeterboard) is a long, narrow board supported by a single pivot point, most commonly located at the midpoint between both ends; as one end goes up, the other goes down. These are most commonly found a ...
that drives a water
pump
A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...
and a "distinctive 'sunflower' design"
windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...
that is well-suited to the plains in Colombia. Lugari notes that social experiments cannot simply import solutions from temperate climates. Gaviotas has made it a goal to always engineer solutions specific to the problems the community will be facing personally (Gaviotas Rising 1994).
Since already-existing solutions are often very costly to adapt, Gaviotas' innovations are often simple changes to a means of production that make otherwise expensive products available at affordable prices. One of the most widespread Gaviotas developments is a water pump that can tap
aquifers
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...
six times as deep as conventional pumps with less effort being expended. While existing pumps in the region raised and lowered a heavy
piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tig ...
in a pipe, the Gaviotas engineers created pumps that leave the piston in place and instead lift and lower a cheap, light
PVC sleeve around the piston (Weisman 1995).
When leading solar hot water panel manufacturers explained the expenses and complicated manufacture of panels efficient enough to collect sunlight in the often overcast weather of the llanos, the Gaviotas engineers crafted homemade solar water-heating panels out of cheap building materials that were better suited to the peculiar climate of the region. The ecovillage also creates some of its own building materials like a unique form of quickcrete brick made with the dirt of the region.
Healthcare advances
The Gaviotas crew created a self-powered, functional hospital in 1980 which treated a substantial number of indigenous people who worked in the village as well as those in the outlying plains until the Colombian government passed legislation pressuring the hospital to close its doors in the 1990s.
While the hospital is no longer operational, the application of Gaviotas pump technology in the surrounding region has increased the availability of clean water and is a reportedly effective form of disease prevention as long as the locals maintain the pumps (Weisman 1999).
External links
*
"Friends of Gaviotas"
References
Books
*
*Weisman, Alan. A Good Harvest. In Context #42, Context Institute: Fall 1995
accessed February 20, 2007
*Gaviotas Rising. All Things Considered. National Public Radio: Segment #06. August 29, 1994. Transcript #1589
Articles
Gaviotas: In a War Zone, but Not at WarAn Ecologically Sound Paradise in the Middle of a War ZoneGaviotas at University of Iowa
{{Coord, 4, 33, N, 70, 55, W, display=title
Ecovillages
Populated places established in 1971
1971 establishments in Colombia
Populated places in the Vichada Department