Gaviotas Community

Gaviotas Community is located in the Llanos of the Colombian department 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. 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 forest was a sustainable source of pine resin used in the production of a wide variety of products like turpentine and violins.

In the early 1980’s Gaviotas began planting a Caribbean pine tree in the otherwise barren llanos of eastern Colombia. These trees were able to survive in the highly acidic soil with the help of mycorrhizal fungus applied to their roots. Over the years, this forest has expanded to approximately 8,000 hectares, or 20,000 acres. The presence of the forest has altered the local climate by generating an additional 10 percent rainfall, which also supports Gaviotas’ water bottling initiative. The processing of tree resin has become an important economic activity for the community. Gaviotans produce a very high-grade resin in their efficient, zero-waste facility. Even the packaging of the resin was designed to minimize excess material. Palm trees are now being planted in the forest to support the production of biodiesel for the trucks that transport their products to Bogota.

The pines are slowly being crowded out by the regeneration of indigenous species. The community is generating power with turbine engines fueled by the aging pines in their forest. 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.

“The only deserts that exist in this world are deserts of the imagination” – Paolo Lugari 

Book: Gaviotas – A Village to Reinvent the World – Amazon

Location: Colombia, South America

Website: http://www.friendsofgaviotas.org 

Video 1: Las Gaviotas

Video 2: Paolo Lugari