From the Edge of the Cliff:
Restoring El Salvador's Environment
by Jose "Chencho" Alas

Where you have ecological violence - the destruction of nature - you cannot have peace. Our partner in El Salvador, the Coordinadora, recognizes this and is making great strides in the area where they work, including the environmentally sensitive Bay of Jiquilisco.

I remember a workshop I gave in Isla de Mendez eight or nine years ago. It's a fishing community along the Bay. Because it was very remote back in those days, about 4 hours from San Salvador, I arrived the night before. In the morning before the workshop, I took a walk on the beach. It was terrible! Instead of finding nature's beauty, I found all kinds of garbage, dead animals, and human waste! It was sad to see and awful to smell.

This landscape by Balbino Majano, one of the artists in the Rays of Light Youth Art Project, shows some of El Salvador's natural beauty. Photo by J Alas.

But even in the worst of circumstances we can find inspiration. Isla de Mendez is an Evangelical Christian community. They take their faith seriously, and many members of the community won't leave their homes without taking their Bible with them. I drew on my thirty years experience as a priest to reach out to them through the Bible, the source of their core values and principles.

We began the workshop by opening our Bibles to Genesis Chapter 1. That's where God creates light, and it was good, and the Earth, and it was good, and living creatures, and it was good. Seven times God reviews His creation, and it is good. Then we turned to Chapter 2, verse 15, where God instructed Adam to take care of the garden He had created.

After we'd finished reading I told everyone, "Lets take a break, but bring along your notepads and pencils in case you see anything you'd like to write down." So we took a walk on the beach, and when we returned to continue the workshop, the people from the community, through their own initiative, guided the workshop towards what they were going to do about the beach.

A couple of weeks later, I was back in San Salvador and received a call from someone from the community. He told me that they had a surprise for me that I had to come see. I protested, because it was a four-hour drive to get there and a four-hour drive to return to San Salvador. But he wouldn't tell me what the surprise was and he finally got me so curious that I went. It was amazing how they had transformed the beach. The community had organized and cleaned everything up! And even today, if you visit Isla de Mendez, you will see that they still keep the beach clean!

Talking with some rabbi friends about this experience, we saw that a workshop on the environment wouldn't have motivated the community to keep the beach clean. A seminar on human health or hygiene wouldn't done it either. Instead, the key was helping the community connect its core values and principles to their daily life. When they saw that they were out of tune with their own values, they formed a rock-solid commitment to fixing the situation.

This heart-felt link between values and daily life has made the Coordinadora successful. Its communities participate actively in the sustainable agriculture, conflict resolution, environmental, and other projects because of a very real commitment connected to the core of their being as individuals. It is this same kind of connection, by the way, that we seek to help people throughout Mesoamerica make -whether they are Christians, Mayans, Atheists, or something else-through the Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace Project.

Isla de Mendez's church, seen from the bay

Courage and Hope in the Face of Environmental Annihilation

El Salvador ranks 2nd only to Haiti in the western hemisphere for deforestation. Only 2% of the original forest cover now exists. This desperate environmental situation led many internationally-known environmental organizations to give up on the country completely. Many have said there is nothing left worth saving.El Salvador certainly faces tremendous environmental challenges. The more than 40% of the population that lives in poverty has more concerns about their daily survival than about the long-term consequences of cutting down trees for firewood, burning garbage, or polluting the water with human waste. In the Bay of Jiquilisco, through ignorance and a lack of alternatives, some people catch fish with dynamite. The rich and powerful see the Bay as a potential source of revenue: industrial shrimp farms, coastal hotels, and golf courses - all of which would produce toxic waste that could pour untreated into the Bay.

How is our partner, the Coordinadora, managing to overcome these circumstances? Most importantly, its grassroots work is firmly connected to the values and lives of the communities it serves. Everyone in the communities has the opportunity to participate in designing projects and setting priorities to respond to local needs. When they embrace composting, reforestation, or wood-saving stoves, its not just because those things help the environment but because they see a direct connection between those projects and their values of responsibility and self-management. The Coordinadora has taken to heart the lesson that only responsible management of natural resources will ensure that future generations will enjoy those resources. At the same time, its value of solidarity serves as a reminder that simply prohibiting activities that hurt the environment does not work in the face of poverty. It works with communities to find sustainable alternatives that help them overcome the poverty that can lead people to destroy whole forests for firewood, harvest turtle eggs into extinction, or throw their garbage away indiscriminately.

Many in the international environmental movement have said for years that El Salvador had few, if any, remaining natural areas worth saving. The Coordinadora, rather than focus on what has been lost, instead seeks to build on its strengths: Nancuchiname Forest, one of the few remaining old-growth forests in the country, and the Bay of Jiquilisco, a vital habitat for marine and wetland wildlife. Beginning with small projects around the Bay, the Coordinadora has built its credibility with international donor organizations as a responsible steward of the environment. Today, Miguel Ramirez, the head of the Coordinadodra's Environmental and Agriculture Programs, sits on the board of international grantmaker FIAES. The Coordinadora works in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment. Most significantly, it has parlayed its solid reputation and leveraged the FSSCA's general support grant into a major three-year grant from the Inter American Foundation to support sustainable agriculture.

During high tide, marine life lives and reproduces among mangrove roots like these. Photo by B Zeigler

New Challenges in the Bay of Jiquilisco

Despite progress, significant challenges remain to ensure the Bay of Jiquilisco's sustainability and health. The country's elite has already invested millions of dollars in plans to develop resorts, golf courses, and industrial shrimp farms. These same sorts of projects elsewhere have polluted the water, killed wildlife, undermined local fishers, and failed to produce the dignified jobs they promised to locals.

The Coordinadora and its communities have already won an important victory. Under the guise of an environmental protection law, the government sought to force local communities off their land on the bay, but leaving a back door open for development. Through massive organization and mobilization, the communities provided sufficient pressure to make it possible for local families to stay in their homes.

The challenge remains: the Coordinadora doesn't have the power to stop all development even if it wanted to. Instead, in the coming years it seeks to ensure that the changes respect the environment and the communities' values and principles.

New Staff & New Office

Alonso Sanchez began working part-time as our new Development Assistant in January. Originally from Puebla, Mexico, he is a Master's student at UT Austin, where he expects to graduate next year with a joint degree in Public Policy and Latin American Studies. Alonso provides key support in translations, fundraising, and more.

Leonidas Maravilla, a native Salvadoran, has worked with us since June as our El Salvador representative. Leonidas has several years of experience working with our partner, the Coordinadora, in a variety of capacities including delegations, translation, and project supervision. He will help put together reports, handle logistics for delegations and visitors, and provide support for the art project.

In January the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency moved out of Jose "Chencho" Alas's house in the suburbs and into an office in central Austin, TX. The new location has given us room to expand and brings us much closer to local volunteers and supporters.

SPECIAL THANKS

The solidarity of many generous individuals and organizations is making this work for peace and self-sufficiency possible. Outstanding donor organizations during the last few months include:

We are also thankful for the gifts made in honor and memory of hundreds of people, especially as part of the Romero Memorial Tree Project.

Finally, we are grateful to those who volunteer, raise money for the Tree Project and other purposes, and promote this important work in general.

Martyred Missionary Memorial Groves

Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could except for the children, the poor bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? --- Lay missionary Jean Donovan, two weeks before her murder

On the night of December 2, 1980, Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, of the Maryknoll order, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and layworker Jean Donovan, who were working as missionaries in El Salvador, were abducted, interrogated, abused, and murdered for their work with the Salvadoran poor.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of their martyrdom. These women devoted their lives to serve those in greatest need. Their noble tasks involved carrying out family education programs for the poor and distributing food and medical supplies for the homeless and dispossessed, particularly women and children.

The missionaries' work with El Salvador's poorest threatened sectors of the country's ruthless military dictatorship. Because its opponents spoke out in favor of the poor, the government interpreted all help for the poor as being subversive. Rather than working against the government, the missionaries dedicated all of their energy to following Jesus' example of serving the poor. Nonetheless, their benevolent work cost them their lives. Although five low ranking National Guardsmen were eventually sentenced for the murders, nobody else was brought to justice in what seemed to be a premeditated crime ordered from above.

The Foundation for Self-Sufficiency along with our Salvadoran partner, the Coordinadora, will plant fruit trees in memory of these extraordinary women. The fruit trees will be sown in groves around schools in El Salvador's Bajo Lempa region. In communities where most kids go to school hungry, their fruit will serve as one of the main sources of healthy snacks for children, who the missionaries cherished tremendously. This project will be a constant reminder of the power of regeneration, and the spirit and solidarity of the martyred women.

More than half of Oscar and Rosa's classmates go to school hungry. They look forward to the day when their snack time includes fresh fruits and juices. Photo by S Hale

The FSSCA is accepting gifts of $10 to plant a tree for this project. Donors can give in their own name or in honor or memory of a friend or family member.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TREES TO SCHOOLS IN EL SALVADOR

Earth Health & Public Health by Jeff Wheeland Wheeland, a Berkeley University graduate, lived and volunteered for four months in Salinas, a small community on the Bay of Jiquilisco.

I spent my time, like many volunteers, doing myriad activities. My initial plan was to teach English and computer skills, and although these tasks came to fruition, I spent most of my time in a much more imperative job: environmental and health work in Salinas del Potrero.

When I arrived to this community, many of the 100 plus families were living without the basic necessities of a toilet or a stove that did not fill the house with harmful smoke. Upon this alarming discovery, my priorities, as well as my perspectives, changed dramatically. My volunteer work quickly changed to helping this community with these most dire needs.

I began working with one of the Coordinadora's technicians, Luis, on this project to help the families of Salinas. We started the projects by helping the people in this community develop a plan to initiate the construction. Once created, the project began with the construction for a group of beneficiaries receiving 35 latrines and 35 outdoor, environmentally-friendly stoves. My experience began with learning the basic construction of latrines and stoves, and helping the members of the community to build them. As the project progressed, we worked with the community leaders to involve all of the beneficiaries in the construction of their own latrines and stoves. This phase was extremely important, as it gave the families a feeling of accomplishment and ownership. After the construction of the first group of latrines and stoves, we started a second group with an equal number of beneficiaries.

At the end of the construction phase, we began educating the people how to use the latrines and stoves properly. The latrines require a lot of maintenance, not only in their basic upkeep, but also to use the waste as fertilizer. When used properly, they reduce ground water contamination and help to eliminate rodents and insects from accumulating near the homes. We also inspected all of the newly built stoves and taught the beneficiaries how to use them properly. These new stoves require less firewood, thus decreasing the deforestation of the mangroves along the Bay of Jiquilisco and diminishing the smoke pollution. They reduce respiratory disease, which was very common in women and children due to smoke inhalation from the old open-fire stoves inside of the homes.

Alvaro (left), one of the Coordinadora's agronomists, trains community leaders from Salinas on making compost from household waste (rather than burning it). Photo by J Wheeland.

This project went beyond public health to the health of the ecosystem. The water tables were very high in Salinas due to its close proximity to the Bay of Jiquilisco, so any waste that sunk too far into the ground, or wasn't in a composting latrine would go directly into the water tables and contaminate the drinking water supply, which would then drain into the Bay and pollute it. The communities don't have many trees for firewood. Especially with Salinas's proximity to the Bay, the mangroves were easy targets for cheap firewood. It was much easier to cut the mangroves than fruit bearing trees, or shade bearing trees. The new wood-saving stoves are much more efficient, reducing firewood consumption by over half, which helps reduce smoke in the air and deforestation.

One of the wood-saving stoves. Note the solid walls to trap heat (saving firewood) and the chimney to carry away the smoke. Photo by T Karlin.

As a volunteer in Salinas del Potrero, I was extremely fortunate to witness an entire project from start to finish. From the planning, to the construction, all the way to the educational phases, I achieved a great sense of satisfaction helping the people of this impoverished area achieve some of the basic necessities that everyone should have. Now they can move on to composting and garbage management, as well as teaching horticulture and subsistence farming techniques to the community leaders, so they can pass along the knowledge. When we started, many families didn't even have latrines. They were so grateful to finally have the simple luxury of not relieving themselves in the fields (especially at night or in the rain) and to help reduce the illnesses that was plaguing their families. They were equally as excited to have the new efficient stoves, not only to reduce respiratory disease, but also to cut the cost of firewood and increase the efficiency of cooking in their homes.

The gratitude from the beneficiaries, all of whom were my neighbors and friends in Salinas, was the greatest form of payment I could receive for this work.

Mangrove Radio & the Environment

Mangrove Radio 106.9FM will play an important role in helping the environment in the Bajo Lempa Region. This community radio station, with the support of the New England Biolabs Foundation, will soon begin broadcasting a weekly Environmental Show.

Under the leadership of Rigoberto Martinez, the show will cover a variety of topics including organic agriculture, natural medicine, biodiversity, indigenous cultures and their respect for the earth, solid waste management, marine life, and ecology. Through this, the Coordinadora seeks to build awareness in the communities. Of course, because of the poverty in the region, they will also present alternatives that local families can afford.

Rigoberto Martinez, Project Coordinator for the Environmental Radio Show.Photo by S Hale

In addition to providing valuable training to Martinez and the Mangrove Radio team, the NEBF grant has also provided a stronger transmitter that will help the radio's signal reach most, perhaps all, of the communities along the Bay of Jiquilisco. Environmentally-oriented public service announcements throughout the week will compliment the hour-long show.

NEBF has also provided a volunteer, Juliana Baquero, through its ArtCorps program to support this and other environmental projects.

Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2005

The Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America is a US non-profit organization (501c3) dedicated to supporting the movement for Peace and Justice in Central America.