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EcoLogic empowers rural and indigenous peoples to restore and protect tropical ecosystems in Central America and Mexico.

"Golden" Prize for guama advocate

We are pleased to congratulate José Salvador Toc who recently received Heifer International's Golden Talent Award for "visionary leadership" in his community. Don Salvador, a farmer from Ixcan in Guatemala, has been an active community collaborator with EcoLogic and local partner, the Northern Border Municipalities Alliance (MFN), since our project work began in the area in 2005.

Don Salvador has always been an active participant in community consultations and workshops, but his championing of the use of Inga or guama (Spanish) trees in agroforestry is what truly set him apart. In 2008, EcoLogic provided Don Salvador with technical training in agroforestry techniques, and gave him guama seeds to start his own plot. Just two years later, Don Salvador was harvesting 40% more corn from the corn stalks grown between the guama trees, and the guama leaves were suppressing weeds and mulching the soil so no extra fertilizer was needed. Wanting to share this knowledge and help his community, Don Salvador began to encourage farmers near and far to visit his parcel. To this day he provides trainings to any who wish help, and donates guama seeds to the community and his neighbors whenever he can. The award from Heifer, recognizes this pioneering spirit and personal dedication.

In addition to the $200 cash prize, Don Salvador also received waterproof boots, a bag of corn seed, and money for more guama seed. Ten EcoLogic-trained forest guardians who gave early help to Don Salvador and to the agroforestry program, also received corn seed, boots, and a coupon for guama seeds redeemable when available. We're happy to report guama seed is now in demand!

In 2010, EcoLogic and MFN, began a three year collaboration with Heifer to develop and put in place community-driven initiatives to promote sustainable resource management, forest and watershed protection, and better food security. A central objective of the partnership is to increase knowledge exchange and training opportunities among the 60 communities to accelerate the adoption of successful activities – such as guama agroforestry plots, and training for volunteer forest guardians or park rangers – throughout the target area.

EcoLogician Frances Moore Lappé:

A conversation with the writer, activist and EcoLogic supporter

Frances Moore Lappé is a well known writer and activist who first became known in 1971 for her groundbreaking book “Diet for A Small Planet” which argued persuasively that the industrial food system was largely responsible for world hunger and food insecurity, not natural disasters or environmental limits. In 2001, she founded the Small Planet Institute with her daughter, Anna, to promote a world-wide movement toward “Living Democracy.” They define Living Democracy as an ethos in which “citizens infuse the values of inclusion, fairness and mutual accountability into all dimensions of public life” leading to a just and sustainable society.

EcoLogic Founding Director Shaun Paul and Frances Moore Lappé

In August 2002, Frances Moore Lappé travelled to Johannesburg, South Africa to attend The World Summit on Sustainable Development — otherwise known as Rio+10 or the Earth Summit. She stayed with friends from Vermont who had brought together a group of visitors to share a place to stay for the week. There, over breakfast, Lappé and another attendee, EcoLogic Founding Director Shaun Paul, struck up a conversation. They had much in common including a passion for social justice and a commitment to protecting the natural world. They were also both living and working in the greater Boston area, and Lappé had recently begun looking for new office space for her nascent organization, the Small Planet Institute. As it so happened, EcoLogic had extra space to offer. Thus began a mutually beneficial relationship between the two organizations which has provided camaraderie, a cross-pollination of ideas, and as Lappé observes, a “fecund work environment of mutuality and respect.”

No doubt that many EcoLogic supporters know you as an author—of 18 books now!—and a speaker and an activist. How would you characterize what you do and why?

FML: My life's mission is to help people find their power, so they can engage in the world in a meaningful way. Unless we can see what is the causal pattern creating needless misery, it is very hard to feel that our individual actions add up to anything. People say, "I'm just a drop in the bucket," and disparage themselves and their impact. The Small Planet Institute counter is, "Hey, buckets fill up really fast on a rainy night." So my whole life has been devoted to helping people see the "bucket" of Living Democracy emerging so they can believe in the power of the rainstorm.

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Photos highlight projects and progress

In the end of 2011 we launched our new photo gallery with images of some of the faces and places that make up EcoLogic. In our gallery you can find out about some of our new and ongoing projects such as our Oak Foundation-supported binational effort along the Sarstún River that lies at the border between Belize and Guatemala. Here we are bringing together Guatemalans and Belizeans to help them find ways to sustainably manage and protect the mangroves, coastal waters and fish stocks they rely on.  In this place that both countries claim, cooperative management is key to the long-term survival of this prolific ecosystem.

Looking back and moving forward 

Annual Report - 2010

We are pleased to share with you EcoLogic's 2010 annual report! We are very happy with our publication, and this year's new look and feel. Within we highlight some of our achievements, introduce you to a few of the extraordinary people and organizations we work with, and tell you about some of the ways we are helping rural communities restore and protect the natural habitats around them. We hope you enjoy it, too.

Read our annual report and find out more about our work.