Ecovilla Updates
Our Regenerative Efforts So Far
There aren’t many templates for how to regenerate our earth.
There are even less for how to build a regenerative community.
But here we are at Ecovilla, having built the La Ecovilla Original, and now Ecovilla San Mateo, we are exploring regenerative action while creating a better way to live.
While we acknowledge that regeneration has become a buzzword, we embrace regenerative principles as the only healthy future available to us.
We have deep heart for the planet and the complex natural systems we live in, so we are learning every day how we can better serve these systems to do what they do best — regenerate themselves!
We commit to regenerating the local area of San Mateo, and it starts with the land and the water. See how we do it.
Regenerating Land Data on Regenerative Efforts
Ecovilla is lucky to be led by a skilled permaculture team and our regeneration manager, Yãm Aisner, who has worked on projects like Punta Mona, Walkers Institute, and the Sustainability Laboratory.
Learn about what our team has been up to these past two years!
Trees
💚 10,791 trees in our nursery to reforest the Ecovilla San Mateo property
💚 223 varieties of native trees to be planted
💚 743 trees planted already
Climate Change Mitigation Activities
💚 16,346 tons of CO2 sequestered
💚 15,666 kg of biochar produced onsite, sequestering 28 tons of CO2
💚 45 tons of CO2 sequestered through permaculture activities
This is in addition to creating a syntropic agroforestry system in the entrance to ESM, planting fruit trees, and managing natural resources onsite.
Big thanks to our permaculture team for leading the regenerative efforts onsite.
Regenerating Water
Here in the Machuca Valley, our local watershed is nested inside of the Jesus-Maria watershed, which has been cited by CATIE as the #1 most degraded watershed in all of Costa Rica.
We can't stand for it.
Our beautiful Machuca River is full of quartz rock! You can find geodes scattered everywhere walking along the banks.
La Regeneracion de la Cuenca is a local intiative formed by many of the loca communities to regenerate this watershed.
Members of our regeneration team, Yam and Alejandro, take an active role in supporting this community initative in coordination with inspired leaders from neighboring communities like Alegria, as well as local activists.
The goals of the project include:
🌿 Coordinate replanting riparian trees along the river banks
🌿 Educate and support local farmers to transition to proper land usage
🌿 Mobilize local community members around regenerative efforts
🌿 Explore viable economic alternatives for locals practicing agriculture and pastoral activities, supporting a social regeneration
Members of our community have been exploring a bottom-up approach and have already:
1. Identified leaders in the local community
2. Discussed issues faced
3. Explored ways to envision the appropriate action to take
The issue is complicated, and Ecovilla does not attempt to take credit for this multi-stakeholder intiative. However, in the small ways that we can support this intiative, we do.
After an environmental conservation lawyer joined the volunteer effort, Yam created a new map to see how land use is affecting erosion around the Machuca River. The results show that cow pasturing in highlands is directly related to highest levels of riverbank degradation.
This is important because the watershed is directly related to healthy ecosystems and an adequate water carrying capacity for our community members.
The Future of Machuca
One of our commitments as a company is to only get involved in developing communities in previously degraded areas.
This creates an opportunity to revitalize and regenerate the ecologically and socially vulnerable areas of our planet, and explore this path to regeneration together with the local community.
The Machuca River criss-crosses many communities, and it is important to all of us to have a healthy riverside.
We are proud of our efforts, but we know this is a journey.
If you live in the Machuca Valley, and would like to get involved in this community-wide intiative, please comment below and we will reach out.
Thank you for reading this! If you haven’t yet attended a webinar about La Ecovilla, sign up for a informative session about how we are building a regenerative community here in San Mateo, Costa Rica.
If you’ve been curious about living in La Ecovilla for awhile, reach out to one of our sales agents to book a call and tour the community.
