Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program

In this issue

Update from Robin for ELP Alums & Friends:

Dr. Robin Marsh

Thanks very much to Joy and the authors of these newsletter articles for sharing their perspectives and experiences promoting “sustainable agriculture” in their respective countries. In this issue you will travel the world from land-locked, “green farming” in Rwanda to reclamation of drylands in Rajisthan, India, learn about sub-soil wealth from Sulastri in Indonesia, joint management of mining/agricultural operations in southern China, and, the latest on sustainable agriculture in Switzerland, where consumers heavily invest in “multi-functional agriculture”. It is wonderful to have ELPers still very active in the network from our charter year – 2001 (Hans, Ren), as well as all years hence.

2009 ELP was a very successful year. Soon you will all meet (2001-2009, 340 leaders!) via the elpalumni listserve. This is the first year we had women outnumber men – 20 women, 14 men, with several new countries joining our Berkeley ELP Alumni Network – Costa Rica, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka. We were saddened not to have Bill Sonnenschein with us…however, Philip Thomas has joined the ELP as an expert practitioner in collaborative leadership and democratic dialogue. We are very pleased to have him on board. Joy will share the course website link for you to see presentations and photos of your fellow alumni. Beto and Robin

I have recently returned from Costa Rica where I am carrying out research for a case study on the role of local leadership and collective action in promoting sustainable agriculture and “rural territorial development” in the northern boundary region between Costa Rica and Nicaragua (“Zona Norte”). ELP alumnus Beto Rivas (2008), Nicaraguan, accompanied me on this field trip along with Alfredo Malespin, Secretary of the Farmers’ Union of Costa Rica. We visited pineapple plantations (Costa Rica is now the 1st exporter of fresh pineapple in the world through unprecedented expansion), cacao producers, and several cooperatives of mixed crops, as well as conservation and women’s associations. There is a struggle in the region between dominance by large agro-business and resurgence of family farms, producer organizations, new farmers markets featuring locally produced, organic food, and incipient eco-tourism. It is hoped that the local leadership capacity-building and institutional support by IICA/Programa de Desarrollo Rural will help tip the balance toward inward-focused territorial development.

The “Zona Norte” case study is one of ten that will be featured as part of the “Ag Bridge” project, that seeks to connect university students with the real life experiences and challenges of rural territories in the United States, Central America, Africa and Asia via a state-of-the-art web portal. “Ag Bridge” is a collaborative project with Cornell, UC Berkeley (CSRD) and Ecoagriculture Partners, funded by USDA. Stay tuned for more on this project, and ways for your respective universities to get involved!

That’s all from Robin for now.