Tag Archive for: Landscape Restoration

A Vision for the Social and Ecological Regeneration of Mexico City’s Xochimilco Wetlands

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By Mayra Rubio Lozano

MEXICO CITY – Xochimilco is a city south of Mexico City best known for its canals. The area’s wetlands,  recognized for their important biological and cultural value, are why Xochimilco is named as a World Heritage Site (UNESCO) and Site of Agricultural Importance (FAO). 

Humedalia is a Mexican organization that works for the conservation and restoration of the Mexican wetlands. It is part of the Regeneration International partner network and as such, has applied for the Scientific and Technical committee evaluation program of the 4 per 1000 initiative. 

Humedalia’s work focuses on the chinampas of Xochimilco. (Chinampas refers to a system of growing crops in floating gardens created in shallow lake beds, using farming techniques developed by the Aztecs).

Agricultural production in chinampas, or islands of arable land, started over 800 years ago.  When the first tribes that settled in the Mexico basin, they were able to produce 4t/ha of crops. These high yields allowed the development of big urban settlements, such as what we have today in Mexico City. These cities generated a big demand for water resources, and ultimately led to the transfer of agriculture to urban soil.

Today, Xochimilco’s wetland and its landscape of chinampas retain only 2 percent of the fresh water that was originally in the basin. This agricultural landscape is highly threatened by processes linked to urbanization and the devaluation of the farmers’ labor. About  80 percent of the chinampas are abandoned, and water pollution has deteriorated the soil’s fertility. The few agricultural producers that remain face steep competition and low profits, because the intensive agricultural model, mostly subsidized, has forced these producers to lower the prices.

Despite the negative impact of urbanization, Xochimilco’s wetlands remain vital for Mexico City. They provide multiple environmental benefits, such as microclimate regulation, water catchment and recharge of the groundwater reserves, oxygen and food production, nutrient recycling and carbon sequestration. In a city where air pollution levels usually exceed healthy standards, carbon sequestration is fundamental for the city’s resilience. Wetlands sequester large amounts of carbon (0.4-32 Mg ha-1 year-1) in their sediments because of their anaerobic conditions, which slow the rate of decay of organic matter, facilitating carbon accumulation. In turn, carbon sequestration can be optimized by using traditional farming techniques (sustainable) in the chinampas in combination with new organic farming techniques, such as the biointensive method. 

This project seeks to increase carbon sequestration through a water-soil systemic approach. By restoring canals and rehabilitating hectares of idle land, the quality of the water available for watering will improve, and the chinampas’ soil will be regenerated, leading to an increase in the amount of the ecosystem’s carbon sequestration.

The project also will contribute to the local endemic flora and fauna’s habitat protection, such as the axolotl Ambystoma mexicanum, a type of salamander known as the Mexican walking fish. Protecting local flora and fauna will help restore the cultural identity linked to ancestral agriculture that survives in the hands of traditional farmers.

This project for regenerating the chinampas soil (rehabilitation, growing and maintenance) will provide the local community opportunities to increase family income and engage multiple generations, creating a space for the exchange of knowledge and experiences about ancestral farming techniques. Women and children who typically don’t participate directly in food production can become involved in marketing, sales and processing. 

In turn, regenerated chinampas will produce healthier foods. 

As part of the Regeneration International partner network, and applying for the 4 per 1000 initiative, Humedalia project helps improve socio-ecological conditions of Xochimilco’s wetland. Carbon sequestration will have a positive direct impact on the air quality of one of the most polluted cities in the world. But the project will also focus on the social aspect, improving the wellbeing of the community by generating self-employment at the chinampas, and creating the right conditions for social participation through collaborative networks that strengthen the community. 

Mayra Rubio Lozano is director of scientific research and sustainable development for Humedalia A.C. To keep up with Regeneration International news, sign up for our newsletter.

 

Natural, Biodiverse Forests More Reliable at Fighting Climate Change than Plantations

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How reliable are long-lived plantations composed of a few species for carbon capture, when compared with natural tropical forests that comprise many species?

Fighting climate change through reforestation activities, such as large-scale plantations, has gained global traction over recent years. To reduce carbon emissions, international efforts such as the Bonn Challenge and Paris Climate Accord have promoted tapping into the power of trees that suck in and sequester carbon in multiple ways.

Researchers conducted a study in one of India’s biodiversity hotspots, the Western Ghats. They compared carbon storage and rates of carbon capture of mature mono-dominant plantations, with those of neighboring natural forests harbouring a diverse mix of native species.

Although mono-dominant plantations could match natural biodiverse forests in terms of carbon capture and storage potential, the latter were more stable and hence more reliable in their ability to capture carbon over the years, particularly in the face of droughts.

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How Farming Can Save Our Lakes and Rivers

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Veganism, which is a completely plant-based diet, is on the rise, by some studies as much as 600% since 2014. Six-percent of Americans now identify as vegan. Some vegans even extend the practice to their clothing, eschewing not only leather and fur, but also cosmetics and accessories that do not meet “cruelty-free” standards.

One of the top reasons people give for going completely animal-free in their diet is the environment. Vegan activists point to the fact that one pound of hamburger requires 1,799 gallons of water not only for the cow itself, but for the grain and corn it eats. Added to that is the pollution created not only from animal waste (this can be extremely significant in large feedlot operations for poultry, hogs and beef) but the pesticides, fungicides and herbicides used to grow the food the animal eats.

Increasingly vegans point out that meat production “contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef bleaching and deforestation.

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COVID-19: Lecciones de la pandemia para un planeta saludable

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Los científicos han demostrado que enfermedades como el nuevo coronavirus SARS-COV2 (COVID-19) y la enfermedad del Ébola pueden surgir debido a los desequilibrios de los ecosistemas en los bosques.

En los últimos meses, esta hipótesis ha ganado terreno en la cobertura de los principales medios de comunicación, impulsando la noción de que el COVID-19 es zoonótico, transmitido desde un murciélago a otro animal, posiblemente un pangolín o un perro, infectando inicialmente a los humanos en un mercado en la ciudad china de Wuhan.

Tres de cada cuatro enfermedades infecciosas nuevas o emergentes se originan en animales, según los datos del Centro para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades de EE. UU., que indica que, en general, los animales han sido el vector de más del 60 por ciento de las enfermedades infecciosas.

La investigación sobre la relación entre los virus y los bosques desarrollada por el Centro para la Investigación Forestal Internacional (CIFOR) muestra que tales transmisiones de animales a humano, y luego de humano a humano, pueden ocurrir cuando los ecosistemas forestales son desprovistos de su biodiversidad natural.

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Restoring Soils Could Remove up to ‘5.5bn Tonnes’ of Greenhouse Gases Every Year

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Replenishing and protecting the world’s soil carbon stores could help to offset up to 5.5bn tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, a study finds.

This is just under the current annual emissions of the US, the world’s second largest polluter after China.

Around 40 per cent of this carbon offsetting potential would come from protecting existing soil carbon stores in the world’s existing forests, peatlands and wetlands, the authors say.

In many parts of the world, such soil-based “natural climate solutions” could come with co-benefits for wildlife, food production and water retention, the lead author tells Carbon Brief.

Ground up

The top metre of the world’s soils contains three times as much carbon as the entire atmosphere, making it a major carbon sink alongside forests and oceans.

Soils play a key role in the carbon cycle by soaking up carbon from dead plant matter. Plants absorb CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and this is passed to the ground when dead roots and leaves decompose.

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Isadora Molina: “En Chile falta comprender al suelo como un ser vivo que tiene muchas funciones, no solo como sustrato”

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Hace 30 años, Isidora Molina (35) corría por el campo de sus padrinos las cercanías de Panguipulli, en la Región de Los Ríos. Aunque fue pocas veces, cada vez que visitaba este lugar su tío le enseñaba sobre labores que ejercían en la zona, y la llevaba a recorrer. Así, conoció la agricultura como parte del paisaje y se maravilló, a través de sus conversaciones con los vecinos, con la agricultura familiar o de baja escala.

Actualmente el panorama de Isidora no es muy distinto. Cambió porque ya no es una niña, y es ella misma quien ayuda a guiar a otros sobre el cuidado del suelo y la agricultura en sus propios campos. Loa hace a través de un emprendimiento que fundó hace seis añosÑ Efecto Manada, en el que usa técnicas de pastoreo de animales herbívoros para restablecer la estructura saludable del suelo, y áspid mejorar la productividad del terreno.

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Ganadería regenerativa

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La agricultura es concebida como el manejo de la Naturaleza (Primavesi A.) y la regeneración consiste en la recuperación de los procesos vitales de los ecosistemas.

Los componentes del ecosistema pastoril (la pastura o el pastizal, el ganado y el suelo) funcionan en forma sistémica, es decir, interrelacionados e interdependientes. El manejo de cada uno de ellos debe realizarse en forma holística, es decir, teniendo en cuenta al entero, a la totalidad.

Manejo de la producción vegetal

El objetivo de la producción vegetal es su maximización: cuanto más forraje se produzca en la finca y esta sea de la mejor calidad, se dispondrá de más insumos para la producción animal y habrá menor dependencia de insumos externos.

Para ello se debe incentivar la fotosíntesis. Lo cual se consigue respetando los ciclos biológicos del pasto por medio de descanso adecuado después del pastoreo y corte oportuno cuando el mismo haya alcanzado su máxima tasa de crecimiento, manteniendo así la mayor cantidad de hojas verdes eficientes fotosintéticamente.

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The Secret Behind Costa Rica’s Remarkable Green Transformation

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Aldo Sánchez surveys a field of lofty banana trees with cacao plants bursting with fruit nestled beneath them. “Two and a half years ago, this was pure pasture,” he says. Indeed, his neighbor’s field is just grass.

Four decades ago, a swath of land including Sánchez’s farm in Jabillos in central Costa Rica was deforested to plant coffee. It was later turned over to cattle, but ranching dried up when prices collapsed. Cacao — the raw material for chocolate — had not been planted since the late 1970s, when the monilia fungus destroyed 80 percent of the national crop.

“Even 10 kilometers [6 miles] away, people couldn’t believe we were planting cacao because the last people to do that were their grandparents,” Sánchez says.

His farm is a successful example of agroforestry — the sustainable combination of crops with trees — that is complementing Costa Rica’s remarkable reforestation in the past three decades.

Today, with exuberant tropical vegetation cloaking its countryside, it’s hard to imagine that the Central American nation of 5 million people could once have been any greener.

 

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Proponen salvar el permafrost con una masa de grandes herbívoros

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MADRID, 27 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Investigadores de Oxford estiman que introducir en masa grandes herbívoros en la tundra ártica para restaurar el ecosistema y mitigar el calentamiento global resulta económicamente viable.

Se sabe que los animales que pastan como los caballos y los bisontes diseñan el paisaje a su alrededor, por ejemplo, suprimiendo el crecimiento de los árboles pisoteando o comiendo árboles jóvenes. Cuando este proceso se aprovecha para restaurar un ecosistema a un estado anterior, se denomina reconstrucción. También se puede usar para cambiar un ecosistema a un estado diferente pero más deseable. Esto se conoce como ingeniería de ecosistemas megafaunales.

En muchas partes del mundo, los ecosistemas forestales se consideran los más importantes para restaurar debido a su capacidad para almacenar carbono. Pero en la tundra ártica, cambiar el paisaje de la vegetación leñosa a los pastizales mejoraría la protección del permafrost rico en carbono, reduciría las emisiones de carbono asociadas con el deshielo del permafrost y aumentaría la captura de carbono en el suelo.

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Carbon Gardening: A Natural Climate Solution that Can Help Reduce CO2 Emissions While Restoring Biodiversity

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Gardeners new to the concept of carbon gardening often ask these two questions: What good soil management strategies will help maximize carbon sequestration? And, what would be a good plant palette to help accomplish this? Good questions both, to which I wish I could give detailed, specific answers. Carbon gardening in northern Illinois, where I live, differs from carbon gardening in other regions; each will require region-specific strategies and plant palettes. Everything depends on where the gardener lives and the conditions in which they are gardening. Thus, what follows is more in the way of a general discussion that might help point in the right direction than a series of rigid prescriptions.

Organic carbon sequestration is one of the oldest tricks in nature’s ancient playbook for global ecosystem regulation. These days, as we search for ways to pull excess carbon out of the atmosphere in order to mitigate global warming, new attention has focused on “natural climate solutions,” or managing land for carbon sequestration by conserving and restoring ecosystems and changing agricultural and gardening practices.

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