Natural capitalism

Just returned from an all-day meeting in the town of Rosario_da_Limeira on potential sources of income for local farmers from payment for environmental services. About 70 people attended, with about 25% farmers and the rest from NGOs, universities and the state government. The topic was a new program being proposed in the state legislature that would compensate farmers for actions taken to protect water sources, high biodiversity areas and forests for carbon sequestration. The idea is that such payments to land owners would justly pay for land uses that preserve valuable resources, and is an example of the principles put forth by Paul Hawken, who coined the term and wrote a book entitled "Natural Capitalism".

Last weekend I visited an experimental organic coffee farm in the local community of Graminha. The weekend before I went on a 13-hour pilgrimage hike to a cross on a mountaintop in Serra_do_Brigadero state park with Virgilio from Iracambi and several others from Graminha - an annual tradition here on May 3, known as the celebration of Santa Cruz.

During the week, I've been working on the computer system here - resolving map data organization and compatibility issues, and evaluating the quality of the existing map data. I've also been using the GIS to help develop a reforestation plan for the Iracambi fazenda. Most of the property is currently used for agriculture including cattle, tilapia (fish), sugarcane and eucalyptus for timber, but some of the pasture is planned to be converted to forest using seedlings from the tree nursery here for the production of medicinal plants or agroforestry crops.

Sunrise over mountains in Graminha

Destination of pilgrimage on the day of Santa Cruz

The fish farm at Iracambi

Harvesting eucalyptus

Presentation in Rosario (notice maps)

Iracambi's Marcelo - the Brazilian Neil Young

Natural capitalism

Rosario da Limeira, Brazil