Regeneration Nation Costa Rica
Dec 2, 2020
002 Ed Bernhardt: A Deep Ecologist's Tips on Soil Building, Brewing Bio-ferments, and Educating the Next Generation (New Dawn Center)
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In today’s episode, we visit with Ed Bernhardt at the New Dawn Center/Finca Alba Nueva, in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica. Ed is a deep ecologist, and author for several newspaper & magazine articles in Costa Rica, including the Tico times. Ed shares with us tips for soil building & supporting your plant’s immune system with a recipe that he calls “kombucha for the plants,” He also shares stories about what it was like to homestead in the 80’s, in Costa Rica, while teaching organic gardening to the locals from young school children to University students. Ed is developing an online course to continue reaching out to those who are willing to receive the wisdom that he has to share, earned over 40 years of gardening in the tropics. Ed also grows a variety of medicinal plants that he processes with his wife for sales at the local farmer’s market. If Ed’s description of his bio-ferments has you wanting more, be sure to check out the YouTube video that we created…
More episodes from Regeneration Nation Costa Rica
Sep 25, 2023
025 Ian-Michael Hébert: Ecovillage Design with Reciprocity at Heart (HOLOS)
In this episode, we speak with Ian-Michael Hébert, one of the founders of Holos, a private retreat center and community specializing in holistic living and transformational experiences.
In our conversation, he discusses the genesis of Holos, their vision for a sustainable and resilient community, and the importance of focusing on reciprocity and honoring the indigenous people of the land. Ian-Michael also emphasizes the importance of preserving the natural beauty of the Diamante Valley and their commitment to stewardship.
Among other details of the community’s infrastructure, he describes their design for conserving a quarter of the property while reforesting most of the already denatured zones. They also have plans for a macaw reintroduction initiative.
Ian-Michael reflects on challenges they’ve faced in getting set up with elements such as water management, communication breakdowns with the municipality, and bridging the gap between foreigners and locals.
As we discuss the importance of supporting the local community, paying fair wages, and engaging with local service providers, Ian-Michael affirms Holos’s goal to continue reassessing their programming to focus more on community relations and neighborhood development.
Other topics we touched on include developing a clear vision, team building, project financing, and embracing the wisdom of not knowing.
I appreciate the degree to which Holos works to cultivate reciprocity with surrounding humans and the natural world. As important as it is, it can be challenging to keep such delicate subtleties at the forefront while in the development phase and when juggling the needs of investors and push-back from the municipality, but it’s the path worth walking.
Setting space aside to develop housing and other infrastructure for the Costa Rican and indigenous Boruca people, who compile much of their labor force, is a significant investment. I’ve been happy to see this practice implemented among some of the other ecovillage projects I’ve been investigating, as well. It’s a valuable step in honoring the needs of their workforce while holding space for the local culture and providing stability for the project.
Another element I’ve found attractive among the ecovillages I’ve been looking into is the effort to lay out a portion of the community infrastructure kept open for the use of the regional community, which is also represented in Holos’s design.
Something that echoed strongly for me in this interview is that it can be difficult to handle people’s projections when operating a project of this size. Gossip can be plentiful, and the most altruistically intending projects are often the easiest targets for it by those who are doing less, feeling like a project of that size should be able to do it all. I’m glad that Ian-Miachael plans to hold more events to bring the local community in to see more of what’s happening there.
Another detail that stuck out for me was Ian-Michael’s share of finding the right team. This topic often comes up with other landowners and entrepreneurs I work with. When looking for your team, it’s essential to identify your strengths, clearly describe your needs, make a humble ask out to your community, and have patience as it comes together.
Before letting you go, I’d like to address a housekeeping detail regarding working with a team. About 2/3rds into the interview, there's a moment where I described my efforts to help with a road repair fundraiser a couple of years ago. Relistening to it, I recognize I used a lot of “I” languaging.
I feel it important to clarify that I wasn’t the only member of the Diamante Bridge Collective who went to the Association meeting to learn about the pueblo’s needs, nor was I the only person behind the fundraiser. I might have been the one who initiated it, but raising that much money was a multicultural community effort and a testament to the power of cooperation.
I hope your life unfolds in a continuous stream of miracles. Remember to design reciprocity in all that you create.
One way to reciprocate any value you’ve been getting from the show is to subscribe to the podcast, rate us on Apple, comment on a YouTube video, donate to our Ko-fi.com fund, or share an episode with a fellow ecovillage enthusiast.
Until next time,
Keep it connected!
To learn more about HOLOS:
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Website: https://holos.global
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Social Media: @holos.global
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Basecamp video tour of HOLOS retreat center, bamboo structures, and glamping tents:
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Ecovillage Panel Discussion at Envision Festival 2023: https://youtu.be/vBqHwM5x01U
This episode is brought to you by, well, YOU! I haven’t built up my audience enough to have attracted sponsors and all that, so instead of buying an organic cotton shirt or an online course, maybe you can just buy me a coffee!
Go to https://ko-fi.com/regenerationnationcr to drop a few dollars in the bucket and let me know you care.
You can now also visit our website’s Resources page to find lots of great information and products that many have found to improve their lives. Visit: https://regenerationnationcr.com/resources
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a short review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. It takes less than a minute, and it makes a difference in helping to spread the word about our mission to others looking to improve their own projects.
Special thanks to Albán Corrales and Eduardo Sant Anna for editing this episode!
Music: Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4291-rite-of-passage
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Follow Regeneration Nation Costa Rica: https://regenerationnationcr.com
RegeneraVida: https://regeneravida.com/groups/regenerationnationcr
Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/regenerationnationcr
Instagram: https://instagram.com/regenerationnationcr
Twitter: https://twitter.com/regenerationnationcr
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Jul 25, 2023
024 Sarah Wu: Cultivating a Regenerative Envision Festival
In today’s episode, we hear from Sarah Wu, a highly respected permaculturist & herbalist living and teaching in Costa Rica. I sat down with Sarah at the Envision Festival earlier this year to learn about some of the regenerative initiatives the festival has implemented as part of its mission.
Envision is a multi-day music festival with several stages and thousands of participants. By day, the focus is characterized by consciousness-raising workshops and presentations on permaculture, community-building, yoga, wellness, the embodiment of the divine masculine and feminine, and honor of indigenous ways. All this is presented with an overall theme of mindfulness and play.
By night, the arena becomes flooded by a secondary population of party-goers enjoying the many talented DJs and musicians playing on Envision’s many stages. You can find everything from electronic music to jam bands and local folk artists to ecstatic dance on the padded yoga stage. The experience can be overwhelming for some, and advice should be heeded to pace yourself, hydrate, and wash your hands frequently.
The festival brings with it a significant impact on the local town of Uvita, both in the ways of a boosted economy as well as occasional exhausts of some of its more limited resources. Like with all things in life, there exists a dichotomy that the festival producers have worked to bring balance to over the years.
In our interview, beyond sharing details about the thousands of trees they’ve planted onsite, their extensive composting system, the no-single-use-dishware policy, and the education programs that Sarah has initiated through the Village Witches program, we touch on the reasons why Envision isn’t using compost toilets anymore and what a future solution might look like.
One of my favorite parts of the interview is when we reflect on valuing each of our different niches in humanity’s ecosystem.
Festivals of this size are here to stay, and they can prove to be a life-changing experience for many people. At the same time, many festivals can get a bad rap for the negative impact of so many people converging on an area for a short time. While the convergence has a temporary impact on the wildlife, for instance, it is worth recognizing that the food forest of this festival site was previously nothing more than a cattle pasture.
Their internally organized dishwashing system diverts hundreds of thousands of plastic waste products from the landfill each year. The Village Witches program has cultivated a culture of well-being amidst a party scene, bringing herbalism to the mainstream.
The festival has also done a lot to bring hundreds of jobs to the local economy before, during, and after the event. They’ve also done a lot of work over the years to harmonize the ecosystem of the festival production, staff, artists, attendees, volunteers, and other influences.
In the interview, we didn’t cover what Envision’s non-profit foundation Somos el Cambio continues to do for the neighboring region.
With the leadership of Federico Gutierez, Somos el Cambio
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Has planted over 17,000 trees directly by Envision staff and volunteers,
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And over 80,000 more trees with Envision’s support.
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They’ve donated $18,000 of medical equipment to the local hospital in Ciudad Cortes for COVID relief efforts.
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$7,800 was donated to the Uvita community food bank, a Foundation in charge of identifying and distributing food to those families in greatest need.
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More than 4,600 trees have been planted with the local water board to protect the springs that feed water to all of Uvita.
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Eight monkey bridges have been built through a cooperative alliance with The Electrical Institute of Costa Rica.
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They’ve donated $17k to fund local water system upgrades.
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And over 30 tons of trash have been recollected during clean-up activities nationwide.
If you’d like to catch a glimpse of some of the workshops that took place at Envision, I recorded a few of them for the Envision Festival Playlist on our YouTube Channel. Among them is a panel discussion on the challenges that can arise in Building Eco-Villages, a talk about Decolonizing Permaculture, and some other exciting bits.
If you’re new to Regeneration Nation Costa Rica, subscribe to the podcast to stay updated with future releases. You can also keep up by joining our email list through our website, regenerationnationcr.com.
That’s what I’ve got for you this time.
Now, go out and be the change!
To follow more of Sarah’s contributions toward a regenerative world, check out:
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https://Envisionfestival.com
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https://villagewitch.org/
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@sarahwu.villagewitch.original
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@envisionfestival
Other recommendations from Sarah:
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https://www.Somoselcambio.org
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@Jaidev108
This episode is brought to you by, well, YOU! I haven’t built up my audience enough to have attracted sponsors, so instead of buying an organic cotton shirt or an online course, maybe you can just buy me a coffee!
Go to https://ko-fi.com/regenerationnationcr to drop a few dollars in the bucket and let me know you care.
You can now also visit our website’s Resources page to find lots of great information and products that many have found to improve their lives. Visit: https://regenerationnationcr.com/resources
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a short review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. It takes less than a minute, and it makes a difference in helping to spread the word about our mission to others looking to improve their projects.
Special thanks toAlbán Corrales for editing this episode!
Music: Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4291-rite-of-passage
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Follow Regeneration Nation Costa Rica: https://regenerationnationcr.com
RegeneraVida: https://regeneravida.com/groups/regenerationnationcr
Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/regenerationnationcr
Instagram: https://instagram.com/regenerationnationcr
Twitter: https://twitter.com/regenerationnationcr
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@regenerationnationcr
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May 19, 2023
023 Scott Gallant: Permaculture Development within a Holistic Context (Porvenir Designs)
In this episode, we meet with Scott Gallant, a permaculture consultant at Porvenir Design. I took advantage of the pragmatism he’s developed through his many years here to explore some of the pitfalls he’s seen with foreigners building large-scale developments. We also explore ways he guides his clients toward transmuting those potential problems into solutions.
Through his design and consultation work, Scott often finds himself inviting his clients to slow down and simplify their visions. Scott practices what he preaches, and we get into some of the ways he applies the Holistic Context approach to his own business. He also describes his experiences starting and operating a business in Costa Rica, along with the advantages and disadvantages of doing things by the books.
The second half of the interview gets really interesting as we discuss ways he trains new landowners how to be mindful of the context they’re building in. This includes setting reasonable expectations for your laborers and investing in appropriate education for them, especially if you want them to do things in a way they aren’t familiar with. Setting your work team up with unreasonable expectations is a hasty and unhealthy practice.
Investing into adequately training your workers in the techniques you want them to implement is a far more efficient use of your time, money, and relationships than telling them to do something they only know how to do from a conventional lens and expecting it to meet your end goals.
You’ll want to check out Scott’s blog. He’s an excellent writer who touches on many interesting topics.
I’d like to thank you for caring enough about what you’re doing to listen to this podcast as part of your personal development journey. If you know someone developing land in Latin America that would benefit from what Scott shared with us in this episode, consider passing it along to them. If they don’t often listen to podcasts, we host all of our episodes and more on our YouTube channel.
Keep in mind that the show has a profile on a donation platform called ko-fi.com. There’s a donate button on most pages of the website. It always makes my day when I get an email announcing that someone cared enough to support the show.
If sending in cash to help cover editing costs isn’t accessible to you, send me a message and let me know what you like about the show. I love hearing from you.
You can send an email to jason@regenerationnationcr.com, and I’ll get back to you personally.
Until next time, have a holistic day!
To follow more of Scott’s contributions toward a regenerative world, check out:
Website - Porvenirdesign.com
IG - https://www.instagram.com/scottplantstrees/
Other recommendations from Scott:
* Holistic Context: Holistic Decision Making - Dan Palmer
* Making Permaculture Stronger Podcast interview with Scott
* Holistic Management eBook by Alan Saveries
* Toby Hemingway’s Gaia’s Garde
* The Resilient Farm and Homestead
* The Overstory Book
This episode is brought to you by, well, YOU! I haven’t built up my audience enough to have attracted sponsors and all that, so instead of buying an organic cotton shirt or an online course, maybe you can just buy me a coffee!
Go to https://ko-fi.com/regenerationnationcr to drop a few dollars in the bucket and let me know you care.
You can now also visit our website’s Resources page to find lots of great information and products that many have found to make their lives better. Visit: https://regenerationnationcr.com/resources
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. It takes less than a minute, and it really makes a difference in helping to spread the word about our mission to others looking to improve their own projects.
For transcripts of this episode, visit ….
Special thanks to Albán Corrales for editing this episode & Eduardo for editing the video!
Music: Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4291-rite-of-passage
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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