Impressions of our afternoon sessions with the local students 2016

Group picture after our field trip to the local tree nursery

Picking up waste on our way to the tree nursery - an eye-opening experience for all of us (including Nic, the human garbage can, who had to carry the shocking amount of litter we found on our short way).

Listening to local government official Ramiro Alcoser explaining the purpose and functioning of the tree nursery and the local reforestation program. We learned a lot, our students showed great interest and participated by posing very good questions.

Jeff demonstrating the functioning and dangers of water contamination through a well prepared small scale simulation.

A normal day at class: Presenting about sustainable energy, water and waste management. Most of our theoretical input generated a lot of participation by our students and great discussions with them.

Bonding in our spare time: Hiking with Renato and José (l.); on our way to the "Virgen del Cisne" procession with Steeven (r.).

Our Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Development (SEDV) Interns in Mindo 2016

Margarita, Jeff and Nic presenting our program at the opening event

Maria Margarita Meza

As our only native Spanish speaker, Margarita soon became the “Mamá” of our group. She had to carry a very big part of the load during our afternoon sessions with the local students, and did an incredible job. Margarita was an important connection between the SEDV group and the local stakeholders, which made our work possible and fruitful.

Jeff Coombes

Jeff was the brain of our group. His ideas were incredibly helpful in order to prepare participatory and fun workshops with the kids. Without his input, it would have been impossible to create such excitement among the local students. He also played a major role in organizing the final report for the local stakeholders.

Nic Ritchie

Even though he didn’t speak a lot of Spanish when he arrived, Nic immediately connected with the local students, thus having an amazing effect on the positive climate in our classroom. The kids fell in love with his fun loving and open minded nature, which made them overcome the language gap easily. Nic’s value for our group was immense. Not only did he do everything that had to be done without a word of complaint, he also guaranteed the harmony within the group.

Learning with and from local students in Mindo 2016

Process of mutual learning in the classroom

During our three weeks of afternoon sessions in Mindo, we held various presentations to broaden the local students’ understanding about Sustainable Development. Our main topics were:

• -          Leadership
• -          Sustainable Energy
• -          Water Conservation
• -          Waste Management
• -          Climate Change

The interest and excitement we created in the local students was incredible and lead to various very inspiring discussions about what development and a good life mean in times of global crisis (ecological, social and economic). At the end not only our students learned a lot about the importance of conserving our limited resources, they also taught us valuable lessons about the complex reality in Ecuador and Mindo.

In a process of mutual learning we all realized that there are no easy answers to the challenges our planet is facing. At the same time, it became clear that the changes we need in order to ensure a good life for everybody on the planet and future generations have to start in our daily lives. 

That’s why we constantly tried to relate the theoretical concept of Sustainable Development to the way we are living our lives, thus identifying low scale interventions on the individual level capable to tackle our global problems.

Assessments at local hotels with high schools Intervention 2016

Visual inspection at Hotel "La Roulotte"

In the mornings we implemented a total of six in depth assessments about energy, water and waste at four local hotels and the two high schools and Mindo. The goal of these assessments was to evaluate the prevailing practices of water, energy and waste management in the community. After conducting detailed interviews with the owners or other people in charge and visual inspections of the facilities, we started analyzing the results from a sustainability point of view.

While we noticed a lot of effort by the hotels and high schools to manage their institutions in a sustainable way, we also identified a number of problems and spaces for further improvement. Based on our observations, we are currently working on a detailed document, including a list of best practices and individual recommendations for each of the hotels and high schools, as well as tools for calculating medium and long term benefits of green interventions. This document is meant to help the institutions to not only reduce their negative impact on the environment (and thus conserve Mindos unique ecosystem and attract more environmentally conscious international tourists), it should also help them save money in the long run.

One of our main recommendations for the local hotel owners is the creation of an “Association for Green Tourism in Mindo”, in order to strengthen cooperation between ecologically conscious businesses. This association should function as a common room for exchanging ideas and facilitating the implementation of environmentally friendly projects and practices.

Greater cooperation between the local businesses could therefore constitute an important step towards making Mindo a Smart Destination for global tourism. In the future, the implementation of the EcoHelix platform will intensify this approach by constantly offering committed local businesses access to the international market of eco-tourism, advanced online training and possibilities of crowdfunding (more on that soon).

SEDV Internship in Mindo - First Steps towards making Mindo a Smart Destination

The Mindo Group: Jeff, Nic, Margarita (Calgary students) and Manuel (Beyond Chacay Foundation)

The SEDV internship in Ecuador can be seen as the first step towards promoting the three local sites (Archidona, Santa Cruz and Mindo) as “Smart Destinations” for global tourism. During four weeks in September 2016, Beyond Chacay Foundation worked together with the University of Calgary to help the local communities to become more attractive for tourists all over the world and at the same time more environmentally sustainable. 

A total of 10 Master’s students of Sustainable Energy Development (SEDV) worked in strong accordance with local businesses and local high school students to initiate a dynamic towards eco-tourism in each of the three communities.

This blog tells the story of Calgary students Margarita, Jeff and Nic and their local allies in Mindo – a small village in the middle of the Andean cloud forest and one of the top bird watching destinations in the world.

The SEDV internship in Mindo had two mayor objectives:

1. Implementation of energy, water and waste assessments at four local hotels/hostels, in order to identify best practices and provide individual recommendations.

2. Workshops with local students, in order to generate excitement and awareness about sustainability, promote cooperation and provide leadership skills.