Social Entrepreneurs: Doing Sustainable Development - Ashoka

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page six Clovis Borges His plan was simple. Purchase land, protect intact areas, reforest denuded areas with native species, and then count up the carbon credits. It appeared to be a win-win-win-win-win situation: the Atlantic Forests would regain ground; communities would be fairly compensated for their land; American super-consumers would have their guilty consciences eased; an example of ecosystem services being sold would be functioning for the rest of the world to replicate; and carbon dioxide equivalent to 2.25 million cars driving for a year would be sequestered in the trees of Guaraquecaba rather than trapping heat high in the atmosphere. "It was one of the most elegant conservation programs I had ever laid eyes upon," says Clovis. Of course, plans, however perfect at first blush, rarely follow the script verbatim. Clovis soon ran up against an unforeseen brick wall. A local community grazed buffalo for milk and meat on a vital patch of land Clovis had purchased for reforestation. Despite having title in hand, Clovis and SPVS knew that simply evicting the buffalo would not ensure long-term conservation interests. This action would threaten the viability of the community by reducing a vital source of income and nutrition and precipitate a potentially disastrous public relations firefight. Through the <strong>Ashoka</strong> network, Clovis knew that the Porto Allegre-based Fabio had significant experience managing grazing animals. Perhaps Fabio could be of help. Fabio quickly surveyed the community and the rangeland in question to assess the situation. A list of community preferences and tools was compiled. Fencing could be improved, riparian areas could be better protected, particularly sensitive areas could be guarded with solar-powered electrified barriers, milking techniques could be modified, and products could be produced organically to demand higher prices at market. The best ideas were implemented with effort and resources from both the community and SPVS. In the end, a real win-win scenario emerged. The grazing land was reduced by over 20%, allowing for Clovis's conservation priorities to move forward. Simultaneously, buffalo milk production (yes there is a market for this) increased by 50% by volume and should warrant higher prices due to its now organic process. As Clovis says in retrospect, "sustainable development may sound like having one's cake and eating it too, but it can be done, successfully and smartly." What’s buzzing in Mezquitoland Your last flight sends you back across the Atlantic to Jo'burg, the site of the WSSD. After two long days of jeep rides up the coast of East Africa and into flood stricken Mozambique, you arrive in Mezimbite, a small village that <strong>Ashoka</strong> Fellow Allan Schwarz fondly calls "Mezquitoland" for its popularity with local insects. Mezimbite is at the edge of the Miombo bioregion-a 5 million square kilometer landscape sprawled across 11 southern African countries. It is home to the largest contiguous patch of deciduous tropical forests in the world and roughly 100 million people.
Stricken by civil wars and devoid of educational and economic opportunities, Mezimbite is emblematic of the world's toughest sustainable development challenges. A primary education is a luxury. The surest form of communication is a messenger. Employment, not unemployment, stands at 6%. Slash and burn agriculture and household energy needs account for more than 80% of the deforestation. And the rate of deforestation is at levels well above what one might term sustainable which, in turn, has been the dominant driver of the floods. Allan walked into this scene after a successful career as an architect that had brought him to a teaching post at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a lucrative partnership at an architectural firm. But something attracted him back to his native southern Africa. "Pure madness," he scoffs. In reality, the most seemingly intractable problems are not altogether hopeless when a social entrepreneur makes a bet on a strategy to turn things around. That's precisely what Allan has done in Mezimbite. Reforestation efforts have been supplemented by a cluster of forest-based value-added businesses including the manufacture of heirloom-quality furniture crafted from sustainably harvested wood. Part genius, part madness might be fair. The project began with dreaming. "I know it sounds corny," says Allan, "but to be driven you need to start with your feet firmly planted in the clouds." Yet dreams-however visual and evocative-need structure, so the next step for Allan was planning. Allan helped the community identify forests that were still intact and then formed a joint venture in the name of a local partner to secure property rights. During the next three years, Allan and the people of Mezimbite conducted an inventory of forest resources and developed a management plan that limited harvests of trees and other products to the maximum sustainable yield while continuously reforesting denuded areas. Today, following this plan, harvested trees are cut into planks by a project sawmill. A small amount of this harvest is reserved for sale at cost to local craftspeople while the rest is transported to the project's workshop, where woodworkers and apprentices trained by Allan craft furniture and other wood products. End products range from heirloom-quality armories and dinning tables sold in high-end stores in Jo'burg and London to doors and window frames purchased by the government of Mozambique for hospitals. Prior to Allan's arrival in Mezimbite in 1994, there were no reforestry initiatives in Mozambique. Today he directs 6 tree planting operations that together plant and care for roughly 25,000 trees per year. Products that have been approved for use in government hospitals are displacing imports and thus cycling more value through the local economy. The sawmills and the furniture factory employ directly and indirectly over 300 people. His apprenticeship program, "basically the same one Jesus probably did 2,000 years ago" he quips, intentionally trains more apprentices than the project itself can handle to distribute these skills more widely throughout the community. Skilled workers earn incomes 12 times higher than before Allan's intervention, while the community as a whole has nudged past the poverty line on a per capita basis. "What can I say, just being able to eat regularly in this part of the world is a Allan Schwarz page seven
Page 1 and 2: Social Entrepreneurs: Doing Sustain
Page 3 and 4: Quick and dirty summary The legacy
Page 5 and 6: and, of course, relentlessly pursui
Page 7: justify the switch based upon the r
Page 11 and 12: lenge, embodies this ability to be
Page 13 and 14: Looking ahead Social entrepreneurs
Page 16: Ashoka: Innovators for the Public T

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