Comprometidos con la Sostenibilidad

Cuscatlán is, in the memory of many Salvadorans, the original Land. Cuzcatan was the lordship
nahuapipil on which the Republic of El Salvador was founded, and when translating its name into
Spanish it threw the first track on its destiny: land of treasures, land of precious jewels. From that first
translation into Spanish, Cuscatlán meant a space of beauty and wealth, which, with the passage
of time, has become the landscape of a mighty nation, an image that has left track in our identity.
When we think of El Salvador, we immediately think in its landscape: the volcanos, the mountain ranges,
the beaches, the forests. The territory is small but its scenario, and the life within it, is unmeasurable.
Through time, the agrarian landscape dominated the nation's history and agriculture was, in constant,
the pillar of the economy and the way to development. During four centuries, the Land fruits were
those precious jewels that gave sense to the destiny of the men and the women who forged the
country. First cacao, then indigo, later coffee… agriculture produced the economic transformations
that made possible modernization. El Salvador has had an inexhaustible agrarian identity.
Land continues being the inspiration and work source for hopeful and pioneering projects. The
gathered models of sustainability in this chapter resort to the same precious jewels to which men and
women of ancient times resorted, although their glance is headed in other perspective than wealth,
since it narrows a balanced relationship with nature, being more fair to those who work the Land, and
more decent, hopeful and respectful with the culture and the future.
In its studies on Cuscatlán, the archaeologist Paul Amaroli, has indicated that the meaning of Land of
precious jewels has been pointed out during centuries by explorers, colonial visitors, civil employees
and investigators. As an example, Daugherty's study in ecology from 1969 indicates, that the "Land
of treasures" is the right term for this region of rich soils that used to hold (formerly) an abundant and
diverse flora.
The food sustainability does not look only for production, as it did for centuries with previous agricultural
production models. Beyond the production, feeding becomes an experience that guarantees
nutrition and health. In this agrarian landscape, the protagonists are, now, those who sow, reap and
consume. And nature receives another expression beyond exploitation, in which natural resources
become a promise for future generations.
The different microclimates from El Salvador allow that a variety of cultures coexists in three different
spaces: the ecological, the productive and the social. The sustainable models have been located
in the same historical space than products such as coffee and cacao formerly had in national
production. The possibility of different cultures in land that were previously destined solely to mono
production now encourages the enhancement of biodiversity, new forms of culture to protect and
nourish the land and aquifers.
In addition, the experiences of food sustainability have activated, in the last decade, other spaces of
production in the country, beyond agriculture. The interest of the academy, the science, the economy
and the market find in agricultural experiences new subjects of investigation and diffusion. That is to
say, that the landscape becomes a productive space in its totality, because apart of creating new
models of business, it creates new models of life.
Transporte de semilla de cacao.
Transport of cocoa beans.
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