As part of Sustain Mizzou’s Sustainability Week, Community Cloud Forest Conservation co-director Rob Cahill spoke Wednesday about the environmental and socio-economic problems that persist in Guatemala.
Cahill works to protect the cloud forests, which are foggy rain forests with a constant level of precipitation, of Guatemala’s central highlands through community development, education and reforestation.
“The opportunity to hear Rob pretty much came to us (Sustain Mizzou),” Sustain Mizzou student adviser Tina Casagrand said. “We thought his experience would fit really well with Sustain Mizzou’s ideals.”
CCFC thinks social and environmental dilapidations are ultimately tied together, yet social and economic development is a sustainable solution, according to the CCFC website.
“Food security and poverty alleviations affect not only Guatemalans, but these problems affect all of us,” Cahill said. “Ecologically we are all connected in many ways, so when we recognize those connections we will be on our way to a better world.”
CCFC’s work includes many projects to protect the cloud forest and alleviate poverty, which include reforestation, agroecology work-study scholarships, water filters for households, agriculture development and ecotourism, according to its website.
“The cloud forests are disappearing because the Guatemalans are now planting corn crops in the forest because the soil in the original crop plot becomes too dry,” Cahill said. “They have forgotten some of their heirloom crops, like the tree tomatoes, that can respond well to organic fertilizer and ultimately produce 20 times more fruit than usual. We are continuing to help them plant fruit trees, as it helps build soil and brings the communities money and nutrition as well.”
Cahill talked about how community encompasses the relationships among neighbors and people with land. Casagrand enjoyed that aspect, saying it is important to environmentalism.
“We can’t expect to protect the whole entire planet, but keeping other people in mind is a really cool thing that Rob is spreading,” Casagrand said.
In many underdeveloped areas around the world, environmental degradation can be linked to conditions of extreme poverty, so helping people can help the world, Cahill said.
“I think it is very important during Sustainability Week to focus on human aspects of sustainability,” said Maggie Holleman, MU graduate and former Sustain Mizzou member. “A lot of times we forget that part because we are too concerned with things like what species of animals will become extinct.”
It is important to recognize the relationship between people and the environment, Holleman said.
“People are not removed from the environment; they take a big hit from it,” Holleman said. “With that, some cultures are becoming extinct.”
Having been to Guatemala, Holleman said she thinks places with so much culture and history should be conserved and remembered when considering sustainability as well.
“Guatemala is just such a culture-rich place where people are still living a life that is very foreign to us, yet they are not far from the United States,” she said. “On campus we are concerned about recycling and things like that, yet people are suffering more because of climate change. Some people’s life depends on these things, but we’re more concerned about recycling, not driving, etc. Our campus is clean and beautiful, but let’s zoom out and see the more global picture.”