Conservación Endógena

How could we regenerate a dismembered social fabric of a rural territory, recover empathetic and constructive dialogues, the trust among the inhabitants, the sharing of individual dreams, in order to co-design a great collective dream together to conserve our natural ecosystem and make it last over time?

There are many projects for the conservation of natural ecosystems in the world: foundations, NGOs, some governments, environmentalists, and a large number of philanthropic organizations. Many have had good and great intentions to conserve natural spaces, their flora and native fauna, and to maintain that good intention and action over time. However, many of them have failed for the same reasons that many companies fail; the lack of healthy, loving, committed, proactive human relationships, and real dialogues that make communication the fundamental pillar for sharing ideas, problems, pains, needs, fears, obstacles, dreams, opportunities, and a series of things that we have in common as human beings. By not giving ourselves time to listen, to embrace, to dream, and to make decisions together, we do not reach a good end with the intentions and objectives of those who lead the projects.

It often happens that these organizations with intentions to conserve are foreign to the territory, their members have never lived there, they do not know the local history, their culture, and ancient rituals that may have been lost; then, the intention of conservation is exogenous, from outside to inside, without a real sense of belonging to the place, without a great empathy for its inhabitants, and without having made a deep immersion in living the life of its people. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the place have often already become "westernized", leaving aside their ancient customs, celebrations, rituals. They forgot the stories of their grandparents, disconnected from their roots and the history of the territory, stopped cultivating the ancestral foods of the place and started feeding on packaged food from the cities. They began to deforest to sell ancient firewood at low prices, abandoned their ancient practices and trades to work in the company that came to offer a salary. Eventually, education and upbringing are left to the public school that was established in the place, with adults no longer transmitting the wise advice and teachings of yesteryear that were passed down from generation to generation. They begin to acquire television and watch mass media that fill people with fears and distrust. And so a large number of situations that promote a loss of culture, relationships, dialogues, trust, the sense of belonging to the place, and stop observing with the 5 senses open the natural wonders that surround the environment and its landscape.

So, going back to the initial question about our exogenous intentions to conserve natural ecosystems, this requires involvement in the territories through a cultural immersion, conducting a deep socio-environmental study, identifying needs, pains, problems, challenges, dreams, and more. Identifying the oldest men and women to recover the history, culture, rituals, and seeds, promoting the rescue of trades, connecting adults with young people, promoting the exchange of knowledge between generations. Identifying community leaders, the most restless and dissatisfied young people eager to make a change; identifying entrepreneurs, linking with the municipality, with local companies, with foundations and institutions, with neighborhood associations. There are endless territorial links that give us the initial bases to do deep and delicate work in the following years.

"Social innovation occurs when social relationships change, when we innovate in how we connect"

How do we generate these links to recover dialogues among inhabitants and the necessary trust for subsequent work? For that, we must completely change the way we relate as human beings. Among adults, we must play again, entertain ourselves, laugh, relate artistically and creatively, be spontaneous and feel free, so that from that trust we can establish the fundamental rules and values to generate empathetic dialogues from deep listening. To share our feelings from the heart, and so that from listening to each other and dialoguing with respect on different topics, we move on to listen to our individual dreams, and thus begin to co-design collective dreams together over time. It is also important to educate in parallel about the importance of preserving natural ecosystems, understanding that thanks to them, tourists come, activity is generated in the area, and the local economy develops.

So, little by little, dialogue after dialogue, and simultaneously in many different sectors of the same large rural territory, is how we begin to recover the base, regenerate its human relationships, re-educate, empower its people, and among many other actions. This can allow our external intentions to preserve natural ecosystems to become a reality by working together with local communities, now more conscious, connected, empowered, and thus, over time, promoting regenerative, sustainable tourism, cultural immersion, where the tourist's money stays in the territory and not in many external intermediaries.

Recovering the social fabric of a territory by embracing life in an integral way, and making local people protagonists of change. This is how we will achieve successful, sustainable conservation over time, transcending generations. Endogenous conservation, from inside out!

14 Young people from various countries in Latin America, the "Balloon Fellows" in the first days of a total of 5 weeks of intensive training on entrepreneurship and social innovation tools with the interdisciplinary team of the social enterprise Balloon Latam, as part of the first Balloon International program in Patagonia, held in Cochamó. In the photo, learning techniques of linking and facilitation to generate transformative dialogues that they will later have to share, in pairs, with more than 140 rural entrepreneurs.

2 Balloon Fellows facilitating one of the 9 classes to their entrepreneurs from the Río Manso sector, sharing good local food at one of their homes. The neighbors of the sector gather to discuss their dreams, projects, collaboration and alliance possibilities, as well as prepare their presentations, products, and/or services at the great Local Entrepreneurship Festival.

First "Local Entrepreneurship Festival" in the great commune of Cochamó, to be held at the municipal gymnasium of Puelo, bringing together more than 140 local entrepreneurs, their families, local organizations, mayors from several communes in Patagonia, regional leaders, the mayor, among several others, to conclude the international program of Balloon Latam and thus begin a 4-year process of local empowerment to recover the social fabric, strengthen its community leaders and those most committed to caring for natural ecosystems.