Granitos de Arena

There is growing concern, and an increasing consensus amongst scientists studying climate change, that the world is facing a series of serious, interconnected problems. These problems include not only climate change, but also social inequality, poverty, growing, environmental degradation and contamination, ecosystem damage, loss of biodiversity, and concern over future supplies of goods that are essential for human well-being such as drinking water, clean air, and food.

These challenges are distinct in many ways from past problems in being global, (that is they do not respect traditional national boundaries), complex, diffuse, interrelated, and increasingly urgent.

To meet the challenges of this context, a different kind of economic and social development – sustainable development – has been proposed. Sustainable development is here defined using Bruntland’s classic 1987 formulation as “development that meets the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generations”.

This implies that economic development needs to occur hand in hand with social development that leads to greater social justice, and, which simultaneously, at the very least, causes no further damage to the environment, and better actively helps restore environmental degradation. In the field of business, many companies are now starting to measure and evaluate themselves against a “triple bottom-line”, using not only traditional economic indicators but also social and environmental indicators.

Project Vision

The vision of this organization is to work with local organizations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to create different social and/or environmental projects in the predominantly rural area of the south of the Mexican state of Jalisco that will enable the region to develop in a more sustainable way.

This region comprises 20 municipalities (areas of local government in Mexico) centered around the city of Ciudad Guzmán, which, after Guadalajara, is one of the most populous cities in the state of Jalisco. Ciudad Guzmán and the surrounding area has a rich artistic heritage and set of cultural traditions, which are still actively preserved. The city is located close to three Ramsar sites – international wetland conservation areas – and to the National Park of the Volcano of the Nevado.

Objectives

to research in a participative way the needs and resources of the region, leading to the identification of specific projects



to  facilitate the creation of a network of a diverse range of different social and environmental projects in the region, in which “Granitos de Arena” acts as an organizing hub



to obtain resources for these projects in the form of funds and skilled volunteers from local, national and international sources



to facilitate the interaction between these projects and other initiatives in the region to create additional momentum and a ‘tipping point’ for  sustainable development across the region



to work in partnership with local organizations such as universities, technical colleges, businesses, local and state government, and civil society groups



to increase public awareness of environmental issues, challenges and solutions and offer courses in environmental education and sustainable development



to offer training and development in leadership, team working, and facilitating networks, as the human, social skills necessary to create sustainable development

Underlying philosophy and theoretical foundation

The name, ‘Granitos de Arena’, which translates from Spanish as “little grains of sand” in English, reflects the underlying philosophy of this project. That is, given the pressing, serious nature of the global context of problems described above, every person, organization and nation needs to discover their own ways of addressing and helping to alleviate the growing social and environmental crisis. Solutions need to be found at all levels - individual, local, regional, national and global.

If we all metaphorically contribute our ‘grain of sand’, then, at some point, like adding sand one grain at a time to a sand-pile, a key point of change is triggered, the “tipping point”, when just one tiny grain can have a transforming effect as the sand pile collapses, and the whole system is changed.

This is similar to the well-known notion of the “butterfly effect” – the effect of a butterfly flapping its wings in Michoacán can lead to floods in England. In the more theoretical language of chaos theory, small, seemingly insignificant changes – like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings – can, through processes of self-reinforcing positive feedback, which are a characteristic of non-linear systems, such as the weather and all living systems, be amplified to such an extent that they lead to powerful transformations, in this case, floods in England. Such transformations cannot be precisely determined in advance because of the complexity of the system and the impossibility of measuring everything that might impact the system, such as, in the case of the weather system, measuring the flapping of every butterfly’s wings in the world.

While the current problems outlined earlier can seem immense and overwhelming, it is important to recognize that the combined actions of individuals, organizations and governments can make a difference. One small action could have enormous consequences, could be the “difference that makes the difference”.

Two further key ideas from the new sciences of chaos and complexity are that change naturally occurs in any living system through self-organizing processes, from which a new order or direction unpredictably emerges, and that all living systems are organized as networks. The basis of the change looked for in this project is that by creating a network of different, highly locally-based projects, which will interact with one another and similar initiatives in the region, the possibility is created of a wider system-change in an overall direction of greater sustainability. This is similar to the idea of ‘business clusters’, for example Silicon Valley in California, or the fashion industry located around Milan, in which the interrelationships between a local group of businesses, that are both diverse but also share a common interest, help create a powerful and distinctive regional economy.

Granitos de Arena will focus on the local and regional level of implementing sustainable development, in the belief that each local area has to find its own solutions, based on its particular regional circumstances, distinctive needs and resources. Moreover, if sustainable development is to be a socially empowering process, then solutions need to be generated alongside national and international action using participative methods, with as much involvement of the local community as possible, rather than imposed from outside or above.

The different projects proposed below have a deliberately wide scope, rather than being centered in any one particular area or discipline. This is in accordance with the philosophy of change described above, that any one of these projects - in the context of an increasingly rich, varied and interconnected network of projects - has the potential to provide the key actions that lead to important and significant change towards a higher level of sustainable development activity across the region.

Specific Projects

Specific projects currently being formulated and implemented include the following:

• working with a local language school to develop further an annual ‘ecological rally’ with groups of young people performing activities that help improve the environment. This rally has already been successfully organized once in June 2007, (see separate description of the ecological rally), as an innovative way to promote environmental education within secondary schools in Ciudad Guzman.
  
  
• helping a civil society organization create, through community participation, an environmental auditing of the key ecological processes and environmental resources within the units known in Mexico as ejidos, important legal and social structures that date from the Mexican revolution of the early twentieth century.
  
  
• working with a civil society group, Los Amigos del Parque “Las Peñas y Ocotillos” A.C., which manage the local ecological park, to build an environmental education center in an area of the park overlooking the city of Ciudad Guzmán.
  
  
• offering fund-raising support to a local special needs school to help improve its facilities.
  
  
• helping a local womens’ cooperative producing fruit and vegetables to develop and market a new product, which will be a nutritive marmalade based on tomatoes.
  
  
• working with the Department of Rural Development of the nearby municipio of Amacueca to help them implement an integrated plan to deal with problems of failing water supply and contamination of their water source, caused by agricultural practices and deforestation in the sierra above the municipio.
  
  
• working with the local Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, the national university that offers degree and postgraduate courses to teachers, to design and produce an innovative ‘Diploma in Environmental Education and Sustainable Development’  based on experiential learning methods, which combine theory and practical projects, which is planned to start in August 2008.
  
  
• working with students from one of the degree courses in ‘Information Technology’ of the local technical university and/or the regional campus of the University of Guadalajara to create a ‘green map’ (http://www.greenmap.org) of Ciudad Guzmán and the surrounding area, which identifies, makes available and publicizes to others - via the internet - its natural and cultural resources.
  
  
• working with the principal language school in Ciudad Guzmán, together with the ayuntamiento (local government) and the CUSur (the regional center of the University of Guadalajara based in Ciudad Guzmán), to promote and develop Ciudad Guzmán and the surrounding area as a venue for eco-tourism.

For nearly all these projects, additional resources are being sought in the form of funds and/or volunteers to help with their further development and implementation. These funds and volunteers are being sought both nationally and internationally.

Staff

The organization has been founded by Dr Paul Roberts. He has lived in Mexico for three years, working first at the University of Guadalajara for one year as a ‘Guest Professor’ at their regional campus in Ciudad Guzmán, where he set up a Diploma in “Leadership and Sustainable Development”. Later, he worked as a Head of Department at the Mexican National Institute of Public Health, based in Cuernavaca, focusing on leadership development in the Mexican Public Heath Service.

He has worked for over 20 years as a consultant in Europe in the area of leadership, team, organizational and sustainable development, with clients in both the public and private sectors including, amongst others, Nike, Volvo Cars plc, BBC, Shell International, BodyShop International, Tetrapak, the Cabinet Office, the Financial Services Authority, Bang & Olufsen, City University Business School, Warwick University, and Schumacher College.

He is an associate of four international organizations in the area of leadership and organizational development – Roffey Park Institute in England, MiL, Bath Consulting Group based in England, a Scandinavian organization, and LiM, a consulting organization based in the Americas. While working in England, he was an associate of the Complexity and Management Centre, based at the University of Hertfordshire. He is also an accredited facilitator with The Natural Step, UK.

He has a PhD in action-research from the University of Bath in England, an MSc in Human Resource Development from the University of South Bank, London, and a Degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Immediate Needs

Funds are now required to set up, rent and refurbish an office, and for other infrastructure and administrative needs like computer and office equipment, and telephone rental.

In addition, contacts are being sought in volunteer organizations and universities outside Mexico – especially with universities where there exist relevant degree and post-graduate programs in, for example, sustainable development, environmental sciences, international development – to offer students and volunteers suitable opportunities for research and skilled work in projects for periods of 3-12 months. These projects will be an exchange in which the students/volunteers will receive significant academic learning as well as personal development opportunities, and – in turn – they will provide key, skilled human resources to specific projects.