To empower farmers, builders, entrepreneurs, scientists and designers to conduct socially and ecologically regenerative work through successful demonstration and education projects
Join our network of students, researchers, and environmentalists around the world.
After the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in coastal Ecuador in 2016 we started our bamboo building journey. We've built 22 seismically safe homes and 60 other business and shelter structures with caña guadua bamboo. With the urgent disaster relief period over, we have transitioned to establishing bamboo plantations and curing facilities in nearby Chone to increase the supply of cured bamboo on the coast, as well as continuing to offer bamboo building courses for local and international guests.
Los Arboleros, our farm and home base in Chone is home to 70 acres of successional agroforestry and bamboo. By planting bamboo, cacao, dozens of local fruits, tumeric and native timber species, we demonstrate the potential of a diverse agroecological business. We interplant species to maximize production, planting new high value crops while focusing on feeding our soils in our close loop systems. We demonstrate alternatives to the degrading chemical based monoculture agriculture that is widely practiced in our region. Our food crops are to sell and eat, and sustainably produced timber and bamboo set examples for the future of sustainable building supply chains.
Our trainings sites are in the beautiful coastal city of Bahía de Caráquez and the Los Arboleros Farm in Chone, a 71.5 acre agroforestry operation. Education is how these practices spread. 5 months a year we are open to programs with local and international high school and university students. These project-based learning opportunities allow students and practitioners to dive deep into the realities of regenerative design, agroforestry, conservation and land restoration. Disseminating knowledge is at the core of our operation. By training the next generation of regenerative leaders, we contribute to the growing global tide of social and ecologically responsible innovation and healing.
By generating funding through the sales of our student programs, we are able to invest in offering long term employment to coastal Ecuadorian farmers and builders. We support the development of skilled sustainable agriculture and bamboo building professionals. With students, by connecting people from a wide range of disciplines, we support the development of innovative perspectives on social, environmental, and business issues. We work to empower young people to turn their visions into real and viable careers.
We dream of a world in which the creation of new buildings has a net negative carbon impact. We dream of expansive bamboo forests that are harvested sustainably for their incomparably strong fibers for diverse construction and industrial uses. We dream of a regenerated coastal Ecuador where the catastrophic deforestation is reversed, where people live in earthquake resistant and cool bamboo homes, and where the top soil, local watersheds, and communities are regenerated.
INFO@REGENERATIONFIELDINSTITUTE.COM
DIRECTOR Lucas Oshun I lucas@regenerationfieldinstitute.com
OPERATIONS MANAGER Raisa Oshun I raisaoshun@gmail.com
PROGRAM DIRECTOR Beth Huggins | beth@regenerationfieldinstitute.com
YOUR UNIVERSITY? Interested in starting an RFI program at your university? See the Campus Representative Internship position HERE and send us a resume and cover letter today!
