Two people, living at both ends of the island of Muisne in Ecuador, have a lot in common: they are friends since childhood, after school, each sought life in different places, and, recently, they came together again in their place of origin for no small feat: to take ownership of their lives, their time and their life projects. Both decided to live in harmony with nature, with the mangrove. The invitation by Yor Fletcher, mentor of the Basic Income pilot project, implemented by the Network of Seed Guardians, has given Gino and Fabio an opportunity to move faster in their transitions towards a peaceful life, based on ecosystem regeneration and food sovereignty.            

Regarding Universal Basic Income: basic income is an amount of money given periodically and unconditionally to all residents of a community to guarantee their economic subsistence. In other words, the UBI is supposed to be universal, individual, and unconditional.

The Network of Seed Guardians (RGS) in Ecuador accepted the invitation of Misereor, a German agency for welfare cooperation and social, ecological and economic transition, to implement a basic income pilot project (RB+) in the country. RGS identified 60 people who will receive a monthly income of US$250 for two years, with no conditions on the use of these resources.

A particularity in the approach of this project is that seed guardians have proposed partners from their local environments, who have shown interest in moving towards a regenerative transition, sustainability and the Common Good.

Green province

Esmeraldas, a coastal territory of Ecuador, where the forests of the Chocó meet the Pacific Ocean, is home to mangrove forests, fundamental for marine and terrestrial biodiversity. However, a series of structural inequalities, deepened over decades, has led to multiple forms of violence being part of everyday life. Sustaining collective processes, therefore, is a challenge, as Yor Fletcher and Cris Reyes, who arrived in Caimito, a coastal town of Esmeraldas, 21 years ago, tell us, and have dedicated themselves to a variety of associative and cooperative projects for the production of agroecological cocoa, tourism, among others. One of the main changes observed by the couple is that while the hours of the day revolve around the cell phone, the culture of “changing hands” or minga (collaborative work), is being lost. The RB+ project, for which a local group has been formed linking partners from Caimito and Muisne, seeks to recover the practice of collaborating.

Paths of life

Gino Rojas and Fabio Estrada have been friends since school. Both were born in Muisne, an island on the Pacific coast of Ecuador. Then the paths of their lives diverged. Gino dedicated himself to study and worked in different trades, also in public administration. Fabio, looking for better conditions, migrated like so many people to the capital, Quito, to work as a laborer. They returned after many years to their hometown, disappointed with life in the city. Today both agree that the challenge is to try to become independent. “I prefer to live here“, says Gino, “produce food and live peacefully instead of working for others and having to buy everything“.

Being, rather than wanting to have

Gino lives in a little house borrowed from his neighbor while he builds his own on the back of a plot of land that was inherited from his grandfather, and which has been significantly fragmented over the generations. Selling land in the countryside, in rurality, is a common sacrifice to go to the city. The area Gino inherited is four and a half hectares. “We all want to have without leaving our comfort zone“, Gino points out and continues, “but the salary you earn doesn’t allow you to get anywhere“. In 2017 he made the decision to live on the farm, dedicating himself to agriculture. “Initially, my idea was to plant coconut palm in monoculture. I had already planted 200 palm trees when I was invited to participate in the Mother Seed Festival in Manabí, organized by the Network of Seed Guardians. The knowledge and impulses that I brought back from this event made me change my approach and from there I chose to create an edible forest“.

Muisne, once an island of mangrove forests, is now surrounded by shrimp farms and African palm monocultures. This has led to a proliferation of pests and the use of agrochemicals to “cure the palms”. The only one who contradicts this practice is Gino, who plants a variety of fruit trees and nourishes the soil with his own recipe of natural ferment. In this way he has managed to curb the epidemic. “There were always swaths of coconut“-observes Yor Fletcher in the documentary on Guardians of the Coconut and Mangrove – “but it was accompanied by a biodiverse system behind it. There was a balance“.

Gino’s dream is to restore the food sovereignty that once characterized the local ecosystem: “To be under the trees and eat the fruits of each season”. His edible forest, populated with a variety of tropical fruits, is a reflection of exchanges with fellow members of the Network of Seed Guardians and the Environmental Clinic, another permaculture collective in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “I am almost ready to finish my house and live on my farm; I have even identified the trees in front of my little house where I can hang my hammock“, Gino shares. The farm’s economic livelihood, in addition to food production, is the sale of coconut oil, processed in a traditional way, and cocadas, a type of shaved coconut served in the coconut shell, which adds value and avoids plastic – a delicacy.

It used to be necessary to look for a job

“If I had not participated in the Basic Income project, I would have had to go out and look for paid work to be able to fulfill my responsibilities“. Gino has a daughter who will soon finish her high school studies to whom he sends money every month. “I wouldn’t be able to live on the farm, to devote myself to what I love“. He has bought his time and invests it as seed. “At first I was desperate, because I wanted everything so fast. But then you learn that there is a time for that, and a moon too“. The coconut palms and some of the fruit trees are starting to load up and are going to guarantee, more and more, Gino’s livelihood and economic autonomy.

I do what I like to do

Crossing the beach, on a visit to Fabio, he tells us a little about his life. He lived almost ten years in Quito, where he and his family ran a restaurant. But he did not like life in the city, he missed nature: “because you can have a stable job, but not the tranquility”. With his sons Miguel and Daniel, now teenagers, he returned to his hometown, Muisne. “Now I do what I like: live peacefully, produce my own food and decide about my time, that’s wellbeing”. The Basic Income has been the last push Fabio needed to return to the mangrove, the beach and the sea turtles. The local section of the Ministry of Environment appointed him as a volunteer, since he knows more about sea turtles, their nesting and hatching process than the officials themselves.

Fabio has invested the resources of the Basic Income in the construction of two cabins for the lodging and feeding of tourists: his project is called Muisne Exótico. He has no doubt that tourism and food production will allow him to sustain economic stability. Fabio’s mother also returned from Quito; Doña Francisca is one of the best connoisseurs of the local cuisine and, together with Fabio, receives diners every weekend on the beach to serve them with typical Esmeraldean dishes. Almost everything that is offered is produced locally: the juice is made from fruits from the orchard, the shells come from the mangrove and the fish is frequently caught by Fabio and his sons in the river that separates the island from the mainland. 

Manage your time with peace of mind

 “When you have a clear life project, the Basic Income support helps you a lot“, Fabio explains. He has bought tools and a good part of the wood for the cabins was recycled from the thick tree trunks that the sea throws in the tides. He has a talent for recognizing potential, and he has a way of making the most of it. In the part of his farm that borders the mangrove he has built with little work and intervention an ecological shrimp farm, a natural pool with a small dike that allows the healthy tides to come and go.

His sons, like teenagers almost everywhere, like to use a smart phone, but at the same time they see their father’s conviction and often participate. One of the luxuries made possible by the project is that Fabio is able to walk the 4 km to school with them every day. This is exceptional in a context where criminal gangs prey on minors and break the social fabric.

A project still pending for Fabio and his family is the purchase of a slightly larger canoe to be able to take tourists for fishing to the river; with Doña Francisca they also want to offer culinary courses where visitors can learn how to prepare the delicacies of the Afro- Esmeraldean cuisine.

Fabio brings it to the point: “Eating well, worrying little and controlling and managing your time without depending on others; that is health. For all this we need food sovereignty ”.

Messages to the future

Basic Income is a powerful catalyst for the implementation of regenerative living projects. Since they are regenerative projects, they also increase the well-being of their families, communities and ecosystems.

To be the owner of one’s time, of one’s commitment, is a privilege that Basic Income, although limited in amount and time, can facilitate to be sustained in the long run.

Basic Income promotes group processes and stimulates training, exchange of experiences and mutual support based on reciprocity.

——

The text was elaborated, based on visits and conversations in Muisne and Caimito with Gino Rojas and Fabio Estrada, George Fletcher and Cristina Reyes by Michelle Ruiz, coordinator of the RGS RB+ pilot project and Jorge Krekeler, coordinator of the Almanac of the Future (facilitator of Misereor on behalf of Agiamondo) in March 2024. Many thanks to Gino, Fabio, Yor and Cris for their time, affection and openness to our visit. Thanks also to Michelle Ruiz for having accepted the co-authorship and for her complicity in catching the paths of motivation.