Adriana Alcázar González, GPJ Mexico
Alberto De la Cruz López holds red wiggler worms, which help him produce fertilizer in La Pera, Chiapas.
BERRIOZÁBAL, MEXICO — “They’re small but powerful,” Alberto De la Cruz López says as his eyes scan and hands shuffle through the leaf litter. He’s searching for his allies in the conservation of La Pera, a protected area with important reserves of water, fauna and vegetation in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state.
“They’re red wigglers, and we’re producing legal fertilizer and leachate with them. They’re used for strengthening flowers, fruit trees, corn and beans, and increasing their output,” De la Cruz says, holding out some ruddy-colored worms. He is one of the area’s 25 producers of legal fertilizer.
De la Cruz, 31, lives in Emiliano Zapata, one of the villages working to stop the environmental degradation of La Pera. For 30 years, people have plundered the area for wild plants and fertile soil to sell illegally in nearby cities.
La Pera was declared an ecological conservation area in 2006. Its territory consists of 7,506 hectares (18,550 acres) in central Chiapas, and it faces other serious threats, including deforestation due to crop farming, cattle ranching and even residential development, says biologist Adolfo Alejandro Sarmiento Zenteno, the head of natural areas and wildlife at the Ministry of the Environment and Natural History in Chiapas.
“The area holds great importance ecologically and biologically because it’s an important reservoir of water and oxygen for the central region of the state, especially the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state capital,” Sarmiento Zenteno says.
This year, the inhabitants of Emiliano Zapata and El Tirol, two villages within the municipality of Berriozábal, began to produce fertilizer, using a vermicomposting technique, to both sell and use. It has enabled them to leave behind the common practice of illegally extracting soil and flora from the surrounding environment, which damages the ecosystem and, in the medium term, depletes the region’s water supply.
The change came about after these communities participated in a municipal program that provided support for productive projects. They decided to cultivate red wiggler worms, spurred by their potential to fuel the production of legal fertilizer.
“Who would have thought our greatest allies would be earthworms? I’d say no one,” De la Cruz says, moistening the vermicompost that houses thousands of red wigglers, which glide and flip among the organic debris.
Red wiggler worms were chosen because of the ease with which these annelids decompose organic waste and convert it into fertilizer, plus how well they adapt to most climates while still being able to reproduce. Another feature in their favor is their rare ability to survive in captivity for up to 15 years, says biologist Eduardo López, the villages’ technical advisor on managing the worms. They possess five hearts and six pairs of kidneys. And under optimal conditions, they can double their population in just three months, but they cannot be exposed to direct sunlight for more than five minutes; it would kill them. They also breathe through their skin.
“Earthworms produce seven times more phosphorus, double the calcium and five times more nitrogen and potassium than the organic material on which they feed,” López says.
“This organic material is processed by the earthworms, producing a fertilizer of excellent quality and a liquid or leachate that can be used as a natural fertilizer,” De la Cruz says.
The municipality of Berriozábal is host to a large number of plant nurseries, and the residents of Emiliano Zapata and El Tirol attend the Sunday market in its town square to legally sell fertilizer and gardening products.
“For many years we had a serious problem with selling local plants and inputs like fertilizer because we didn’t know where they originated. We didn’t know if they had been cultivated in nurseries or illegally extracted from La Pera,” biologist Yonalli Hernández Ávila, the municipality’s environment secretary, says.
For municipal authorities, supporting the communities that practice conservation and take care of the land is critical, Hernández Ávila says. To ensure that these initiatives thrive, they provide the communities with supplies, infrastructure and training. Another form of support from the municipality is the creation of a sustainability seal to identify legal products, which is expected to be ready in the coming months. To obtain the seal, producers will have to prove the origin of their products and demonstrate the techniques they use to process them.
Reinaldo Pérez Vega, a resident of El Tirol and a fertilizer producer, admits that theft of soil and plant life is common in the area. “People come from other villages to illegally extract the soil, orchids, bromelias and other types of plants to sell them to the nurseries or in the square on the weekends,” he says while picking apart corn stover to add to his vermicomposter.
“Living near La Pera lets us see nature in a different way. We can have our little corn crops, our beans and our fruit trees, but always with care, not destructive and not by stealing. If we need to cut down a tree, we know we must plant at least three or five young ones,” Pérez Vega says.
Biologist Sarmiento Zenteno says La Pera’s soil is high in nutrients, and there is strong demand for its use in agriculture. However, the surface is very thin, and if it is removed for illegal sale, it will not be long before the rocky soil beneath is exposed, and the land becomes unproductive and infertile. Recuperating it will require a lot of time and money, he says.
“It is fundamental for the communities to perform conservation actions in order to safeguard biodiversity and life itself. It’s much cheaper and simpler to conserve and steward than to repair,” Sarmiento Zenteno says.
“We don’t have a need to go to the forest for soil or fertilizer to sell in the square or use on our plants. We and the worms produce our own fertilizer now,” De la Cruz says. Vermicomposting has brought him many benefits. The leachate from the earthworms has produced bean harvests two to three times more abundant than in the past.
“The bean plants are extremely beautiful, heavily laden [with bean pods]. They look strong and healthy. Many neighbors have now asked me what I’m giving them, and they’re interested in buying the fertilizer,” De la Cruz says.
At least 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of La Pera’s 7,506 (18,550 acres), which belong to the villages of Emiliano Zapata and El Tirol, are either being cultivated or stewarded using fertilizer and leachate from the worms, Pérez Vega says. Their use helps guarantee that theft will not take place and that fertilizer will be sold legally.
“When we find out that people from outside the community are extracting soil, we are quick to alert the authorities,” De la Cruz says.
According to the Chiapas penal code, trespassing in natural reserves like La Pera, as well as damaging or destroying any part of them, including the soil, can carry a sentence of up to six years in prison.
Sarmiento Zenteno says there are weighty challenges when it comes to detaining and punishing perpetrators. “We don’t have trucks coming out loaded with fertilizer. We have people going around with sacks holding no more than 30 kilograms,” he says.
Matilde Zúñiga owns a nursery, Los Helechos, and she believes it’s crucial to know the origin of the products she sells, like the vermicompost fertilizer produced in Emiliano Zapata and El Tirol.
“I can’t risk selling illegal fertilizer. If I do that, I’m committing a crime and contributing to the destruction of La Pera,” Zúñiga says. “It’s the space that allows us to have water and even pure oxygen.”
