Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS | Android

Uru Uru team are using giant reeds called ‘totora’ to revive polluted lakes in Bolivia. Environmental activist Gustavo Blanco joins Climate Curious to dive into how restoring his local lakes protects so much more than just nature. It protects people and livelihoods.

Learn more about the Uru Uru team: https://theirisproject.org/winner/the-uru-uru-team
Apply to the Iris Prize. Closes April 15th: https://theirisproject.org/how-to-apply

Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
Curation by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst

00:00 Introduction
01:01 Meet Gustavo Blanco: environmental activist
03:00 Challenges and solutions for Lake Uru
03:48 The role of the totora plant
06:13 Scaling up and community involvement
08:30 How you can get involved
10:06 Conclusion

Transcript

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:00] Maryam Pasha: Welcome to Climate Curious Quickies, bite-size nuggets of Climate Goodness. From our TEDx experts in under five minutes

[00:00:09] Ben Hurst: in this week’s climate, curious, we are taking a look at how a very special plant is helping people clean up Bolivia’s Polluted Lakes. Using the ancestral traditions of the Uru indigenous people, the team Uru Uru Project works to decontaminate polluted waters.

[00:00:26] Ben Hurst: Thanks to the healing powers of the Torah [00:00:30] plant, we are joined by Gustavo Blanco, an environmental activist. Based in a Aurora Bolivia of Amira Indigenous roots, and currently studying at Princeton University to dive into how restoring his local lakes protects so much more than just nature. It protects people and livelihoods on how the Uru team is cleaning up Bolivia’s polluted lakes with the help of the to Torah plant.

[00:00:55] Ben Hurst: Here’s Gustavo. Stay curious. [00:01:00]

[00:01:01] Meet Gustavo Blanco: environmental activist

[00:01:01] Gustavo Blanco: My name is Gustavo Blanco. I’m originally from an indigenous community. I Mara in Bolivia called Turco. I’m an current, um, undergrad, uh, at Princeton, Stan Sociology, and I’m an environmental advocate with the Euro guru team.

[00:01:18] Gustavo Blanco: Um, my work focuses on restoring, um, the fragile wetland ecosystem of Bolivia, particularly the Uru Lake, which has unfortunately been heavily affected by [00:01:30] mining and the rapid urbanization happening back in my community.

[00:01:35] Gustavo Blanco: In order to do this job, we work closely with indigenous communities trying to integrate ecological knowledge with, uh, modern conservation science. And, you know, designing and implementing restoration initiatives, trying to connect the communities as Star Wars of the lake back, uh, in alibi. The Ulu Lake is, is a ary lake.

[00:01:55] Gustavo Blanco: It has a lot of significance for a lot of communities [00:02:00] historically, but unfortunately because of the extractivism history that has happened in Bolivia. This one has been affected by a lot of mining companies that are, you know, surrounding the area. These mining companies have affected with their wastewater, uh, which ends up in, in the Uru Lake.

[00:02:19] Gustavo Blanco: And it has also been affected by untreated sea, which has also been affected by the combination of plastic waste from a city that is. Rapidly growing and it’s getting already [00:02:30] to, to the areas of the lake. So because of this, a lot of parts from the lake are being heavily contaminated. It is very unfortunate to see, you know, flamingos that are.

[00:02:41] Gustavo Blanco: You know, drinking or eating right next to plastic bottles, it is very sad to see, you know, water that has very bad order or water. It’s really a new scenario, which, you know, the lake is in a very bad, uh, situation because of these different, different issues that’s [00:03:00] facing.

[00:03:00] Challenges and solutions for Lake Uru

[00:03:00] Gustavo Blanco: We are implementing a solution.

[00:03:02] Gustavo Blanco: Um, I, I think this solution came, you know, from. Basically two, two areas. It was first one, the, the necessity and the urgency because it’s really urgent to save the lake. We have very few time and unfortunately there’s no local authorities or you know, there’s no people that are actually taking action and the necessity because, you know, we are not, you know, for conventional techniques of restoration for this lake will take a lot of.

[00:03:29] Gustavo Blanco: Uh, [00:03:30] monetary resources. We’ll take a lot of, you know, support from different, uh, from different, uh, support and collaboration from the big, big organizations. But unfortunately, we are just a group of youth indigenous, uh, leaders that care about the environment and we wanted to take action.

[00:03:48] The role of the totora plant

[00:03:48] Gustavo Blanco: So we found a ways which we could do that, you know, and we looked up at the, at the, at the heritage that we’ve been given by many indigenous communities through far history, including the use [00:04:00] of, uh, unique plant, which is called Toyota.

[00:04:03] Gustavo Blanco: This plant is very resilient in the, and the end areas of Bolivia and is able to, to consume, uh, the pollutants, the heavy metals that are on this lake like sink. Um, another metals that contaminate the lake as these were, um, it, the plant is able to consume it as these were nutrients and it’s able to store it in under leaves to later be, you know, removed and to later help [00:04:30] the, the contamination process in the lake.

[00:04:32] Gustavo Blanco: So this process is not really, um, a conventional method of the contamination, but has been proven by research done in the area by researchers on the ecological area to be effective and to be many times proposed to the local authorities, but the local authorities. Never, uh, really took attention to it or never really adopted that plan.

[00:04:56] Gustavo Blanco: So we took, we took on that plan and we [00:05:00] took action and we started, you know, applying this solution, which has been fortunately, you know, able to show some results, which we have shared with a lot of the organizations that support us, which is that on the area that we have first started planted, we have been able to achieve at, at the contamination of 30% of the water.

[00:05:21] Gustavo Blanco: And this has been really our most clear proof of work and our most clear proof of the [00:05:30] effectiveness of this, uh, method. So yeah, we, we work closely with the, we work with, with the plan of Toyota, which is not only, you know. A symbol of resilience, but is a very important symbol of our culture, indigenous culture, because up until now many indigenous communities use this plant not only to the contaminated water, but they use it for many other reasons, like to build boats, to build the base for many of their floating villages.

[00:05:55] Gustavo Blanco: So it’s really a plan that has many uses and has a lot [00:06:00] of significance for these communities. So we are also trying to restore the other things, the cultural, the cultural significance. Of this claim as well.

[00:06:13] Scaling up and community involvement

[00:06:13] Gustavo Blanco: We really needed to scale up our point. We needed to, you know, be growing the different plantations we have. We needed to start establishing different initiatives for the community to be very interactive and be very engaged with our project. So that’s why that’s when [00:06:30] the Iris prize came just in time.

[00:06:32] Gustavo Blanco: Because we’re thinking about scaling up this, this, this project to already, you know, be something established and to already build, you know, start building on a plan, which this could be sustainable to the, to, to many years in the future where it won’t only be necessary as, um, beyond volunteers. Passion is for the environment to be able to continue it, but for the same people in the community be able to continue this product [00:07:00] in the future.

[00:07:00] Gustavo Blanco: So. A lot of the resources that we get from the Aris project are spent on, on adopting in community initiatives to make them very connected to our project, such as we create a community gardens for the community to plant different, you know, vegetable, they need to for the year. And through this way. We, us usually work with the kids.

[00:07:21] Gustavo Blanco: We are, you know, implementing a lot of environmental receiving and education. We are also, you know, implementing a lot of, you know, recycling [00:07:30] initiatives in the different high schools. We usually do competitions between the different grades in high school to see who is able to, you know, co uh, collect more of the.

[00:07:40] Gustavo Blanco: Most of the plastic bottles that are contaminating the lake to, you know, win different prices as a, as an incentive. So this requires a lot of, you know, coordination requires a lot of resources as well. Um, and we are working very hard on it. And I think there are, prices is a big, with not only the resources, but also you know, the different opportunities that [00:08:00] we are connected now, switches.

[00:08:01] Gustavo Blanco: Here, you know, trying to visualize this, this issue has just been great. Not, not only providing the resources to this, providing the other resources that are very much important as well, such as, you know, the mentorship, the possibility to be ize our issue in different areas, in different spaces on that area.

[00:08:22] Gustavo Blanco: The, the Irish price has really been amazing.[00:08:30]

[00:08:30] How you can get involved

[00:08:30] Gustavo Blanco: For people that want to get involved with our project, uh, with our initiative, um, we have a website just looking up team, and we are gonna be the first one to show up where we share a little bit of our work and we also showcase who they can support us either by. If you are in located in Bolivia and specifically in the area of Duo you can engage with us being a.

[00:08:56] Gustavo Blanco: On the different, uh, plantations that we do throughout the year [00:09:00] and with d the, the different, uh, community initiatives that we develop very often in, in, in, in the communities. So, uh, by that sense there is, there is many ways in you which you can get involved. And of course, um, you know, you can get involved supporting us, uh, in our, in our quite supporting us in our efforts.

[00:09:19] Gustavo Blanco: Um. Either, you know, economically or either connecting us to further opportunities like, you know, mentorship and, you know, [00:09:30] opportunities to more visible visibility has our, our issue. And I think that for people to, that wanna get involved in the IRIS project, I think especially if, if young people are are hearing this, I think that, uh, you know, the application is open for being able to be supported with different, uh, levels of funding, uh, on the level of, of your, of your project, of your initiative.

[00:09:55] Gustavo Blanco: I think it’s just, um, really an opportunity to, you know, not only grow as [00:10:00] an environmental leader, but also. Grow, you know your play, help grow your initiative.

[00:10:06] Conclusion

[00:10:06] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.

[00:10:08] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDx London. Until next time,

[00:10:14] Ben Hurst: stay curious.