News Projects Circular Economy Social Improvement
3 min.
With the Kolektivo Festival just around the corner, we thought it would be a good idea to dive a little bit deeper into the organization behind the event. Tomorrow, Saturday the 22nd of October, Landhuis Chobolobo will be the décor for the festival focused on modern technology, entrepreneurship, and social impact. But what does Kolektivo do and how can you be part of it? We will explore these questions in two parts.
For the first part, we spoke with Cindy Eman (main image above), who joined Kolektivo earlier this year and who has taken on the role of Natural Asset Lead. She explained to us that one of the main objectives of her role is to literally map the natural assets that Curacao possesses.
Mapping natural assets on Curacao
Kolektivo aims to “re-invent traditional value exchange to create an economic system that values and stimulates regenerative development”, as their website states. By implementing the latest techniques, they aim to invest in economies bigger than Curacao. In simpler words, Cindy explained that currently most economies are based on money, on promises of gold. No economic value is granted to things that actually matter and have a direct impact on our wellbeing, like equality and other things less tangible than gold. Even though in this day and age, the demand for such values appears to be high.
The natural assets that Cindy has been mapping on and around the island consist of every imaginable ecological feature that holds value. From all kinds of food systems (as Cindy prefers to call them; meaning farming sites like food forests) and reforestation plants, to coral reefs and bee farms. To Kolektivo, mapping means gathering and registering information about the ecological sites; exact measurements, what types of vegetation is growing there, whether it is native to Curacao or imported, and information about the goal of the owners and in what areas they could use help to reach their goals.
Dealing with difficulties
According to Cindy, a lack of knowledge is an important aspect that the community on the island is encountering currently. Kolektivo uses the collected data and their growing network to battle the gap and help grow existing and new ecological systems. For example, they organize and host workshops, focused on how to prepare your own system, what to plant, how to maintain a site after creating, budget planning and how to farm sustainable, amongst many other related topics. The organization also offers grants every quarter (for which you can apply) in support of new projects in the region.
To conclude this part, Cindy and the rest of the members of Kolektivo are playing a key role in upgrading ecological sites and its yield, and in creating more value for the economic system that is being designed. In the next part of this mini-series, we will take a dive into the technical side of how Kolektivo is closing the gap in the sustainable chain of their desired economic system.
You can always check out the Kolektivo website for more information or get in touch with us at Future Islands for references.
If you’re interested in attending the upcoming Kolektivo Festival at Landhuis Chobolobo, you can get your tickets here.
Written by Thyrza Piëst
