Las Casas de la Selva is a 1000 acre conservation, sustainable forestry & rainforest enrichment project managed by Tropic Ventures and Tropic Ventures Educational & Research Foundation. This area provides a protected habitat for Puerto Rican native flora and fauna– serving as a long-term study site for research and a platform for civic engagement in the areas of ecology, botany, forestry, horticulture, soil, ethnobotany and other related environmental disciplines.
The aim of the project is to research and demonstrate the economic use of rainforest land using methods that do not destroy the rainforest ecology. Members of The Institute of Ecotechnics initiated this unique project pioneering experiments in sustainable rainforest ecology, through line-planting of valuable timber trees. Nearly 300 acres of the 1000-acre property have been planted with over 40,000 native and exotic hardwood trees with extremely promising results. Since 2003, plantation areas have been experimentally thinned, timber sold, and scientific research carried out all over the land.
700 acres remains as a wilderness preserve for watershed protection, research, and educational ecotourism. The project is certified as a Stewardship Forest and has an approved ‘Sustainable Forestry Stewardship Management Plan’, and registered as an Auxiliary Forest.
The biosphere 2 is an air tight glass structure containing models of seven biomes: an ocean with coral reef, a marsh, a rainforest, a savannah, a desert, and farming areas. Click here to learn more.
A project that is no longer stewarded by the institute. However, Birdwood Downs will continue to be the home of several innovative projects under its new ownership, including studies investigating the impact of invasive woody weeds on groundwater recharge, an emphasis on eco-remedies to increase carbon sequestration in the soil, and much more. Click here to learn more.
A project that is no longer stewarded by the institute.The Caravan of Dreams began as a headquarters for the Theater of all Possibilities. It remained an iconic theater in Fort Worth Texas for decades. Click to learn more.
Synergia Ranch is a regenerative agriculture site of 111 acres that was once a degraded landscape. It is also the head quarters of the Institute of Ecotechnics and is an active event and retreat center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Las Casas de la Selva is a sustainable forestry & rainforest enrichment project on 1000 acres in Puerto Rico. Established in 1983, it currently hosts airbnb, retreats, and educational workshops.
RESEARCH VESSEL HERACLITUS, the Chinese-junk research ship built by the Institute of Ecotechnics in 1975, has sailed the world’s oceans for over forty years, traveling more than 270,000 nautical miles in every sea except the Arctic.
Over the course of its twelve epic expeditions, the ship has been a nautical home to hundreds of seafarers from all walks of life, hailing from over fifty countries. The Heraclitus is a floating platform for arts, science, ecology and adventure. She conducts citizen science in marine ecologies, documents cultural oral history in coastal areas, and collects data documenting the quickening cycle of decline in our oceans from warming, acidification, and other impacts on the ocean ecosystems resulting from climate change impacts.
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The Institute of Ecotechnics founded and developed The October Gallery , an internationally recognized art and cultural events center in the Bloomsbury area of central London as a meeting place for the ‘ transvangarde ‘ – cutting-edge artists, musicians,…Click here to learn more.
EDEN IN IRAQ: THE WASTEWATER GARDEN PROJECT
A project of: artist Meridel Rubenstein, environmental engineers Dr. Mark Nelson and Dr. Davide Tocchetto, and engineer Jassim Al-Asadi, Managing Director, Nature Iraq (NGO).
Sponsored by: Nature Iraq (NGO), S. Iraq and Kurdistan
and the Institute of Ecotechnics, USA and UK
The Matutu Reserve was created in 1984 with the aim of protecting the ecosystems of the Serra do Papagaio region of Brazil. The reserve has a total area of approximately 3,000 hectares and is made up of associated properties that are unified through zoning. Click to learn more.
Irehom is a space that has served as a meeting point for more than 3,000 people, has generated more than 70 volunteer work camps, has been a meeting point for a good number of projects and collectives with whom we share the road, has cleaned and managed about twenty hectares of its forest, has made the cultivation areas productive again, has designed a strategic plan to energize the almost 500 hectares of the Valley of which it is a part, encouraged courses, visits, workshops, conferences, celebrations, meetings of neighbors, of local and also regional groups. Click to learn more.
Since the 2007/2008 season, we have been more formally dedicated to the reforestation of water sources as well as to the diffusion of urban agriculture. We teach ancestral languages and worldviews while paving the way for innovative scientific research. We cultivate traditional arts as well as the most advanced practices of harmonization. From our headquarters in the City of Buenos Aires and from our CENTER FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION (CREEA) in the Sierras of Córdoba, we invite conscious institutions and individuals to join our projects and activities to cooperate synergistically with the biosphere and its worlds. Click to learn more.