March 2008 marks eight years of GEM’s existence. We have hewn many practical facets in GEM programming to pioneer and apply practical learning methods and technology to solve natural resource problems by linking faculty, students and citizens worldwide through efforts in sustainability, leadership development, and international programming. We are celebrating this first decade knowing that the 21st Century—the Environmental Century—is dawning and people everywhere are awakening to embrace change needed for a sustainable future.
For example, here are some ‘facet-making gems’ from our first decade of work:
- GEM healthy watershed model developed by GEM staff and collaborators has been utilized in at least 10 nations overseas and in Wisconsin to help local communities safeguard and improve clean drinking water.
- GEM planned and hosted international conferences that advanced the state of the art in local capacity building and planning for participatory watershed management (2004 and 2006 at the Wingspread Conference Center, Racine, WI). Lessons learned have been implemented on the ground all over the world to help maintain or improve water resources.
- 88 professional watershed managers from 37 nations worldwide participated in five annual GEM International Seminars on Watershed Management for field-based training and sharing to help meet the increasingly critical demand for water.
- County land use plans to meet the Wisconsin Comprehensive Planning Law were developed in cooperation with county planners in Ashland, Shawano and Waupaca Counties. GEM funds generated $1,485,101 (82.5%) in leveraged external funds through partnering projects that helped develop, test and apply the land use planning methods and tools as models for other local governments in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
- Helping staff and co-chair a successful two-year initiative of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, “Future of Farming and Rural Life in Wisconsin,” GEM has assisted in listening to and learning from the people of rural Wisconsin about their hopes and dreams of a vibrant and sustainable future. Recommendations to implement priority actions were generated through statewide forums and a culminating conference.
- Through the upcoming summer 2008, 35 GEM Student Ambassadors working side-by-side local villagers in 11 nations with GEM host partners on practical service learning projects have had life-changing opportunities taking action towards real-world sustainability in one farm field, one stream segment, one factory, one village at a time.
- Twelve past and present GEM-sponsored graduate students have produced high-quality theses focused on pragmatic issues and tools in natural resources, such as citizen-based water quality monitoring, organic agriculture and forestry microenterprise development, indigenous knowledge for sustainable development, land use planning for effective resource management, local food producer-seller linkages, self-help food and fuel security for impoverished communities, and more.
- GEM Sustainable Communities and Campuses Network features case studies of how various local communities worldwide are embracing and implementing a shared vision of the future for sustainable livelihoods and a natural resource base that provides security of food, fuel, fiber, water, beauty, meaning, and ultimately peace and permanence. Several other successes under this umbrella have made a mark. GEM launched the Global Environmental Teachings Project in collaboration with the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education to provide elementary and high school teachers opportunity for educational enrichment overseas. GEM staff and students have assumed leadership roles and are active in UWSP campus sustainability efforts. GEM planned and hosted the 4th International Conference on Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (2006, Country Springs Conference Center, Stevens Point, WI), which featured keynoters Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jared Diamond, with 136 participants from 19 nations.
- GEM “Critical Issues” International Seminar series has helped raise awareness and knowledge of global issues and perspectives for the local campus and community through a slate of 15 distinguished speakers representing 10 nations. Themes addressed so far include global security—in environmental terms; indigenous knowledge for sustainable development; sustainable communities; and United Nations Millennium Development Goals: update on building a sustainable future. The presentations are free and open to the public, which have been enjoyed by a diverse audience of students, faculty and community members. Video streams of the presentations are posted on the GEM website for wider audiences.
- GEM Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry Program helps prospective rural entrepreneurs in Wisconsin, Kenya, and Mexico develop new organic, value-added products; marketing strategies; and business plans for implementing microenterprises. More than 400 clients participate in this program. A new Farmer Incubator course provides six UWSP student interns hands-on experience working with local area organic farmers during the growing and harvesting seasons. “Tuning Fork: the show that tunes you in to what’s on your fork!” is an entertaining and informative outreach educational effort that GEM created and broadcasts weekly over the UWSP radio station. The Central Rivers Farmshed and other outreach initiatives spawned by GEM are helping stimulate the local food movement in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
- At the invitation of the Marquette University School of Nursing, GEM planned and implemented a highly successful self-help training program in small garden systems to augment nutrition of impoverished communities affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Over 1,200 clients were trained and over 700 small garden systems were installed for “growing hope” and food supplements to enhance anti-retroviral treatment.
- GEM Carbon Sequestration and Valuation Project is an international collaboration with partners from the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin, the indigenous Zapotec village of San Andres Yatuni in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Estudios Rurales y Asesoría Campesina, A.C. (ERA) non-governmental organization in Oaxaca, and Monterrey Tec University. Assessments of potential carbon credits through international carbon markets for forestry operations on the Menominee Reservation and the community forests of Yatuni are being developed for local leaders to consider for income generation and natural resource conservation.
- Three GEM Permaculture Design Certificate courses have been conducted to date with 20 participants having earned the official PDC certificate under Bill Mollison’s (the originator of permaculture) Permaculture Institute of Australia. Geoff and Nadia Lawton, internationally renowned permaculturists from Australia and Jordan respectively, led the first course. Darren Doherty, an equally acclaimed permaculture designer from Australia, taught the second course, as well as a special keyline design course on water harvesting and soil carbon enhancement immediately following the third PDC course taught by GEM staff. This third course featured a variety of practical, hands-on activities, e.g., making primo compost, mushroom logs, maple syrup tapping, chicken tractors, honey production, rainwater roof catchment, fruit grafting, agroforestry and small gardens, food canning, landscape design for sustainable living, and herb spirals that produced kitchen ingredients in summer and fall.
- A GEM graduate student of Menominee heritage is making fine progress on thesis work within the GEM Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Development Program. The purpose of this work is to help interpret Indigenous Knowledge for potential application in natural resource management at the state and local levels on non-tribal lands as well as for educating the general public in sustainability. Case studies of IK-based natural resource management practices in two Native American tribal communities—Bad River band of the Lake Superior Ojibwa tribe and Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin—will be featured. Lessons learned will then be used to develop educational materials targeting local and state natural resource managers and practitioners on IK for sustainable approaches to natural resource management. Educational materials targeting the general public on IK for sustainability will also be produced and disseminated.
- GEM Sustainable Energy Systems project activity has resulted in energy-saving improvements to UWSP campus facilities including rain gardens at Old Main, a green roof project on the Learning Resources Center, photovoltaic windows in the Noel Fine Arts Center, and a virtual online energy kiosk to monitor energy usage by buildings on campus. Future plans of the GEM Sustainable Energy Systems project include conducting a statewide renewable energy feasibility study for a 100 percent renewable energy future for Wisconsin.
These past eight years have been productive, fun and rewarding to GEM staff and students contributing passionately in a small way to sustainability. There are many challenges to and opportunities for permanence and peace ahead, which we welcome. With the many new friends we have made at home and abroad over these eight years, we reflect happily in taking the small, simple steps together towards sustainability. Like all worthy ventures, the pathway has not always been easy, but we cherish the journey and are pleased but not complacent with the achievements so far.
We would like to acknowledge and express our appreciation to Congressman David R. Obey representing the 7th Congressional District of Wisconsin for his steadfast support of the GEM enterprise. And thanks to all of you for joining the effort through changes in your lives, organizations, families, and communities on the new pathway in the Environmental Century. Onward!
Best regards,
GEM Education Center Blog 