Our mission is to promote research and education for Alaskans in sustainable economic development

Past Newsletters

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News from the ALASKA CENTER FOR APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
Box 872020, Wasilla, AK 99687 ph:907-373-0909

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Volume 14, Number 2 - June 2006
by Mark Masteller, Executive Director, m.masteller@acat.org
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Our mission is to promote research and education for Alaskans in sustainable economic development.

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IN THIS EDITION:

Microcredit Loan systems in Developing Countries – summary of presentation by Eric McCallum
Raffle for 4WD Hybrid Vehicle – Support the new Valley Community Recycling Center
Bioneers in Alaska 2006 Conference – Seeking Conference Sponsors
List of Bioneers 2006 Plenary and Keynote Speakers

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MICROCREDIT LOAN SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES – with Eric McCallum

We had a great presentation and discussion April 26 with Eric McCallum, who shared his story of why and how he became involved with microcredit loan systems in developing countries. Originally from Ohio, Eric moved to Anchorage in 1981 and started Arctic Wire Rope and Supply in 1983. In recent years, and partly due to Paul Hawken’s book The Ecology of Commerce, he has become increasingly interested in resource utilization, energy, third world poverty and how the profit-driven market can foster change in these areas. In particular, Eric is interested in helping the poorest of the poor – those people living on a dollar or less each day.

Eric described how focusing on the welfare of women can lead to improvements in many social and environmental “ills.” When women enjoy better economic security it leads to improved health (in children and adults), higher literacy and general education rates, decreasing birth rates, etc. Calling it his “aha moment,” Eric said that microcredit loans appeared to be the best way for someone to use a systems approach to get a large “return on investment,” from both a social and financial perspective.

So what is Microcredit? Wikipedia describes it this way: “Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to unemployed, poor entrepreneurs and others living in poverty who are not bankable. It is a financial innovation which originated in developing countries where it has successfully enabled extremely impoverished people (mostly women) to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and, in may cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty.” The first microcredit loans began in Bangladesh over 30 years ago.

Typically, micorcredit loans are for $100-200, with a loan length of 4-6 months. These may sound like small amounts, but $100 goes along way when you’re living on a dollar a day. The interest rates are high – over 30%! – due to the challenge and expense of loan servicing in far-flung rural areas. Experience has shown that women have higher repayment rates than men, and groups of women have the best repayment rates, probably because of both the group-support and peer pressure angles.

Here’s the way many of these mirocredit loan systems work. Typically, Micro-Financing Institutions (MFI) are established within the country where the loans occur, and are staffed with people from the area. MFIs make the unsecured loans, and it’s important they are “in country” because they have the best knowledge of the specific conditions in their region. In order for MFIs to survive, loaning to people with no collateral and bearing the high costs of servicing the loans, they need to charge an interest rate. The MFIs also work to raise donor funds from folks from outside the country, like Eric, who want to help people.

The occasions when groups of women get together to make their loan payments – every 2-4 weeks – are great places for education to occur. MFI staff can pass along financial planning, health care and other information in a manner that almost guarantees it will emanate throughout the community. Women who have improved their economic status gain self-confidence and tend to share the wealth with their children and the community. In this manner the microcredit loan system has obvious financial and educational benefits, that multi-faceted return on investment.

During his discussion Eric also mentioned a couple other books - The Mystery of Capital (Herman De Soto) and Ripples from the Zambezi (Ernesto Sirolli). (And coincidentally, Mr. Sirolli spoke recently in Wasilla about “enterprise facilitation” and growing the economy from within.) He is now collaborating with Micro Credit Enterprises (www.mcenterprises.org) to help develop groups of investors/donors who want to help alleviate poverty in developing countries.

Interestingly, during the discussion we learned there are some similar loans occurring in Alaska, where Native artists get “bridging” money to purchase the raw materials needed for their artistry, then they repay the loans when they sell their finished work. Of course, a micro-loan in Alaska is typically $1000-2000.

It was a great discussion, and I really appreciate Eric’s willingness to share his story and experiences. I also want to thank Terri Pauls for arranging a great room at the UAA/APU Consortium Library. And, of course, I want to thank the folks who showed up on a sunny evening and shared in the discussion!


SUPPORT THE NEW VALLEY RECYCLING FACILITY and WIN A HYBRID 4-WHEEL DRIVE!

Earlier newsletters have described the partnership between Valley Community for Recycling Solutions and ACAT to develop a new zero waste, zero net-energy Mat-Su Community Recycling Center. We have completed preliminary design concepts, and are now in the fundraising and land-acquisition stages for the $4.6 million facility. The plan is to raise the necessary capital during 2006, build the center during 2007, and celebrate the move to the new center on Earth Day 2008! VCRS is purchasing a site adjacent to the Mat-Su Borough central landfill. VCRS was recently invited to submit a large proposal to the Rasmuson Foundation – which is a very good sign of support!

As part of the fundraising effort, VCRS is raffling a 2007 Ford 4-wheel-drive Escape Hybrid! This is part of the local/regional capital campaign to raise $300,000 – funds that will used to “match” (leverage) funds from other sources. (Typically, grants from private foundations and federal/state agencies require a certain amount of “local match.”) You can learn more about VCRS, the facility and the fundraising at www.valleyrecycling.org (go to the Raise the Roof for Recycling link).

They will be selling only 2500 tickets, and the raffle will occur on America Recycles Day (November 15). Tickets are $50 each, and you can get them by calling VCRS at 907-745-5544 or by contacting me at m.masteller@acat.org or 907-373-0909. Don’t wait – it helps both VCRS and ACAT!


BIONEERS IN ALASKA – SEEKING SPONSORS FOR THIS GREAT CONFERENCE IN OCTOBER

Paul Hawken, whose work as an enlightened entrepreneur has inspired many people (including Eric McCallum) to begin measuring economic success with both ecologic and economic standards, is again on the list of plenary speakers for the 17th annual Bioneers conference. Another is Tom Linzey, who helped start the Democracy School (which you may remember ACAT brought for the first time to Alaska last October). They are just two of the 15 great speakers (others include Amy Goodman, Paul Stamets – see complete list below) we will present, via satellite, at the 3rd annual Bioneers in Alaska conference October 19-22 at UAA. Planning for Bioneers in Alaska 2006 has begun in earnest, and we are now developing the local workshop program and marketing the event at other summer gatherings.

Do you want to be part of the movement to support “practical solutions for restoring the Earth – and people?” Do you want to help combat the pervasive gloom-and-doom messages with hopeful, inspiring examples of folks developing ecologically, economically and socially sustainable communities? If so, become a conference SPONSOR! Sponsorships start at $100, and you’ll be recognized as supporting the premier annual event working to “create sustainable communities.”

To sponsor, or get more information, please contact me at m.masteller@acat.org or 907-373-0909. Also, check out our Bioneers in Alaska web site at www.sustainak.org!

Finally, if you want to receive emails related specifically to the Bioneers in Alaska program we have a list-serve for this purpose – just give me a holler.


HOT OFF THE PRESSES - BIONEERS 2006 ALASKA KEYNOTE AND CONFERENCE PLENARY SPEAKERS

We recently invited Mr. Jeffrey Smith, director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, to be our Alaska keynote speaker. Mr. Smith writes and lectures on the health risks associated with genetically modified foods, and his latest book is Seeds of Deception (www.seedsofdeception.com ).

2006 Bioneers Conference Plenary Speakers (beamed to via satellite – see www.bioneers.org for more details on the “headwaters” conference)

Carl Anthony, a former Executive Director of the Earth Island Institute, is currently Deputy Director of the Community and Resource Department Unit at the Ford Foundation as well as Chair of the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development. He has long been one of the nation's most renowned environmental leaders and is one of the seminal founders of the environmental justice movement.

Spencer B. Beebe (www.ecotrust.org), over the course of his 35 year career, has played a key role in the creation of innovative conservation and development organizations from Alaska to Bolivia, helping pioneer “debt for nature” swaps in tropical rainforest countries, “environmental banking” in the Pacific Northwest and building "Salmon Nation"-a vision of a truly sustainable greater Northwest region. He is founder and President of Ecotrust, a Portland-based organization committed to improving social, economic and environmental conditions from Alaska to California and serves on the boards of ShoreBank Corporation, Ecotrust Canada and Ecotrust Forest Management, Inc.

Tzeporah Berman (www.forestethics.org) is the Program Director for ForestEthics, an organization with programs in the United States, Canada and Chile that have protected over 5 million acres of forests in the last five years and have transformed buying patterns of major paper and wood consumers such as Staples and Office Depot. Prior to joining ForestEthics, Ms. Berman worked for seven years with Greenpeace International and Greenpeace Canada, and currently sits on the boards of the Ruckus Society and the Hollyhock Retreat Center and lives on Cortes Island, BC with her husband and their two children.

Sarah Crowell (www.destinyarts.org), the Executive Director of the renowned Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, CA, has been empowering youth through dance, theater, violence-prevention and youth leadership classes and workshops in Bay Area schools and community centers since 1990, encouraging youths to find their voices through the arts. She is also a dancer and actress who has performed nationally and internationally and co-directs the “i am! Productions” dance/theater company.

Maria Elena Durazo, one of the nation's most prominent Hispanic labor leaders, is the President of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, (H.E.R.E.-Local 11, AFL-CIO) and General Vice-President of H.E.R.E's International Union (U.S. membership of over 250,000). One of 10 children of Mexican immigrant field workers, Maria earned a law degree in 1985 and became the first Latina to head a major union in Southern California. A member of the California Coastal Commission, she was also National Director of the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride, a national mobilization campaign to fix U.S. immigration laws.

Lois Marie Gibbs (www.chej.org), a legendary figure in the grassroots environmental justice movement ever since the infamous, historic “Love Canal” episode, is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), which has assisted over 10,000 grassroots groups nationwide with critical organizing and technical assistance. The winner of many awards including the 1990 Goldman Environmental Prize and the 1998 Heinz Award, Lois has spoken around the country and been featured on many of the nation’s most popular television and radio news shows.

Amy Goodman (www.democracynow.org), is the Executive Producer and host of the acclaimed radio program, “Democracy Now!” on Pacifica Radio, and formerly served as news director for WBAI in New York. An intrepid reporter and investigator, she is a recipient of the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Journalism Award, the Radio/Television News Directors Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Reporting and the George Polk Award. Goodman has reported from many of the world’s “hot spots:” Israel and the occupied territories, Cuba, Mexico, Haiti, Nigeria and East Timor.

Paul Hawken (www.naturalcapital.org, www.paulhawken.com) has been a trend-setting leader for decades. He was one of the earliest pioneers at the birth of the modern “health food” movement, one of the earliest exponents and exemplars of socially responsible entrepreneurship and a life-long social justice and environmental activist. If all that weren’t enough, Paul has long been one of our most important thinkers on ecology and economics, culture, business, activism and politics, and he has written several of the most groundbreaking and deeply influential books of our time, including The Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism (and the forthcoming Blessed Unrest).

James Hillman is a Connecticut-based scholar, international lecturer, pioneer psychologist, and the author of more than twenty books, including The Soul's Code, Re-Visioning Psychology, Healing Fiction, The Dream and the Underworld, and Suicide and the Soul. A Jungian analyst and originator of post-Jungian "archetypal psychology," he has held teaching positions at Yale, the University of Chicago, Syracuse and the University of Dallas, where he co-founded the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.

Thomas Linzey (www.celdf.org), a Pennsylvania-based activist and attorney, is co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit providing free and affordable legal services to grassroots groups and municipal governments and seeking creative legal strategies for democratic control over corporations, especially in demanding the right of localities to refuse to accept highly polluting industrial agriculture facilities. Linzey has run as an independent for state Attorney General in PA, serves as coordinator of the Franklin County Coalition, is a frequent lecturer to groups and municipal governments across the country and is a resident lecturer for the "Democracy Schools" he helped found-ever more popular and widespread weekend seminars held across the U.S. that seek to provoke critical thinking about the role of corporations and teach strategies to reclaim local “home rule” over key economic decisions that affect communities.

Michael Pollan (www.michaelpollan.com), currently the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and Director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism, has been writing about where the human and natural worlds intersect (food, agriculture, gardens, drugs, and architecture) for over 20 years. His books include the award-winning, bestselling, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World; and, most recently, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, about the ethics and ecology of eating. A contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine since 1987, he has received numerous awards, and his articles have appeared in many publications, including Harper’s, Mother Jones and House & Garden.

Sofía Quintero (aka "Black Artemis") (www.blackartemis.com) is a Bronx born writer, activist, educator and comedienne of Puerto Rican-Dominican ancestry. A self-proclaimed "Ivy League homegirl," who earned an MPA from Columbia's prestigious School of International Affairs, she is a long-time activist on a range of issues who has married her activism with storytelling in the critically acclaimed Black Artemis series of novels as well as other works under her own name (including Divas Don't Yield). Sofia also co-founded Chica Luna Productions and Sister/Outsider Entertainment to help produce socially conscious entertainment in many media.

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, one of the earliest pioneers in the mind/body holistic health movement, co-founded the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, which vaulted to national prominence when it was featured in Bill Moyers’ groundbreaking PBS series, “Healing and the Mind.” She has cared for people with cancer and their families for over 30 years. A nationally recognized medical reformer and educator who sees the practice of medicine as a spiritual path, she is currently Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine and founder and Director of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, and is the author of several bestselling books, including: Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal and My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging.

Paul Stamets (www.fungi.com), president of Fungi Perfecti, a mail-order business supplying cultures, equipment and myco-technologies to mushroom cultivators throughout the world, has discovered four new species of mushrooms and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation and in “fungal bioremediation.” He has written six books including Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, The Mushroom Cultivator, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World, and most recently, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, as well as many articles and scholarly papers. Paul has authored and been awarded several breakthrough patents on fungal pesticide and bioremediation techniques that have great potential to help clean up the environment. He is also a dedicated hiker, conservationist and explorer whose passion is to preserve, protect and clone as many ancestral strains of mushrooms as possible from the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Clayton Thomas-Müller (www.ienearth.org) of the Mathais Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for indigenous self-determination and environmental justice. He is the Indigenous Oil Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network and works across Alaska, Canada and the lower 48 States of the USA with grassroots indigenous communities to defend their human and environmental rights against transnational oil corporations. Clayton has been recognized by the Utne Reader as one of the top 30 under 30 young activists in the United States.