About Las Gaviotas Offsets

The power of the Las Gaviotas pilot project is that it rewrote the science of forestry. It also redrafted the framework for social development. The Vichada population used to suffer from gastro-intestinal diseases due to the lack of adequate quality drinking water, and the traditional solutions offer antibiotics or the digging of a deep well. These options hardly work in the Vichada for the simple reasons that there is no electricity to keep the medicine cool, and whenever the pump needs a spare part, the delivery could take months if not years.

But Las Gaviotas realized that the regeneration of the rainforest would bring additional benefits to the local population beyond jobs and the regeneration of the humus cap, the thriving undergrowth and the diverse forest, it also increased precipitation.

Over the past couple decades, the experimental research center has proven with over 8,000 HA of rainforest that this strategy works thanks to the implementation of a vision through a creative and innovative approach to the development challenges of the tropics.

Las Gaviotas region before.

Las Gaviotas Region today.