Sustainable CURAÇAO
MAGAZINE JUNE / JULY 2016
CURAÇAO OFFERS NEW HOPE FOR CORAL REEFS WORLD’S FIRST SUCCESSFUL LAB BREEDING OF CORALS
FROM FARM TO TABLE: FRESH CURAÇAOAN PR0DUCTS
EYE ON CURAÇAO Today I’m going to fall in love with the way the light hits the branches just before the height of sunrise. I’m going to fall in love with the way it feels after raising my heart rate, toning, stretching, taking care of this body. I’m going to fall in love again and again with the sounds of wind, with this island, with that view, or this thirst or imagination, or dream.
TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE.
Sustainable Curacao is a monthly edition aiming to advance dialogue in the face of global environmental change. Created to help bridge gaps in knowledge and encourage collaboration in support of a growing, competitive, innovative and sustainable economy. At the heart of sustainability is the idea that present lifestyles should not privilege current generations at the expense of those to come. Sustainability entails taking the future needs of our grandchildren – and their children – into account as we use our natural resources. Our sustainability is about people. It is people who help the environment, people who support each other and people who work for a better future. Placing people at the heart of sustainability makes all the more sense in light of our history of colonization. Without a doubt, we are faced with an unprecedented set of issues that call for a different approach to tourism development, food import and food production, waste management, urban planning and design. In order to address our island’s sustainability deficit, we must adopt bold new policies, practices and definitions of sustainability. The good news is that many business owners, young entrepreneurs and consumers in Curaçao are already thinking along these lines. Our mission is to discover best practices, share industry success stories, and identify the greatest new ideas and most innovative solutions for solving the environmental impact of manufacturing operations. Sustainability opens up new, different ways of critical thinking, Out of that new mind-set is a better way to a bigger profit, and a significant competitive advantage. Sustainable Curacao is in the business of building a better future. Join us.
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CURAÇAO OFFERS NEW HOPE FOR CORAL REEFS
WORLD’S FIRST SUCCESSFUL LAB BREEDING OF CORALS TO REPOPULATE CORAL REEFS
reefs are among the noisiest environments on the planet and a healthy reef can be heard by sea creatures from several miles away. Fish larvae use sound to find their way to reefs. Shrimp make a loud popping sound to ward off predators. Caribbean spiny lobsters produce rasp sounds to escape octopus attacks. Most marine invertebrates clap, rasp or pop sounds, while other creatures react to vibrations, like corals do. The different sounds are an integral part of the reef ecosystem.
Global change and local threats such as pollution, overfishing and coastal development are real threats to coral reefs on Curaçao and other Caribbean islands. Researchers from SECORE International and Carmabi have developed a unique method to breed and propagate threatened coral species to aid their recovery. The team is leading worldwide education on coral spawning and reef management through sexual Corals are formed by small colonial animals coral propagation. that together form coral colonies that can reach the size of car. They derive nutritionScientists estimate coral reefs provide al resources and energy from a symbiotic a home for millions of species and these relationship with an endosymbiotic algae, ecosystems are therefore often called the the zooxanthellae. Coral reefs are formed ‘tropical rainforests of the sea’ for their as- over the course of thousands of years as tounding richness of life. Due to the struc- limestone skeletons constructed by cortural complexity they create, corals are als accumulate and form a structural base one of the most productive ecosystems on for living corals. ‘Curaçao harbors some of Earth. They provide important goods and the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean,’ says coral reef ecologist Valerie Chamberland, ‘These healthy reefs are mainly located at the east side of the island along the coast of the uninhabited area where very little human disturbance occurs. At other sites along the Curaçaoan coast, coral reefs have been heavily impacted by human activities and are completely degraded’. ‘And then, she says, there is also everything in between healthy and degraded, with populations that grow in places you would not expect them to, and sometimes composed services to mankind as they support fish- of surprising assemblages of species’ eries, protect our coasts, are a source of which makes Curaçao a very interesting compounds that can be used in pharma- place for coral reef ecologists to carry-out ceutics, and they generate important reve- research. nue via recreation and tourism. Valerie Chamberland, is a Canadian PhD At their brightest and most vibrant, coral candidate who has been conducting re8
search in Curacao for over five years and has lately seen her experimental research come to full fruition: Chamberland and other researchers of SECORE International (USA, Germany), the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and the Carmabi Marine Research Station (Curaçao) have for the first time successfully raised laboratory-bred colonies of the Elkhorn coral, a critically endangered Caribbean coral species, to sexual maturity. This is a first ever for the Caribbean. The method Chamberland and her colleagues use differs substantially from the one generally used by reef restoration groups. These groups generally use the ‘coral gardening’ approach, whereby small fragments are harvested from coral colonies on the reef. The fragments are then grown in special nurseries to larger sizes before they are returned to the reef. This can be defined as cloning; the fragments harbor the same genes as the donor colonies and are therefore copies of their parents. ‘This makes them vulnerable to environmental change,’ says Chamberland. ‘If one is susceptible to a disease or other environmental stressors, they likely all are because they are all made up of identical genes’. SECORE developed a technique whereby male and female gametes are caught in the wild and fertilized in the laboratory to raise larger numbers of genetically unique corals. ‘This allows for new genetic combinations,’ explains Chamberland, ‘and hopefully stronger coral populations that will be able to withstand the conditions on present day reefs.’ These coral offspring are raised in a laboratory setting and then reintroduced in the wild to aid the recovery of threatened populations.
An estimated 80% of all Caribbean corals have disappeared over the last four decades and repopulating degraded reefs has since become a management priority throughout the Caribbean region. ‘In contrast to Indo-Pacific where hundreds of coral species are found, there are only 68 coral species in the Caribbean, and the loss of just one can have major devastating effects on the ecosystem,’ says Chamberland. The Elkhorn coral was one of the species whose decline was so severe that it was one of the first coral species to be listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species act in 2006, and as critically endangered under the IUCN Red List of Threatened species in 2008. Due to its large size and branching shape, healthy Elkhorn coral populations historically created vast forests in shallow reef waters that protect shores from incoming storms and provide a critical habitat for a myriad of other reef organisms, including ecologically and economically important fish species. In the Caribbean 95 percent of Elkhorn have died, explains Chamberland, ‘No other species resembles the Elkhorn coral morphologically, and therefore the shallow reefs remained denuded of corals in many areas in the Caribbean.’ In 2011, SECORE raised offspring of the endangered elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) from gametes collected in the field on Curaçao. The Elkhorn coral reproduces during mass spawning events a few nights after the August full moon, during which colonies simultaneously release sperm and eggs. The gametes float their way up to the surface where they eventually concentrate and fertilization occurs. ‘It’s incredible, really, and still amazes me too, how corals have adjusted their internal clocks 10
CORAL OFFSPRING ARE REINTRODUCED IN THE WILD TO AID THE RECOVERY OF THREATENED POPULATIONS
to all spawn at the exact same moment’. The resulting embryos drift for hours before they develop into a coral larvae that can actively swim towards the reef and attach onto the reef framework. ‘Although they are extremely small and appear as helpless little creatures, coral larvae know where to find the reef from the open ocean because they can sense vibrations and react to sounds. They can also detect light levels and select for an appropriate depth where to settle’, explains Chamberland.
lowing three years, these branching corals had grown to the size of a small soccer ball and reproduced, simultaneously with their natural population in September 2015. This event marks the first ever successful rearing of a threatened Caribbean coral species to its reproductive age. ‘So now we know it takes four years for Elkhorn to reproduce’ says Chamberland. ‘This means that these artificially-bred corals can quickly contribute to the natural pool of gametes during the annual mass-spawning of Elkhorn corals and During coral spawning, the SECORE/Carm- thereby increase the genetic diversity of abi team collects large numbers of gam- these threatened populations’. etes by gently placing special nets around spawning colonies to catch the floating This coming spawning season will be very gametes. After collection, the research- busy for the SECORE/Carmabi team as ers produce coral embryos via in vitro fer- they have big plans. ‘We plan on upscaltilization by mixing sperm and eggs from ing our production to several thousands of all different parents in the laboratory. This artificial substrates with corals to rehabilcritical step takes place at the Curaçao Sea itate coral populations on larger sections Aquarium, one of SECORE and Carmabi’s of reefs’ says Valerie Chamberland. She most important local partners. Once they also stresses that she and her team can’t are fertilized, the embryos develop into perform miracles. ‘Our techniques can swimming larvae within days and eventu- only support natural recovery, we don’t get ally settle onto specifically designed arti- around to protect coral reefs and to apply ficial substrates. Chamberland shows the additional management tools to reduce aquaria where offspring of different spe- overfishing, pollution and other threats to cies are growing on artificial substrates. coral reefs.’ The researchers hope to raise ‘Each single species has very specific re- public awareness of the uniqueness and quirements when it comes to the environ- importance of the reefs surrounding the ment in which they are raised, and in the island. ‘Our future depends on it, really,’ past years we have learned what they like, says Chamberland. ‘But many people in and also what they don’t! We have become Curaçao are not aware of their treasures very successful at providing each species beneath the surface and what they can do with tailored conditions for them to devel- to help protect them. We hope that more op properly in our laboratory and settle on people will come visit Carmabi to learn especially designed artificial substrates’. about the coral reefs and the important roles they play.’ Carmabi has recently One year after the coral spawning in 2011, opened a Marine Education Center where the tiny artificially bred Elkhorn corals locals and tourists of all ages are welcome were outplanted to a reef. Within the fol- to visit to learn more about coral reefs. 12
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‘But I believe, in well made biodynamic wines, I can taste a difference. I can taste a liveliness on my tongue that really is quite different from conventionally grown wines.’ - Max Allen
ECO-FRIENDLY WINES
Traditional winemaking methods often employ the use of animal byproducts. Fertilizer is used in the vineyard, and gelatin, casein (milk Grape growing like most other farming is or- protein), egg whites and fish gue are common ganic by origin, but like most other farms, most fining agents. A wine labeled as ‘organic’ or vineyards today are not organic. For grapes ‘biodynamic’ will not necessarily be vegan. to be considered organically grown they must be produced without any form of synthetical- Biodynamic farmers treat the farm or vineyard ly compounded fertilizer, pesticide, or growth as a self-sustaining ecosystem. regulator. A wine in this category cannot have any added sulfites. It may have naturally oc- They use natural predators instead of pescurring sulfites, but the total sulfite level must ticides, save seeds, use compost for fertilbe less than 20 parts per million. izer and grow crops that are appropriate for the local environment. In winemaking, this In recent years more organic, biodynamic and means that winemakers must study the soil, vegan wines have begun to appear on store and carefully decide which varietals will best shelves. While most labels can be trusted, it express the vineyards’ characteristics. Biodyis important to note that the term ‘vegan’ on namic wines are most frequently certified by labels is not legally defined. the Demeter organization. 16
My Designs work with nature, not a gainst it’
‘MY DESIGNS WORK WITH NATURE, NOT AGAINST IT.’
man being Also the chemical energy stored in fuel is lost in the conversion process into mechanical or electrical energy. The combustion (explosion) of fuels produces by-products which harm us and pollute our planet. Today’s technology is sole- Most of the energy is lost ly based on explosion. Every during an explosive proexplosion creates heat, which cess through frictional reis wasted, mostly, and contributes to global warming and destruction of nature. ‘I design according to nature, which uses implosion,’ says Christopher Joseph, inventor of renewable energy applications. ‘All machinery can be designed and rebuilt on the principles of implosion.’ Engines, cars, computers, all machines need built-in fans to cool down the heat created by thousands to millions of explosions while driving your car, listening to the radio or checking your mail. This heat gets wasted. In the process oxygen is consumed. An average car, driven at 50 kilometers per hour consumes about 750 times the amount of oxygen needed by a hu-
domestic and commercial applications which uses wind differently, generating less resistance and noise. ‘I design according to the processes in nature, which are based on implosion.’ ‘Our linear concept means nothing to nature. In nature there are no straight lines.’ Implosion is a suctional process that causes matter to move inwards, not outwards as in the case of explosion.
This inward (centripetal) motion, however, does not follow a straight path to the centre, it follows a spiraling whirling path. ‘To understand this,’ sistance. The waste heat says Joseph. ‘we need to from all industrial pro- think of processes rathcesses, which are almost er than fixed concepts. exclusively somewhere along the line based on We are familiar with a linthe explosive use of fossil ear way of thinking: thinkor nuclear fuels, causes ing of cause and effect. our planet to warm up. ‘In But our linear concept order to lessen the impact means nothing to nature. and environmental pollu- In nature there are no tion of our technology, we straight lines. ’Winds don’t need to reinvent it,’ ac- travel in a straight line. cording to Joseph who in- The actual paths of winds vented a wind turbine for — and of ocean currents, 18
which are pushed by wind — are partly a result of the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect is named after Gustave Coriolis, the 19th-century French mathematician who first explained it. The Coriolis force is the invisible force that appears to deflect the wind. The key is in the Earth’s rotation. The Earth rotates faster at the Equator than it does at the poles. This is because the Earth is wider at the Equator. A point on the Equator has farther to travel in a day. As a result planes cross19
ing he oceans don’t fly in path of least resistance. a straight line. If they did, they would not arrive at ‘Inside the wind moves their planned destination. like water swirling down a drain,’ he explains. ‘It The Coriolis force applies is reducing resistance by to movement on all rotat- curving more and more ing objects, says Joseph. inwards thereby avoiding ‘It is determined by the the confrontational resismass of the object and the tance of straight motion.’ object’s rate of rotation. Planet Earth, in fact, is not There is actually no physi- perfectly round. It is oval. cal force involved, it is just different parts moving fast While straight lines do not er or slower.’ Taking the exist in nature, perfect cirCoriolis force into ac- cles do not either. Planet count, Joseph has de- Earth, in fact, is not persigned a wind turbine that fectly round. Isaac Newrotates as if it were creat- ton first proposed that ed by nature, following the Earth was not round like a
oval seeds and fruits. ‘Force – life creating force, any force – creates pressure, movement, uneven distributing of mass, resulting in egg shaped He was correct and, be- form.’ Typically, when an cause of this bulge, the egg is laid it comes out distance from Earth’s with the blunt end first. center to sea level is roughly 21 kilometers ‘There is more surface (13 miles) greater at the area for the muscles to equator than at the poles. act on at the tapered end as compared to the blunt It may seem strange to end,’ Joseph explains. you, but not to Christopher Joseph. ‘Every life ‘My wind turbine is oval producing element is oval too. It is egg-shaped, shaped,’ he says, men- which actually is, so tioning oval eggs, oval I found out, very hard sperm, testicles, breasts, to create. I have been ball. Instead, he suggested it was an oblate spheroid — a sphere that is squashed at its poles and swollen at the equator.
shaping and reshaping it many times over, until I finally got it right.’ Joseph’s invention, called StarWind, will be brought to the market this year. The clean energy generating turbine is but one of his many designs of renewable energy applications for domestic and commercial use, including agriculture, using solar energy, water and wind. ‘I use the forces of nature without causing harm to nature, to our existence. I believe in designing for a better world.’
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FROM FARM TO TABLE: FRESH CURAÇAOAN PRODUCTS Some fourty years ago our supermarkets looked very different. Smaller, other products, limited product choice and more produce from the island and locations nearby. Today we buy tamarind from Thailand, aloe vera from Korea, goat meat from New Zealand and thousands of processed products from abroad, which makes Curacao dangerously dependent on other countries to feed us. Can we still turn our focus back to the island? Supermarkets, restaurants, cafes and truk’i pan all form a complex but reliable food chain, feeding the hungry citizens of the island and over 400 thousand tourists a year. Partly fueled by the islands cosmopolitan tastes, partly fueled by its impressively capacious trading port, over 90 percent of Curacaos total food supply is imported. The nations that feed this country include the United States, Brazil, the Netherlands and several countries in the far East. It’s a situation that makes some uneasy. Lack of education and awareness, combined with a belief that agricultural work is ‘dirty’ and ‘too tough to handle’, have created a country disengaged with the origins of its food. Several local start-ups question the willingness to rely on other countries for food and have taken initiatives to challenge cultural and social roadblocks and produce food in a sustainable way.
The Eatery at Hofi Cas Cora offers
brunches on weekends, and lunch on Fridays , prepared with fresh ingredients straight from the farm. The menu varies and depends on the harvest. Owners Femi Meaux and Joshua Peiliker want to introduce new tastes with fres, organic products and inspire visitors to start their own edible garden.
Nos Kunuku at Ronde Klip masters and
promotes permaculture to design living environments that have the diversity , stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. The result: products with high nutritional value, rich in nutrients. Nos Kunuku delivers pre-packaged micro greens to local supermarkets.
Sembra Simia, based in Montana Rey,
sells organic seeds and seeds of hybrids. Owner Lennox Bridgewater, who has a degree in agriculture, happily gives advice and guidance to those interested in cultivating plants. For this purpose he created a group on Facebook: Organic Gardening Sembra Simia.
Fuik Microgreens offers trendy seedlings
known as microgreens. These tiny vegetable greens are used both as a visual and flavor component or ingredient primarily in fine dining. But sprouts are also a delicious way to get protein and vitamins.
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ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH MAGNESIUM? Eight out of ten people are deficient in magnesium – and most don’t know it. Magnesium deficiency seldom gets diagnosed because it doesn’t show up in blood tests: only 1 percent of magnesium is in the blood, the rest is stored in bones and organs. Lack of magnesium can be the cause of fatigue, depression, nerve twitching and muscle cramps. Magnesium is a mineral used by every organ in the body, especially the heart, muscles, and kidneys. It is essential for cellular health and over 300 biochemical functions in the body. Most people do not think about magnesium when they think about how to prevent chronic disease, but it plays an essential role. A study published in BMC Bioinformatics found that your body has 3,751 magnesium binding sites. This indicates that magnesium benefits are far greater than previously imagined. Because your body requires and uses magnesium for many different functions, you can quickly become low in magnesium especially if you are not consuming enough high magnesium foods. According to researchers daily consumption of foods high in magnesium – like spinach, chard, pumpkin seeds, almonds, avocado, banana - may be particularly beneficial in offsetting your risk of developing diabetes, if you are high risk. Magnesium is important for glucose regulation, it controls insulin sensitivity and keeps your metabolism running efficiently. If you have constipation, this may well be a sign that you are deficient in magnesium. Juicing green leafy vegetables, and adding sesame or sunflower seeds, is a perfect way to get more magnesium. However, according to dr. Carolyne Dean, author of The Magnesium Miracle: ‘Magnesium is farmed out of the soil much more than calcium… A hundred years ago, we would get maybe 500 milligrams of magnesium in an ordinary diet. Now we’re lucky to get 200 milligrams.” Maybe now you would consider taking a supplement, but it’s not that simple. When taking magnesium, you have to think of vitamin D3, vitamin K2 and calcium as well, as these work synergistically together. All four should be in balance. If you have too much calcium and not enough magnesium, your muscles will tend to go into spasm, and this has consequences for your heart in particular. This is also why calcium supplementation, without considering the other three, is linked to heart disease and stroke. Juicing greens and adding a fair amount of seeds is still the best way of increasing your magnesium levels. Organic foods may have more magnesium. A green smoothie a day will ward off the ‘invisible’ deficiency. 28