While wind turbines and solar panels multiply across the Brazilian dry forests, Tião Alves insists on tin windmills and PET bottle-based heaters. “Backcountry technology,” as he defines it, arguing that the best solutions to make life possible in the Caatinga semiarid region are those born from popular wisdom. “Those that sprout like a seed you put in the ground.” This, and the understanding that, to survive in a challenging biome like the Caatinga, you need to learn from plants and animals: Thousands of species that have found ways to adapt to the scarcity of rainfall, to the point of making this the most biodiverse semiarid region in the world. That is why he calls the Caatinga an “invisible university.” Sebastião (nicknamed Tião) Alves dos Santos says he’s an “animal of the Caatinga” — born, raised and still living in the heart of the Brazilian dry forests. Now settled in the city of Arcoverde, Pernambuco state, he has been since 1989 one of the mentors of Serta — Alternative Technology Service, one of the most important agroecology teaching centers in the Brazilian Northeast region. Tião himself says he has helped train more than 2,000 technicians at Serta. Rural workers coming from all over the Northeast to one of the two campuses — in Ibimirim and Glória do Goitá, both in Pernambuco — in search of advanced knowledge to ensure food security with minimal resources (both natural and financial). Stoves lit by sunlight and cardboard boxes, for example. Water pumps powered by…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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