In the 1960s, visionary Paolo Lugari sought to prove that if a sustainable civilisation could survive in the harshest conditions, it could thrive anywhere. Lugari selected the Llanos in Colombia (a vast area known to be one of the harshest environments) to create an experimental village: Las Gaviotas in 1971, with the help of a scientific team.
Through the work of Las Gaviotas' founders and their team of scientists, the previously uninhabited area of nearly 20,000 acres was transformed into an abundant, self-sufficient tropical ecosystem where trees and plants thrive without the assistance of chemicals or artificial pest control products. As of today, Las Gaviotas has developed more than 30 per cent of their original land into a tropical rainforest and has proven that by man's ingenuity, the vegetated skin of the Earth can be restored. By pioneering ingenious renewable energy designs and low-tech innovations, this desert-turned-forest stands as a global blueprint for ecological restoration, demonstrating how humanity can successfully heal devastated landscapes.
