The Reclamation Project
The Project uses eco-art to engage residents to reclaim coastal urban habitats one seedling at a time. Volunteers collect Red mangrove seedlings and install them inside plastic cups on walls and windows at schools, museums and retail stores. After a 2-6 month germination period, volunteers replant them, creating coastal wetland habitat where mangrove wetlands once thrived. The Project combines art, science, bioremediation and community activism and is 100% volunteer based.
Xavier Cortada (www.cortada.com), a local artist, gave birth to the Project. It is administered at Miami Science Museum which hosts a 1,100 seedling installation at its Wildlife Center.
To date 11,000 mangrove seedlings, representing over seven acres of restored habitat, have been replanted by volunteers in Miami-Dade County. Five other Florida counties participate, illustrating the viral popularity of this highly practical project.
A spinoff initiative called Native Flags (http://www.reclamationproject.net/?U_index) engages citizens to restore Miami's urban tree canopy. Homeowners adopt one of 12 species of native coastal hardwood sapling and an artistic flag that reads "I hereby reclaim this land for nature." Sapling and flag are planted together creating a bi-focal art piece that inspires neighbors to do the same. Participants then upload an image of the flag and tree to the Project website, creating an even broader community of engaged citizens. Others around the world participate by planting a native sapling and downloading a flag online or creating their own.
While mangrove programming evokes the power of the group, Native Flags empowers individuals. Each has created a growing community of engaged citizen volunteers.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Fernando
Last Name
Bretos
Organization
Miami Science Museum
Country
United States, FL, Miami-Dade County
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
The Reclamation Project at Miami Science Museum
Organization Website
Organization Phone
305-646-4275
Organization Address
3280 South Miami Avenue, Miami, FL 33129
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
United States, FL, Miami-Dade County
Your idea
Name Your Project
The Reclamation Project
Country your work focuses on
United States, FL, Miami-Dade County
Describe Your Idea
The Project uses eco-art to engage residents to reclaim coastal urban habitats one seedling at a time. Volunteers collect Red mangrove seedlings and install them inside plastic cups on walls and windows at schools, museums and retail stores. After a 2-6 month germination period, volunteers replant them, creating coastal wetland habitat where mangrove wetlands once thrived. The Project combines art, science, bioremediation and community activism and is 100% volunteer based.
Xavier Cortada (www.cortada.com), a local artist, gave birth to the Project. It is administered at Miami Science Museum which hosts a 1,100 seedling installation at its Wildlife Center.
To date 11,000 mangrove seedlings, representing over seven acres of restored habitat, have been replanted by volunteers in Miami-Dade County. Five other Florida counties participate, illustrating the viral popularity of this highly practical project.
A spinoff initiative called Native Flags (http://www.reclamationproject.net/?U_index) engages citizens to restore Miami's urban tree canopy. Homeowners adopt one of 12 species of native coastal hardwood sapling and an artistic flag that reads "I hereby reclaim this land for nature." Sapling and flag are planted together creating a bi-focal art piece that inspires neighbors to do the same. Participants then upload an image of the flag and tree to the Project website, creating an even broader community of engaged citizens. Others around the world participate by planting a native sapling and downloading a flag online or creating their own.
While mangrove programming evokes the power of the group, Native Flags empowers individuals. Each has created a growing community of engaged citizen volunteers.
Website URL
Would you like to participate in the MIF Opportunity 2010?
Yes
Innovation
What makes your idea unique and innovative?
Defying conventional wisdom, the Project is an art project with a coastal restoration mandate. Mangrove seedlings are collected by volunteers along Biscayne Bay and exhibited in plastic cups with tap water on walls and windows at museums, retail stores and schools throughout South Florida. The installations represent a symbolic reclamation by a store, school or museum for nature. Participants later replant these seedlings, thereby restoring coastal habitat. The Project’s innovation lies in the way art is used to engage participants to imagine what South Florida looked like before the concrete was poured. Installations double as nurseries where seedlings germinate before being replanted. All stages of the Project are volunteer driven which make this effort cost effective and highly sustainable.
The Program employs the universal appeal of art to express complex concepts such as climate change and coastal degradation. Viewers of installations regardless of origin, language or creed, relate to the idea that even the most urban habitats can be restored to resemble their native state.
The Project is replicable in any coastal location on either side of the Atlantic where Red mangroves grow. Red mangrove propagules work well because of their hardiness as seedlings but the participatory eco-art platform employed is universal and can accomodate any iteration such as coral reef or sea grass restoration.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had on your clients and the tourism sector?
The Project, which originated in Miami Beach, is the brainchild of local artist Xavier Cortada who in 2004 displayed Red mangrove seedlings in plastic cups during Art Basel, a popular art fair. As the power of eco-art lies in how many people are exposed to it, it is no coincidence that the Project was conceived in an area so popular with tourists. Its environmental mandate is purely coastal in scope.
Since 2004, the program has touched the lives of thousands of Miami residents and tourists. Museums and over 100 retail stores on Lincoln Road, a popular Miami Beach promenade have exhibited mangrove seedlings on their storefronts, thereby engaging thousands of additional viewers and volunteers. Municipalities throughout Florida have also adopted the Project.
Tourists as well as residents are engaged through eco-art to envision what Miami, or even their home country, looked like before development commenced. In the case of Lincoln Road, huge tracts of mangrove forests covered the island until the 1920s. Each mangrove seedling in a plastic cup serves as a symbolic reclamation of Lincoln Road by those very same mangroves. Tourists are also invited to participate as volunteers while they are vacationing in Miami. In 2010, storefronts in another touristic area of Miami called Cocotalk adopted mangrove seedling installations.
As much of the restoration work (replanting of seedlings) takes place in touristic areas, the Project’s immediate impact is to make Miami‘s coast more beautiful and appealing. A secondary benefit is to show tourists that Miami residents are vested in protecting their environment.
Problem
During the last century, South Florida’s coastal and upland forests have been largely diminished as a result of logging, construction and the spread of invasive plant species. Today, Miami-Dade County’s average urban canopy cover is 10%, well below the national urban average of 30%.
Mangroves are incredibly important ecosystems to South Florida. They provide habitat for native birds, mammals and reptiles, act as a nursery for marine organisms such as fish and lobster, protect our coastlines from hurricanes and erosion, and cleanse air and water, all of which are critical ecological services for a coastal urban area. These habitats, however, are under consistent threat from rampant urban growth. Currently fragmented and facing future anthropogenic threats, the ecosystem services these resources provide can no longer be assured.
As humans are the cause of coastal wetland degradation, they are also the remedy.
Actions
The Project engages volunteers to collect seedlings every September during the mangrove fruiting season. Volunteers then install these throughout the city and in the spring replant the seedlings after they have germinated.
Volunteers and project participants are kept abreast of the Project through Facebook (www.facebook.com/reclamationproj) which also serves as a networking tool that allows participants to maintain dialogue about urban habitat restoration. Literature, videos and other downloads are available on the website.
Through the Native Flags, trees and flags are distributed to residents throughout the city who plant them at their homes. One of twelve species of native trees and an artistic green flag are distributed at schools, eco-fairs and public places. The eco-art flag, designed by Mr. Cortada reads “I hereby reclaim this land for nature.” The proclamation and artistic piece complement eachother and create a community of engaged citizens. Flags have been adopted by residents as far as Latvia and Finland.
Results
Since 2004 over 11,000 seedlings, or over seven acres of new habitat have been replanted by over 900 volunteers at sites on Biscayne Bay, an urban estuary. Five additional Florida counties participate.
Ninety five retail stores in Miami adopt mangrove installations every year and 13 schools maintain their own installations, all at no cost apart from general program administration and the cost of plastic cups
Over 1,200 trees and flags have been distributed.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
The program is volunteer based is highly cost effective. However, financial resources are best allocated toward the administration of the Project, particularly to fully fund its Director to ensure that he can devote 100% of his time to outreach, restoration and monitoring.
2011. Funding to allow three interns to enhance social networking component of Project and organize volunteers
2012. An additional permanent Project assistant to oversee restoration components (habitat monitoring and effectiveness of replanting). More stores and hotels in Miami Beach to host eco-art installations
2013 Two full time staff (Director and Assistant) and a team of four interns (two communications based interns, two restoration/monitoring based interns with a science background).
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Our Project has been an ongoing success since its inception in 2004 with minimal funding. The Project has become well known in Miami and has spread to five other coastal Florida counties.
How many people will your project serve annually?
1001‐10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
More than $4000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy or introduce models and tools that benefit the tourism sector in general?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
In what country?
United States
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Miami Science Museum
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
These partnerships ensure that eco-art programming is accessible to the entire population of Miami. As the Program promotes itself through eco-art that is highly visible and accessible, it is imperative that the Project be able to spread its tentacles throughout the city.
One of our most important partnerships is with the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resource Management, which clears areas of invasive species and irrigates public lands for the replanting of mangrove seedlings by volunteers. As invasive plant species in public areas are well established and dificult to eradicate without bulldozers, DERM's contribution allows our volunteers to emphasize the simple replanting of mangrove seedlings, thereby maximizing the amount of acreage we can restore.
Another important partnership is between Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the Native Flags sub-program. MDCPS is the fourth largest school district in the country and encourages schools to participate. On Earth Day 2010, MDCPS distributed (in-kind) a sapling and flag to all 328 MDCPS public schools which were planted on campus.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1. Secure perpetual funding for permanent staff
2. Enhance website to keep up with Project activities
3. Spread the participatory eco-art platform employed by the Reclamation Project to other stands (coral reefs, sea grasses, etc) and other countries.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
There is no other more defining moment than the Project's inception which initiated a chain of events that has seen more than 1,000 volunteers participate. This participatory eco-art project (mangrove seedlings in plastic cups) was launched by Mr. Cortada on Earth Day 2006, during the opening of a month-long installation at the Bass Museum of Art. In this inaugural year, 2,500 red mangrove seedlings were adopted by retail businesses across South Beach. In subsequent years, volunteers have collected seedlings from various Miami-Dade County locations where they would otherwise have perished and distributed them to retail and commercial businesses in South Beach, schools and the science museum.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Xavier Cortada is the founder and artistic director of the Reclamation Project.
The artist has created art installations at the Earth's poles to generate awareness about global climate change: In 2007, the artist used the moving ice sheet beneath the South Pole as an instrument to mark time; the art piece will be completed in 150,000 years. In 2008, he planted a green flag at North Pole to reclaim it for nature and in so doing launch a global reforestation eco-art effort.
Cortada has also developed participatory art projects to engage communities in local action at points in between. In Florida, he has worked with scientists, arborists and environmental managers to develop eco-art projects that engage community residents in bioremediation: coastal reforestation initiatives in Miami (Miami Science Museum, 2007), an urban reforestation campaign in St. Petersburg (Florida Botanical Gardens, 2009), and coral reef preservation efforts in Hawaii (Bishop Museum, 2010).
Cortada has also worked with groups internationally to produce numerous art projects and installations, including environmental works in Holland (2009), Quebec (2009) and Latvia (2008), peace murals in Cyprus (2000) and Northern Ireland (2000), child welfare murals in Bolivia (1997) and Panama (1999), and the official International AIDS Conference murals in Geneva (1998) and South Africa (2000).
The Miami artist has also been commissioned to create art for the White House (2002), the World Bank (2003), Miami City Hall (2005), Miami-Dade County Hall (2004), Miami Art Museum (2001), the Museum of Florida History (2003) and the Frost Art Museum (2008).
Corporations such as General Mills, Nike, Heineken and Hershey's have commissioned Cortada’s art. Publishers like McDougal and Random House have featured it in school textbooks and publications. His work has also been featured in National Geographic TV and the Discovery Channel. Cortada, who was born in Albany, New York and grew up in Miami, holds degrees from the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Business and School of Law.
For more information visit www.xaviercortada.com
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Friend or family member
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
50 words or fewer
MIF Opportunity 2010
Has your organization been legally constituted or registered in your country or one of your target countries for at least three years?
Yes
Does the applicant organization have sufficient financial resources to guarantee the co-financing required by MIF during the execution period of the project? (This amounts to at least 50% of the project’s total budget with 25% in cash and 25% in-kind.)
Yes
Does the applicant organization have experience managing projects co-financed by international organizations? Please describe below
Some.
Please classify the applicant organization according to the options below
Other
What problem-area does your project address?
How will your project address this problem?
Through participatory eco-art initatives. The Reclamation Project uses art to engage communities to get involved in coastal restoration.
Who is benefited by the initiative? (Please highlight the type and number of beneficiaries, and their role in the tourism value-chain.)
Hotels benefit from a richer ecosystem
Communities benefit by having a mechanism through which they can act together to restore coastal ecosystems
Tourists can participate in mangrove habitat restoration. Planting Red mangrove seedlings is not hard and gives them an opportunity to see natural areas alongside local people.
How will the project's results assist the region’s tourism sector and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises?
A. Total Budget (100%)
US$90,000
B. MIF Contribution (up to 50% of total budget and US$. 500.000 max)
US$40,000
C. Cash co-financing (at least 25% of total budget)
US$10,000
D. In kind co-financing (at least 25% of total budget)
US$45,000
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| Seedling_Collection_2.JPG | 370.17 KB |
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