Since last May and in collaboration with GEA, in the city of Merida, volunteers from the ‘Co-creating Sustainable Changes’ Social Project and the neighbors of families surrounding the community of Santa Barbara, began to work on the creation of a community agro-ecological orchard.

Among other objectives, work in the orchard seeks to render agriculture to be self-sufficient and environmentally sustainable, exchange artisanal and certified seeds and involve the community
in the work of the land. This community garden initiative also provides a solution to a number of social, economic and environmental problems that fall within the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the
United Nations:
1. Supply some food for community families and volunteers involved.
2. Offer an alternative to the management of organic waste, so there is a space for compost that is
treated in order to generate organic fertilizer that will be used later.
3. Train volunteers and families involved in agricultural work and artisan seed management.
4. Support other NGOs with food donations to prepare meals for vulnerable people.
5. Return to natural agriculture without agrochemicals, agrotoxins, fertilizers, herbicides,
pesticides or industrialized fungicides that pollute the environment, damage the soil and cause
adverse side effects on human health.

1.