GOOGLE 10100

5. Nickname: WOW
8. Your idea’s name
WOW, Wood-Oxygen-Water
9. Category: Shelter
10. What one sentence best describes your idea? (max. 150 characters)
Greenhouse gases reduction and shelter provision by restoring forests in small
municipalities (80% of Colombian territory) with less than 30,000 people.
11. Describe your idea in more depth (max. 300 words)
Uneven territory occupation, 912 out of 1,119 Colombian municipalities have less than
30,000 inhabitants and many of them reduce their population because of the lack of
occupational opportunities.
Foresting potential of devastated mountains of Colombia to reduce carbon from
atmosphere and selling certificates is an opportunity to reoccupy harmoniously the
territory by families that have migrated during the last five decades mostly to seven
larger Colombian cities and live in poor, risky and unhealthy conditions besides heritage
ruin of countryside.
By foresting, this WOW (Wood-Oxygen-Water) strategy, richer people in towns will be
able to build better homes in small municipalities. Small towns with low population can
aim to double it doing excellent urban planning where land value is very low and exits
all the possibilities to choose the best places to extent urban growth. Rural occupation of
territory will be extended along with communications, roads, schools and health centers.
As trees will grow, their leaves catch carbon and transform it in wood and oxygen, the
soil is protected from erosion and pure clean water is recovered into micro streams.
Planting requires a crowd of people. An enormous diversity of occupations is required
for the process in the different stages, from seed collection to profitable use of wood.
Critical stage is to get a root capital to:
-Develop a GIS (Geographic Information System) application able to calculate
scientifically the municipal potential for greenhouse gases reduction.
-Implement a regional project in Chicamocha river canyon to restore forest and other
forestry activities (5 municipalities and 30,000 inhabitants).
-Promote and develop with population and authorities the construction of top quality
dwellings for reforesters, planters and other people willing to repopulate municipalities.
-Establish a negotiation procedure with CER (Carbon Emission Reduction) certificates
to recover root capital and reply practice in the other small municipalities.
12. What problem or issue does your idea address? (max. 150 words)
The idea introduces a transversal and integral concept of habitat, to fight deprived
cultural, environmental, health, urban and economical conditions prevailing in 43% of
Colombian population (20,000,000 people) under poverty line. By planting million of
trees in thousands of square kilometers Colombian poor people will contribute to reduce
global warming and become rich enough to build top quality houses and improve health
and cultural conditions in deprived places all over the country territory. This idea can
break the huge housing deficit, qualitative and quantitave close to 5,000,000 dwellings
by year 2019. Livelihood improvement to top standards will be implemented instead of
current miserable “social interest housing” that government and contractors supply with
funds from international loans that increase our country external debt and benefit only
the building contractors and suppliers in a free market operation.
13. If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how? (max.
150 words)
As this idea contributes to global warming diminution there will be global benefits. At
country scale, all of us will benefit as it address to build more harmonious cities, towns
and villages, and growing of larger ones will be stopped and their population reduced. A
direct benefit will be got by close to 5,000,000 Colombian families that will improve
their living standards and become richer, both in mind and wealth, with a productive
occupation. Culture of trees in all its stages; grant to cultivators an inner satisfaction,
besides economical and environmental benefits, similar to the creation of artists or
building rising. This may address our country to a save, peaceful, and richer future that
break 500 years of violence, deprivation and inequity. Wood industry is cleaner than
plastics, iron and concrete industries for building. Productive occupation will benefit
people in a very long productive chain.
14. What are the initial steps required to get this idea off the ground? (max. 150 words)
A fundamental root capital is required:
• Root capital first use for:
o Carbon reduction Measurement GIS application development:
multidisciplinary design of an instrument useful in tropical climates
from the see level to high mountain, humid to dry. Discriminate legal,
socioeconomic and biophysical variables.
o Carbon Emissions Reduction (CER) certificates negotiation protocols
between carbon emitters, WOW, communities and municipalities.
o Government-Academic-Community Participatory Process protocols
development for territory observation, willing formulation and action
planning.
o Regional Pilot project design and formulation in five municipalities
from Chicamocha river canyon.
• Root capital second use for Pilot project
o Essay and revision of tool, instruments, processes and indicators.
o Execution on 957 sq km, over 200 communal organizations and about
30,000 people.
o Evaluation through indicators
o Publication of short term advances and calculation of long term results.
o Funds recovery short, medium and long term.
o National and global promotion.
15. Describe the optimal outcome should your idea be selected and successfully
implemented. How would you measure it? (max. 150 words)
To arise new decent productive opportunities different from 12% GDP originated in
illegal activities (drug and weapons traffic along with money laundering) or 60% GDP
derived from non formal activities (sub employment, begging and other street activities)
that get to change these indicators is the optimal outcome to select WOW
implementation. Main indicator is to get the production of these activities into future
GDP country accountability (done by National official agency DNP, www.dnp.gov.co),
hopefully close to the 70%. Particular project indicators of i) Foresting and reforesting:
N° of nursery trees, N° of plantules, N° of planted trees, Area of foliage, Mass of wood,
Volume of water, Volume of oxygen, Volume of carbon, Volume of other gases, Planted
areas: private, common, public; and ii) Housing, and Population: N° of new houses, N°
of improved dwellings, Area of dwelling, Current population, Occupied population,
Urban Land area incorporated, Green urban area, Built area.
Others (optional)
I strongly recommend Corporacion de estudios para la sostenibilidad (Cesos
Corporation), a non for profit organization founded in September 2003 that has
developed WOW initiative.
Adress: Calle 63C N° 17 41, Bogotá, Colombia
Telephone: (57 1) 3471576, TelFax: (57 1) 5499858