By Fabiola Aguilar – Founder and Executive Director of Nexus for Social Advancement
At a critical moment for our planet—where the climate crisis is no longer a hypothetical scenario but an emergency hitting our cities, communities, and territories with force—a proposal emerges from Bolivia that weaves together art, agroecology, and collective leadership as an act of resistance and hope.
“Living Resilience: Art, Land, and Community to Heal the Climate” was not merely an exhibition but a profound experience of territorial co-creation. Nexus for Social Advancement, as an organization committed to social innovation, was a strategic part of this process, demonstrating that another form of climate politics—rooted in sensitivity, art, and land—is indeed possible.
Art That Doesn’t Decorate: It Questions and Transforms
The art exhibition Resiliencia, by Rosario Ostria and Juan Ignacio Revollo, curated by Juan Pablo Álvarez Kawai, transformed the walls of the Patiño Foundation into an emotional territory. The works didn’t just depict landscapes or symbols—they screamed memories, pain, and calls to care for Mother Earth.
Through an aesthetic that stirred and mobilized, art became a shared language for those feeling the weight of the climate crisis, especially from urban and rural margins. The curatorship was more than a selection—it was an ethical choreography proposing a collective narrative of regeneration.
To Sow Is to Heal: HOLU as a Living Ecosystem
At the same time, the Laka Uta Organic Garden (HOLU), led by Álvarez Kawai, offered a living space for regeneration. Amid plantings, composting, and intergenerational dialogue, women from the community and young volunteers found a space for concrete action beyond discourse.
HOLU doesn’t just produce food—it nurtures healthy relationships between people and their environment. It also plants dignity, autonomy, and community. In a context where climate change is often addressed through abstract policy, HOLU brought the conversation back to the soil, the body, and the seed.
Nexus: A Catalyst for Social Innovation
At Nexus for Social Advancement, we coordinate institutional and strategic efforts to strengthen this ecosystem of social innovation. We do so with the conviction that systemic change requires not only collaborative networks, but also spaces to feel, create, and regenerate.
We invest in processes where aesthetics become ethics, and where the community is the protagonist of its own transformation. In this project, Nexus was not an external actor, but a connecting node among artists, educators, community collectives, and international institutions.
Art Also Cultivates: Fine Arts as a Pedagogy of Care
The partnership with the School of Fine Arts, under the leadership of Dante Chumacero, added a key educational and cultural dimension. Each artwork, every garden gathering, every conversation among artists, activists, diplomats, and neighbors was part of a pedagogy of connection, territory, and care.
Non-formal learning processes were activated, where young artists and communities learned by doing, feeling, and co-creating.
♻️ Transformation Means More Than Adaptation
Now more than ever, initiatives like Living Resilience show us that it is not enough to adapt policies—we must transform our practices, emotions, and relationships with the planet.
At Nexus, we will continue to promote partnerships where art, land, and people are not tools—they are subjects of change.
As Bill McKibben said: “The planet has a fever and there are no emergency rooms.” And as we believe in our practice: sowing the future is a deeply political, collective, and loving act.
Climate Change, Forest Fires, and Territorial Resilience
Evidence, Impacts, and Responses from Urban Gardens
In 2024, Bolivia experienced its worst recorded wildfire season, with over 10 million hectares affected—nearly 10% of the national territory—primarily in Chiquitania, Santa Cruz, and Beni (UNDP, 2024; WWF Bolivia, 2024). This disaster devastated ecosystems and water reserves and directly impacted rural livelihoods and the social structures of peasant and Indigenous communities (Orellana et al., 2024).
Satellite imagery from NASA and Brazil’s INPE revealed over 17,700 hotspots in the first seven months of the year, surpassing the critical records of 2019 (NASA FIRMS, 2024). Public health consequences were severe: more than 21,000 medical consultations for respiratory illnesses were recorded between April and October, while air quality in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba reached “very unhealthy” levels for weeks (Ministry of Health of Bolivia, 2024). Recent studies estimate this environmental catastrophe caused an 8% increase in rural poverty in the most affected departments (ECLAC, 2024).
Urban Gardens: Effective Tools for Climate Adaptation
Urban gardens have been recognized as effective tools for climate adaptation and mitigation. International studies identify at least 17 ecosystem services generated by these systems: urban temperature regulation, carbon capture, rainwater retention, pollinator support, reduced psychosocial stress, and improved food security (Lin et al., 2015; McClintock et al., 2020). Their implementation also encourages sustainable agroecological practices, organic waste reuse, and local food systems (Sanyé-Mengual et al., 2015).
Examples such as Cuba’s organoponic system—supplying up to 30% of urban vegetable consumption (Altieri & Nicholls, 2008), the network of community gardens in Medellín as part of its eco-city policy (Restrepo & Escobar, 2022), and urban agriculture programs in Cape Town addressing food inequality (Frayne et al., 2014) demonstrate their effectiveness in various Global South contexts.
In Bolivia, although environmental emergency declarations and carbon bonds for ecological restoration have been approved (Ministry of Environment and Water, 2024), structural response remains insufficient.
🌿 Nexus’s Intervention Model: Urban Agroecology, Research, and Collaborative Governance
In response, Nexus for Social Advancement promotes an intervention model based on urban agroecology, applied research, and collaborative governance. This model integrates:
- Generation of reliable environmental data — soil analysis, urban temperature, air quality
- Application of adaptive techniques — rainwater harvesting, diversified planting, composting
- Coordination among community, institutional, and scientific actors to ensure sustainability and cultural relevance
Nexus is currently prepared to support ecological restoration and territorial resilience efforts in regions such as Santa Cruz and Beni. Our approach is grounded in the conviction that social innovation is not a product to be transferred, but a process to be co-created from the territory, in dialogue with local knowledge, scientific evidence, and community commitment.
🧡 Our Gratitude
We extend our deepest thanks to Trendsetter for their valuable coverage and ongoing support of cultural initiatives with a sustainability focus.
🌍 Will we redefine how we inhabit, produce, and coexist to heal our bond with the Earth—or continue to see ecological collapse as someone else’s tragedy?
