Morovis, a small town in the heart of Puerto Rico's main island, is the Las Cabachuelas Nature Reserve, a green maze of about 1,950 acres. This place (known for its numerous caves) occupies stories from the colonial period, rock art and copper ying, plants studied by paleobotanists, unique fauna in the Caribbean, and many other stories about living in Puerto Rico before Spanish colonization, and life and subsequent industrialization before Spanish colonization.
These stories can be heard in numerous trips provided by Cabachuelas Project of Cabachuelas Workers Cooperative, a community co-founded in 2018 by Morovis residents to preserve and manage the land where the nature reserve is located. Today, cooperatives have positioned themselves as an alternative and effective model that helps protect the natural environment and sustainable economic development in mountainous areas.
Las Cabachuelas is a field of high ecological value, with a large number of trees that help isolate carbon dioxide and preserve the island's biodiversity. Today, it is an ecotourism area that supports eight people employed by the Cabachuelas project and the cooperative. These people can also help Puerto Rico residents and visitors to understand the archipelago’s natural and cultural heritage, thanks to their ecotourism and various social development and service efforts.
Since 2019, they have managed a workshop that highlights these positive impacts on environmental protection. In November 2024, I was able to visit the sixth edition of this workshop, which created opportunities for the environmental well-being of the Lasca Baccellas Nature Reserve and the social well-being of Morrovis.
That morning, on November 18, I drove to Morrovis. I noticed little by little mogotes (Limestone Mountain) and its unique limestone reliefs, lianas and various plants are accepted. I have entered the dense, dark green of that limestone mountain range, which forms the karst belt of Puerto Rico, a geographical area where the underground soil is formed from soluble rocks such as limestone. The dissolution of these rocks creates a characteristic landscape with caves, rivers and springs. From above, they can be seen as mazes of raised and leafy walls. I see them from my car now.
They can still be found from the downtown area of Morrovis. It was November 18, 2024, and the festive air began, given the suffering temperature rise in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, a unique cold in the Puerto Rico Mountains. I stopped near the square and went to the Oscar Rodríguez Amphitheater, where the “Sixth Seminar: Cabachuelas, Ecotourism and Archaeology” will be held.
In that room, there were more than 70 people, including residents, students, teachers, researchers, and many people who were interested in working with the cooperative to complete their work. “This workshop is a unique opportunity to connect, strengthen collective action and continue to promote community engagement as a key tool for our archipelago to build a sustainable, supportive and oppressive-free future,” said José M. Santos Valderrama.
Santos Valderrama continued: “We invite you to use this event to collaborate, share knowledge and reaffirm the need to work together to protect natural systems, advocate respect for environmental public policies, defend the stability of communities, and promote the historic legacy that defines our identity and future.”
It is worth noting that, like other projects in Puerto Rico and everywhere, the work done by the Cabachuelas project reflects the successful arrangement of the Natural Country with the Ministry of Nature and Environment Resources, with the Puerto Rican administration responsible for the conservation, conservation and management of natural resources.
Many times, in order to protect a space, people who live or rely on it are ignored. Currently, the cooperation agreement they maintain with the government helps insert Morrovis residents to protect and revitalize Lasca Baccellas; to verify and respect people's impact on the natural environment in which they live.
Santos Valderrama stressed that inserting people into people from the communities where the reserve is located and elsewhere in Morovis has always been the key to the conservation process. Furthermore, Las Cabachuelas is “critical for the production of oxygen, carbon solids, temperature control, and the conservation of local biodiversity and groundwater, which can guarantee the quality of life in the community.” The cooperative has achieved ecotourism, education and social development projects that have positively impacted municipalities, foster work for residents and awareness of sustainability. These achievements represent an example of other places trying to strike a balance between conservation and economic management.
During the workshop, various works conducted with different communities and organizations were shared. For example, in collaboration with Arecibo's University of Puerto Rico and Professor Ángel Acosta Colón, professors of Arecibo, the powerful radar was used to study caves in protected areas, thus enabling virtual reality and three-dimensional printing programs that allow people with mobility challenges or blindness to enjoy such protected natural resources.
The event also commemorates the memory of Morrovis resident Roberto Martínez Torres, who died in 2024, whose archaeological work emphasizes the historical and natural value of the region. Professor Reniel Rodríguez of the University of Puerto Rico campus also emphasized the love and belonging of Martínez Torres for his town and Las Cabachuelas. Although “karst”,mogotes“cave,” “protection,” “education,” among other related words, the main protagonists and others in these speeches are accompanied by the word “community”, thus reflecting the love and belonging necessary to establish connections with the ecosystem.
Santos Valderrama said that in order to achieve this, it is the importance of integrating as many Morrovis and Puerto Ricans as possible into the management and conservation process of natural areas.
In the past, there were secret garbage dumps [in Las Cabachuelas]. He said that contaminated sewers were poured into the reserves. This has been greatly reduced. There is a greater sense of belonging, aware of taking care of the environment and understanding how my behavior affects others, my flesh, blood and reserve neighbors. ”
The cooperative provides a variety of ecotourism guides and offers a variety of outreach programs in different outreach programs near Morrovis, schools and other organizations.
As Myriam Rivera expressed in a video released on the day of the workshop, as a cooperative organization, it enables them to generate revenue to sustain the organization and its employees while also allowing them to expand their outreach and conservation activities.
It also enables them to maintain a level and engage in decision-making process that reflects their commitment to the community. José Santos Valderrama told me that even in the absence of structural and institutional support and some challenges and obstacles to economic limitations, they were able to exercise a pathway that allowed them to protect and protect the area. “Yes, economic activities [that we generate] It is important to do the rest, but it will not help if we don't protect the natural system. ” he added.
The seminar ended with an invitation to continue to strengthen linkages and cooperation to continue to make protections that lead to economic and social benefits possible in the context of climate change. “Some people are already doing what we do here,” Valdrama explained. “In our community, power lies with us. But instead of giving up the needs of institutions that respect this work, it supports this work.” He stressed that there are contradictions and complexities in the work they do, like anything else, sometimes tensions with government administration (about this, he talked more about it in a recent interview with Bianca Graulau.
Finally, Santos Valderrama commented that what is important is[build] From people (…) from there (…) the knowledge and experience continue to work and advocate for those possible futures. ”
I left that green maze and wanted to return to explore Lasca Baccellas and thought that what I learned during this workshop was a possible example of our island. And, remember that, as Valderrama said, we should not give up “living in a prosperous, supportive, sustainable country, and understanding that the economy and the ecology must be balanced”.
This article is translated from Spanish to English by Nueve Millones, an independent news network that expands the voice of Puerto Rican communities.
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