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Spring 2008 Vol. VI, No. 3
Alumni Profile
The Making of an Environmentalist
When she was in high school, Bolivian
Georgina Catacora-Vargas (MSc ’03)
was already searching for a career that
involved taking “care of nature while
helping and interacting with people.”
She started her studies at the state
university in Bolivia, but the chaotic
political situation in the mid-’90s moved
her to Costa Rica’s Earth University to
pursue her goals.
University President
José Zaglul had
arranged an
exchange program
with his alma
mater, AUB, and at
the 2000 Salzburg
seminar organized
by Earth, she met
AUB Professor
Rami Zurayk
and President
John Waterbury.
Professor Zurayk’s
“stories about
the Beqa’a Valley
encouraged [her]
decision to go to
Lebanon,” and just three years later
she received her MSc in environmental
sciences with a major in ecosystem
management from AUB.
While in Lebanon Catacora-
Vargas became dedicated to
biodiversity, organic agriculture,
and sustainable development. She
explained: “The combination of studies
and work helped me to discover
and enjoy Lebanon. Getting into rural
agricultural communities from north
to south and into institutions related
to agricultural development and biodiversity
conservation in parallel with
my studies was for me a great chance
given by AUB to my professional and
human enrichment. Thanks to that
experience, Lebanon is for me a kind
of second home country.”
Catacora-Vargas remembers her
teachers at AUB (and elsewhere in the
world): Professor Rami Zurayk for his
“passion for life and rural livelihoods”;
Salma Talhouk, her adviser, for her care
for nature and her “women’s strength
in professional issues;” Karim Makdisi
for his “openness to young people
and their ideas.” In turn, Professor
Rami Zurayk remembers Georgina
Catacora-Vargas:
“her impressive
work standards”
and her greatest
strength—her
“ability to interact
and establish trust
with people of
diverse cultures
and backgrounds
. . . in spite of the
language barrier.”
(Catacora-Vargas
described learning
key words together
with farmers by
using improvised
“blackboards” and
“ c h a l k ” — e a r t h
plots and wooden sticks.)
Although she saw her work in
Lebanon after receiving her MS as a
means of “giving back something this
country gave to me,” she also had
a strong feeling about “contributing
answers and strategies to the socioeconomic
and environmental problems”
of her own country, Bolivia,
and the entire Latin American region.
Back home, she started a second
master’s degree in agro-ecology and
sustainable development, which she
attained from Universidad Mayor de
San Simon in 2005.
Since leaving Lebanon Catacora-
Vargas has worked as a consultant
for many environmental, farming, and
marketing projects. Her efforts on
behalf of farmers and the environment
keep her fully committed on a daily
basis. She fights against the “massive
damage” of deforestation, conventional
agriculture, toxic chemicals, and
genetically modified seed. She supports
natural resources, local flora use
and conservation, local markets, and
natural processing and packaging.
When she works closely with local
organic markets she promotes social
construction, creativity, flexibility, and
the need for public awareness.
Catacora-Vargas’s devotion to both nature and human beings continues to
animate her commitment to everything she does. Working tightly with farmers
and rural communities, campesino á campesino, she talks passionately about
the need to move against the damaging practice of
common trade with its emphasis on exportation rather than
use of local products. She seeks vigorously to mitigate negative effects:
the weakening of traditional agricultural patterns and practices leading
to the long term break-down of rural communities, pollution from chemical
additives, and degradation of limited natural resources such as soil and
water.
All her endeavors come back to the needs of the people. For her, the most
rewarding part of her work is when “farmers, consumers, and children interact
in the fields.” At those moments, she says, “the farmer is no longer an
unknown face, and organic products acquire an identity.” She sees consumers
and farmers joining together to build a social network promoted by organic
agriculture. They would work with mutual trust, affirming both “the social
and ecological function of organic farmers.”
Giving many people, she says, especially children, the chance to access
healthy food provides “a way to tighten my relationship with farmers.
. . Now I can say that the organic farmers I work with are my philosophy
partners, my friends and support, and children are my motivation to continue
working in this field.”
Catacora-Vargas has always been actively engaged even when studying. While
still a student in Lebanon she worked as a technical assistant with a
Japanese research organization, an intern with ESCWA, a project assistant
at a regional environmental consultancy company for projects related to
the Ministry of Environment, and a consultant with World Vision. Back
in Latin America she continued her work as adviser to Earth Link and Advanced
Resources Development in Lebanon, and is currently project manager of
the AGRECOL Andes Foundation’s ECO Fair Project in Bolivia and jointly
responsible for Tierra Viva, a civilian organization—which she also cofounded—focusing
on food sovereignty and research on the socio-economic impact of genetically
modified organisms, agro-fuels, and agribusiness models. She is proud
of being one of the few women having responsible positions in a largely
male-dominated field. But most of all, she says, she “is satisfied with
helping people improve their lives and having the chance to learn and
interact with them.”