The ARAN Story: A learning community in Ambos Nogales

Image an environmentally literate community in action, continually creating their own learning experiences that lead them to active community stewardship and empowerment. For many of us as environmental educators this is our dream scenario. In fact, a group of people in the Sonora-Arizona border region is living this model: the Associación de Reforestación de Ambos Nogales (Ambos Nogales Revegetation Partnership), better known as ARAN.

ARAN is a joint effort of educational, governmental and non-governmental institutions, business, industry, and community members from Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona who have dedicated themselves to improving the quality of air and environment in general for these rapidly growing border towns, by re-establishing native vegetation. ARAN is also a learning community, a group of people learning from each other's experience, each of them bringing to the group the unique values of their personal experiences and taking in return new experiences, knowledge and skills with them when they leave each of their monthly meetings.

But how did such a group come to exist? It all started three years ago with the formation of a binational research team comprised of students from the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) at the University of Arizona, and from the CETIS 128 (Technological Education Center), in Nogales Sonora. The group later expanded to include representatives from the non-profit and governmental sectors, as well as maquilas and neighborhood leaders. The group had the initial goal of developing an assessment of the environmental problems in the region and the possible courses of action to improve air and environmental quality for Ambos Nogales. They studied the physical dimension -the level and effects of soil erosion in relation to air quality - as well as the social dimension -the potential for revegetation to occur within the community.

From the physical dimension, the assessment showed that revegetation could reduce erosion, as well as improve air and environmental quality in general; from the social dimension, the community wanted mainly two things: action and education. These outcomes came to be the foundation for the formation of ARAN.

Next, through a small grant from the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), the group implemented pilot projects that included ecological experimentation with compost, collection of native seeds, the creation of backyard gardens, and training workshops for students and residents. These projects have been intended to produce visible action, provide mechanisms for local involvement, and identify challenges and opportunities in the community.

ARAN's learning community has its foundations in three important pedagogic theories: Constructivism, Scaffolding and Praxis. Behind ARAN is the philosophy of Paulo Freire's liberation pedagogy; an active and democratic process, where the dichotomy between educator and learner does not exist -we all learn from others while others learn from us. ARAN also works within the concept of community based research, which focuses in building the capacity of community groups to create change, maintaining always a balance between research and action and fostering the collaboration between community members and researchers.

Today ARAN focuses its efforts on building long term sustainable partnerships, looking for common goals and ideas that allow them to advance their efforts to improve the environmental quality for the benefit of the whole community. Some of their key strategies to achieve this goal include the creation of educational experiences specifically tailored to meet the community's needs; including partners and participants from non-profit organizations, government, maquilas and business that can provide legitimacy, access and support to the group; maintain the interest and participation of partners by continually meeting their needs; and learning to work effectively within the constraints of a modest budget.

To foster continued learning, ARAN members meet once a month to share ideas and information. ARAN also performs periodical self-assessments, an annual retreat and two conferences per year, where participants can share their work and learning with each other and with the community at large. An air of friendliness, collaboration and openness can be felt at the meetings, where new members are as much a part of the group as the founding members. ARAN's efforts continue with firm and steady steps and with an internal beat kept alive at all times by the energy of each and every one of its members.

Thanks to Diane Austin, from the University of Arizona's Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, and to the members of ARAN for providing us with the information for this article. For more information about ARAN, contact Diane Austin at daustin@u.arizona.edu