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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 19, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| August 6, 2004 |
Simple Solutions for Complex Problems – Dr. Gordon Sato |
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| Dr. Sato sitting with a volunteer facilitator in front of Eritrea’s flag |
Practical problems are easier to solve than laboratory problems, says Dr. Gordon Sato, a prominent biologist Japanese-American in his seventies. Especially if you are willing to take risks like Dr. Sato has. Many of the risks he has taken in the last few years are in Africa’s newest nation-state, Eritrea.
Eritrea produces extreme droughts which potentially result in widespread starvation (were it not for international food aid), which made Dr. Sato realize that sustainable and local solutions to securing peoples’ livelihoods needed to be found. Seven years ago he conceived The Manzanar Project, a large-scale mangrove forestation project along Eritrea’s barren Red Sea coastline. The idea behind The Manzanar Project remains simple: if the livestock can survive, the people can also survive. |
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| Josette and Gordon Sato onboard |
Dr. Sato and his wife Josette, joined Peace Boat from Sri Lanka to Eritrea to lead a series of informative discussions on The Manzanar Project, as well as various other projects that Dr. Sato is developing. With his quick observations, and charming character, Dr. Sato soon became a well-known guest personality. While onboard, he was always open to discussing a range of subjects in addition to his field of expertise, ranging from social problems in Japan, to governance issues in Eritrea and even his own personal philosophies about life.
Reflecting on nearly two decades of working and living experience in Eritrea during which he has witnessed both pre- and post-independence society, Dr. Sato is inclined to believe that it is perhaps more difficult to build a country, than to win its freedom.
He first became interested in Eritrea over 15 years ago during the Ethiopian – Eritrean famine of the 1980s, and he has worked in the country ever since. Dr. Sato’s work began when he started to aid Eritrean soldiers fighting a war for independence with Ethiopia, by developing fish farming to supply the wounded with food. Since Eritrea’s independence in 1993, he has continued to focus on creating ways for local people to fight hunger and poverty. |
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| Presenting the Manzanar Project |
Although Eritrea faces harsh economic problems, Dr. Sato has always tried to tap into creative solutions that can come from this critical situation. In the developing world, he explained, low technology solutions, like The Manzanar Project, can be implemented to bring immediate and positive impact on people’s lives. Simple solutions can be found for complex problems, and in the developing world, with funding, they can also be realized.
In the future, Dr. Sato hopes other scientists doing basic laboratory work will turn to practical work out in the field to help people. Dr. Sato also explained that the amount of natural resources used in developing countries is much lower than in developed countries. For example, people in the United States reportedly use on average 300 gallons (1136 litres) of water per capita per day, compared with people in Eritrea who would be grateful if they could even access three gallons (3.5 litres) per day. |
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| Posing with a group of volunteer staff before an onboard lecture |
The potential products, and value, derived from mangroves is immense but often overlooked or even destroyed around the world. The number of mangroves has been diminishing worldwide due to the encroachment of development projects, such as the building of infrastructure and intensive shrimp farming. By contrast, in a country like Eritrea where many natural resources are depended on, the full value of mangroves have come to be widely appreciated.
Investing US$400,000 of his own money, Dr. Sato began working on mangrove forestation in coastal areas where mangroves do not normally survive. The successful model of life-giving mangrove forests along the Red Sea coast line can also be applied to developing countries all over the world – this is the vision that Dr. Sato holds firmly to. |
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In addition to developing The Manzanar Project, Dr. Sato also wishes to explore the social utility of aquaculture (fish-farming). He expressed particular interest in promoting greater seafood self-sufficiency in Japan by exploring aquaculture projects in Japan’s inland seas. Dr. Sato’s main idea is to use a food-chain model, beginning with the growth of bacteria and algae to feed to higher organisms such as small brine shrimp and then up the food chain to fish. The project could initially be conducted on a small-scale to ensure quality control and safety, and then gradually expanded. Although this might sound risky to some, or inconceivable to others, Dr. Sato emphasized that such a project is the kind of risk that the people of Japan should be willing to take. |
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Links
The Manzanar Project – www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/manzanar/default.htm
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