Place-Based Sustainability Education Across Borders and Through Boundaries

This year has already brought a mix of challenges and breakthroughs. Like many of you—whether you're working in education, conservation, or community-based sustainability—I’ve had a whirlwind and turbulent start to the year. 

I am feeling invigorated and inspired after the Borderlands Field Course as it gave me time to reflect while doing what I love. Experiences like the Field Course affirm that the effort—the stress, the emotion, the long days in the field—matters. The synergy I had with this group reminded me that work in restoration is greater than oneself.

Borderlands Field Course participants after completing an applied restoration work project at Casa Galilea in Hermosillo, Sonora.

The 2025 Borderlands Field Course

The Borderlands Field Course (BFC) is a comprehensive, immersive practical training course focused on holistic approaches to the socioecological challenges of the borderlands. The course follows a place-based curriculum, taught entirely in Spanish, covering the restoration of local communities, watersheds, and ecosystems. 

The course content covers a broad approach to sustainability education by incorporating diverse themes such as placemaking, conservation of natural resources, small to large-scale ecological restoration techniques, arts ecology, urban ecology, storytelling, immigration, animal migration, and the associated politics and current events surrounding these topics. Through integrated hands-on projects, guest speakers, workshops, field excursions, reflections, and camping with people who start as strangers for 9 days, the course allows for pathways to self-discovery, grassroots action, and cross-border collaboration. 

This year’s cohort was made up of driven interdisciplinary professionals from Durango, Hermosillo, Cumpas, Sahuaripa, Agua Prieta, Nogales, and Tucson, Arizona. The crew was passionate about experiential learning, the application of knowledge in their hometowns, and growing a like-minded support network. The participant age range was from 21 to 55 years old, and the lived experiences were diverse.

Course participants are representatives of several municipalities, universities, and organizations.

Intersectional Environmentalism 

We know that the health of the environment is intrinsically linked to the health of people. However, we may not think as much about how if one person or group of people is negatively impacted by unsustainable development, that in the end it will hurt everyone. 

Intersectional environmentalism is an inclusive approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of social and environmental injustices, advocating for the protection of both people and the planet. It acknowledges that marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental issues and that social inequalities must be addressed to achieve true environmental justice. The course highlights the work done by passionate individuals and organizations in the region who encourage systemic changes for sustainability and resiliency. 

The crew spent one morning working with Nuestra Vida Verde, which hosts one of their ongoing projects, the “Garden for Sustainability,” at Casa Galilea in Hermosillo, Sonora, a shelter for community members who are houseless and struggling with addiction. This organization seeks to support their rehabilitation journey by giving them access to green space and providing productive activities that often spark interest for continued learning and reconnection with their environment. This project is an example of successful occupational therapy, showcases cross-sector engagement, and is a model for community building across social boundaries and connection with the natural environment in a highly urbanized context.

Field Course participants got to work clearing out a gray-water filtration system, garden tasks, rock lining berms, while learning about reading a landscape to create an irrigation plan, agroforestry, permaculture techniques, dry composting toilets, and the powers of vetiver grass for wastewater treatment, soil stabilization, and health.

Gustavo Dueñas, co-founder of Nuestra Vida Verde, explains how this composting toilet works and how human waste can be reused to build health soil.

The group also had the morning to work alongside Caminantes del Desierto, another grassroots non-profit based in Hermosillo, Sonora, that is made up entirely of volunteers. Their mission is to influence and inspire the renaturalization and conservation of the Sonoran Desert by encouraging citizen participation in public policy, project management, and environmental education. CDD celebrated its 7th anniversary this year.

We split into work teams at the “Camellón Botánico”, their streetscape project that promotes making all spaces, including curbs and highway medians, into passive rainwater harvesting systems to create a native plant pollinators’ oasis. Caminantes shared with us the history of the Sonora River watershed and how it has been impacted by population growth and mismanagement. We delved into discussions about nature-based and green infrastructure solutions, the organization’s role in helping to create a municipal vegetal palette, and the hundreds of ways urban restoration practices can help combat the climate crisis.

From Caminantes del Desierto A.C., Graphics showing percentages of pavement, vegetation cover, heat, and reforestation priority zones.

Sense of Belonging 

Having a sense of place refers to the emotional and psychological connections individuals develop with specific locations, encompassing feelings of belonging, comfort, and familiarity. It's shaped by various factors like geography, culture, history, and personal experiences, influencing how people perceive and interact with a place. 

Programs like the Borderlands Field Course are designed to immerse particpipants with their surroundings and build meaningful connections with people and places. Our place-based curriculum utilizes the local community and environment as a foundation for learning, integrating diverse subjects across the objectives. Usually, we are visiting local places, like a street median or nature preserve, that participants have never been to before, even if they grew up there, and participate in hands-on restoration projects that they can share with others. One of the best parts of the program is getting to know your teammate while you work on erosion control structures, starting at the top of a drainage with a beautiful view.

Night hike, hunting for spiders, guided by Gila Hikers in Hermosillo, Sonora.

Course survey data shows that participants of the BFC averaged a 20% increase of environmental literacy across all themes and learning objectives. To graduate from the course, participants work as individuals or small groups to teach a subject in any format like a slide presentation, guided reflection, hands-on workshop, or creative craft. 

Course graduates indicated that many of the topics will be applied to their day-to-day life or work context:

• Contextualization of sustainability issues and solutions in the local region. 

• Environmental restoration skills and how to apply them (erosion control, native plant restoration, etc.) 

• Defining personal and community sense of place and taking steps to manifest it. 

• Scientific and social divulgation. 

• A variety of skills: photography, setting up wildlife cameras, storytelling, scientific illustration, outdoor recreation, public speaking, etc. 

• Centering social justice and advocacy. 

• Environmental education pedagogy. 

• Intentionally creating open space for dialogue and to build connections. 

During the course, a small group of students led an arts ecology narrative activity at Rancho Los Ojos. Images were created by finger painting, following the theme of “The Field Course has just ended, I am back home, what will I give now to society and ecosystems of the borderlands region?”

We asked some of the BFC graduates how the course changed their perception of the environment and community, and here are some of their responses: 

"Now I have a clearer picture of what I want to do in my future and how, with the help of my profession, knowledge, and this course, I can achieve it. Because I am a designer of a better world by profession, but also of dreams as a person. And that is precisely what I want to give to the world."

- Eliazar Herrera Herrera

“It has changed the way I see conservation. Now I can see the bigger picture, that it is not only the conservation of animals or plants, but it also goes hand in hand with the communities that are part of a region, and how important that is for our identity.”

- Vanessa Sandoval

"This course awakened my passion for nature and also reactivated my love for helping other people. Now I will be a more active person in my community."

- Alex Lucero

Para leer la versión en español, haga clic aquí.