The Valhalla Project is a Guatemala based organization that seeks to reverse global warming, assist indigenous people in developing self-sustaining agriculture, and educate the public about the environment. They accomplish this mission by planting trees. The Valhalla project introduces ungrafted Macadamia seedlings to indigenous people as an alternative to slash and burn agriculture, which contributes to global warming.
The mission of the Valhalla Project includes:
- Global reforestation of open genetic macadamia nut trees;
- Marketing and sales of natural foods and natural skin care products;
- Promotion of sustainable agriculture for farmers worldwide;
- Job creation through local production and processing; and
- Green investment opportunities in eco-entrepreneurship.
1972, Lawrence Gottschamer was retired in the line of duty as a Fireman in Redwood City, CA, prior to serving in the army during the Viet Nam war. In 1975 he was asked to go to Costa Rica to farm 100 acres of macadamia nut trees. His mentor at that time, Mr. Edelberto Camacho, from the Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agricolas in Turrialba, Costa Rica, was and is still well known in the industry. He spent countless hours in private consultation with Mr. Camacho and numerous other professors discussing all phases of agriculture particularly the macadamia tree. While in Costa Rica, Lawrence started the first private nursery in Turrialba. In Costa Rica, he had the chance to meet with experts coming from Hawaii, as the Costa Rican macadamia industry was modeled using Hawaiian methods. As it turned out, the macadamia agro-industry in Costa Rica fell short of commercial expectations because conventional Hawaiian clones were used in the plantations. It was always apparent to Lawrence Gottschamer that locally developed varieties adapted to local climate work much better.
When Lawrence Gottschamer finished his work in Costa Rica he decided to go to Guatemala, where he met his future wife, Emilia Aguirre, a Guatemalan lady with a deep passion for mother nature, with a strong desire to do anything to protect the environment; since that time they have been working together, side by side, for their sustainable agriculture project. He continued his work with macadamia. He built several small macadamia-processing plants for the private sector, and was one of the founders of “Voit, Juarez, and Gottschamer, Consultants” an agro-industrial consulting company.
In 1985 Lawrence and Emilia founded the Experimental Station Valhalla. Its pursuits were and continue to be ecological. With the gene bank in hand they pursued a genetically diverse high carbon dioxide and water exchange capacity tree which is competitive and superior to the grafted or cloned trees available at that time. Their purpose was to use the technology to provide the indigenous communities with a substitute for their current practices of slash and burn agriculture. Finally there was proof that there is a tremendous future for the private sector in the eco-development industry. At Valhalla, they have developed seedling trees whose economic performance is considered at least as good as the best of today’s grafted material.
To learn more about Valhalla, please visit their website.
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