The Living Springs joined and co-created The Portillo Community last October 2011 at the www.AconcaguaSummit.org  in Chili. The Portillo Community took up the challenge to develop innovative approaches integrating the sustainable models at social, economic and ecological level, then test them in the Biosphere reserves of the islands Juan Fernandez, monitor with specific indicators and share the results with the objectives to duplicate and scale it up.

In The Portillo Community experi-mental laboratory of sustainability, researches and projects implemen-tation would be done with the objective to promote interactions of mankind with nature in terms of sustainable living, income generation and reducing poverty. In the biosphere reserves of Juan Fernandez Islands, nature is not isolated from man, but it has to be conserved through using it. Hence, they are places where livelihood is sustained - even urban greenbelts can be found among the biosphere reserves.

The Juan Fernandez Islands benefit from the World Network of Biosphere Reserves as it has been declared by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. The Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) of UNESCO was established in 1971 to promote interdisciplinary approaches to management, research and education in ecosystem conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Ahead of the 1990s, the MAB Programme was a research Programme organized along 14 large research projects addressing ecosystems such as mountain areas, arid lands, etc.