Assignment 5 — Terra.do Learning for Action, April 2026
There was a seed sown six years ago, a seed that sprouted from and within me to start the agave journey that I am on. This agave journey is and has been a plan for climate action since day one. The plan — as with life — has ebbed and flowed, a river taking diverging paths driven by an untamable current heading towards open sea. The sea is fulfillment, success, and respawning. Transcendence is the backbone of this agave journey and the end of mine should only mean the beginning of another.
The past twelve weeks completing the Terra.do Climate Change: Learning for Action cohort have helped orient, define, and sharpen that journey with more clarity. The work itself did not begin with the cohort. What Terra added was language, structure, and a broader frame — one that connects what I am building on family land in Jalisco to a larger climate conversation around biodiversity restoration, ecosystem services, fire resilience, carbon, and long-term land stewardship.
The tools consist of family land, native ecology, agave, soil, data, relationships, and story. These are not abstract instruments. They are the living materials of a project called Sereno de Cerro.
Reflection: From 2040 Back to Now
In Assignment 1, I wrote a vision of 2040 in which my agave project had become a blueprint for sustainable agriculture, where data, stories, and flavors were vessels carrying something much larger. I wrote about a software platform that translates biodiversity into a resilience signal. I wrote about spending my days with boots on the ground, producing premium agave spirits and sharing what Mother Nature can do when you work with her.
That vision has not changed.
The fire in March 2025 remains the sharpest teacher I have had. Two plots, side by side — one burned, one untouched. The difference was not biodiversity alone. It was integrated management: livestock grazing reducing fuel load, native trees holding the line, and access roads acting as firebreaks. The fire confirmed what I had been building toward and revealed what I had been underestimating. It turned Sereno de Cerro from a regenerative agave project into a living demonstration site for resilience in agave landscapes.
Terra gave me a wider frame for this. I was already doing the work. The cohort helped me understand how to connect that work to a broader climate vocabulary and to a larger field of action.
Where I Stand Now
Sereno de Cerro is a regenerative agave agroforestry project on 5 hectares of family land in Unión de Tula, Jalisco, within a tropical dry forest ecosystem — selva baja caducifolia. The project integrates 3,000+ agaves with native trees and shrubs, managed livestock grazing, heirloom criollo corn, soil microbiology, and a permanent genetic seed reserve of 700 agaves allowed to flower and reproduce sexually.
This is not a concept. It is land, soil, plants, animals, and fire — already in motion.
Ikigai: The Intersection
What I enjoy: Working the land with my hands. Designing systems that grow more complex and resilient over time. Writing about them. Watching native species return to a hillside that was nearly lost.
What I am good at: Managing relationships through complexity and crisis. Translating technical depth into narrative that moves people. Operating bilingually across cultures, industries, and ecosystems.
What needs to be done: The tropical dry forests of Jalisco are disappearing under industrial agave monoculture. Ejidatarios lease their land to tequila companies and inherit degraded fields. Someone needs to prove — on the ground, with data, and on real land — that agave farming and ecological restoration are not in conflict. That is the work.
The Plan
Now — Spring 2026
- Share serenodecerro.com publicly with this cohort, on LinkedIn, and with industry collaborators
- Continue building relationships with climate, sustainability, and agave-industry peers
- Align my professional path more directly with climate so that my career and the project feed each other
- Advance the native nursery, collect seed, and begin drone documentation of the ranch
Summer 2026 — Rainy Season
- Plant the next cycle of agave and native species during the rains
- Positioning the ranch as a regenerative demonstration site within the tequila industry
- Begin building the replication toolkit: nursery design, species selection, and agroforestry kits for regional producers
2027 and Beyond
- Launch the native seed bank and agroforestry kits for ejidatarios and small-scale producers
- Continue annual agave planting toward a continuous harvest cycle
- Move toward artisanal distillation with ecological credibility at every stage
- Build the financial foundation that supports long-term stewardship and deeper time on the land
Skills and Gaps
What I bring: Customer success and stakeholder management across SaaS, insurance, and spirits. Bilingual fluency. Systems thinking sharpened by managing a complex agroforestry system across multiple plots and ecological zones.
What I need to develop: AgTech data tools — remote sensing, GIS, and soil monitoring platforms. Grant writing at a professional level. Drone operation and aerial documentation. Eventually, the technical craft of distillation itself.
Challenges
Distance. Closing the geographic gap between my U.S. base and the ranch is the most important near-term move.
Funding. Aligning my career with climate is part of the strategy — a remote or flexible salary can help fund monthly ranch visits, nursery development, and the long-term buildout while the agave matures.
Time. Agave is a long-horizon crop. The system I am building will not produce spirits for years. Patience is not optional — it is part of the methodology.
Closing
In Assignment 1, I wrote: “A slow and steady climb. Plant huizaches, tepames, tepehuajes in between the agave rows to retain more water, increase organic plant material, and improve the ecosystem via biodiversity.”
Six years in, that is exactly what is happening. The huizaches are growing. The tepames are flowering. The ozotes are regenerating after fire. The agaves are holding the hillside.
This climate action plan is not something I am starting. It is something I am continuing — with more clarity, more urgency, and more tools than I had before Terra.do sharpened the lens.
The river is still moving. The current is strong. And the sea is closer than it has ever been.
Daniel Dueñas — Sereno de Cerro — serenodecerro.com
Terra.do Learning for Action, Cohort 2026
2040 Vision