Tree News

• News from the Field
  
  • Haiti
  • Belize 
  • Ethiopia 
  • GPS points updated
  • Kenya
  • A letter from Evans Muswahili 
  • Mali
  • The Philippines 
  • Tanzania
• Yogis for Trees 
• Featured Business Partnerships
• Join Us On Facebook
• TREES Project Pictures on FLICKR
• TREES is on Skype

Brazil - Veronez started a nursery to provide seedlings for shade and for bee fodder. 

 


Ethiopia - A local innovation that uses clay pots with small cracks or holes in them as drip irrigation systems for fruit trees

News from the Field
Increasing Food Production in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Trees for the Future is currently focusing on 3 activities in Haiti: Training, establishment of nurseries, and distribution of nursery tools.  Fifty people recently participated in a workshop run by Haiti Coordinator Timote Georges.  A serious concern at the workshop was how to increase food production to address continual food shortages after the earthquake.  To address this concern, Timote discussed how agroforestry, a system of agriculture that combines crops, animals, and trees, can meet both short- and long-term food production goals.  Even though people are concerned about where their next meal will come from, they understand that trees are essential for the restoration of degraded lands.  Workshop participants were excited about TREES's plan to provide community agricultural services and have already taken the opportunity to visit the nursery in Desvase to learn how they can establish their own nurseries and successful agricultural systems.

Permaculture Course at the Maya Mountain Research Farm
Maya Mountain Research Farm, our partner in Belize, is offering their 5th annual permaculture design course. Through lecture, discussion, small groups, site visits and hands on experience, participants will gain the tools to create sustainable, ecologically based homes, farms, businesses and communities. Please visit this site for information on signing up for the course, but check soon because the course begins on March 12th. 

Impressed by Konso
We are currently pursuing a new and exciting project in the Konso region of southern Ethiopia. In collaboration with our partner Greener Ethiopia and a new partner, the Konso Development Association, we now have 160,000 seedlings in two nurseries nearly ready to be planted. After visiting the area, Gabriel Buttram, the Ethiopia Program Coordinator, was incredibly impressed by the local knowledge of sustainable land management practices that is being applied by the Konso people. Entire mountains, what must be tens of thousands of hectares of land, have been terraced and maintained by Konsos for countless generations. It is said that the construction of these extensive terrace systems began hundreds of years ago, in order to prevent soil erosion and water loss.

As impressive as those terraces are, though, the Konsos are still facing many difficulties, due in part to food and water insecurity, overgrazing, and increased population pressure. Trees for the Future is working with their local partners to promote tree planting that will supplement erosion control from the terraces and provide food, fodder, timber and green fertilizer to improve food security, increase household income and hopefully decrease grazing practices.

Check Out our Updated GPS Points on Google Earth
The purpose of our GPS monitoring program is to document our work and make it accessible to the general public. We started in 2007 with one GPS unit that we took to the field as we travelled, and now have over 300 points from 14 countries. We offer detailed information about individual projects by linking pictures, videos, and written descriptions to specific points on the globe, using Google Earth. Please check out the latest update of this information and let us know what you think. 

Restoring Tobacco Lands in Kenya
Migori District in Kenya is known for its large scale tobacco production, which sustains the livelihood of many people in the area. Over the years many of the area's farmers have been cutting down trees on a large scale and at an alarming rate for use in the curing of tobacco, without replacing the trees they cut. Much of Migori has been transformed into a semi-arid desert due to the extensive deforestation of the area. Trees for the Future's Kenya Program Coordinator, Paulino Damiano has been working closely with Eliab Okiro a resident of Uriri Area of Migori District to reverse the trend of the community. Eliab has donated part of his land to establish a large tree nursery which will supply the Migori tobacco farmers with tree seedlings to plant in their farms. Trees for the Future has provided Eliab with tree seeds and training on how to establish the tree nursery. Eliab is interested in raising 600,000 seedlings this year for distribution to the farmers in the district. Trees for the Future and Eliab will undertake a series of workshops with farmers that will sensitize the farmers on the importance of planting trees and how to incorporate trees into their farming methods.

A letter from Evans Muswahili
As we have said in the past, training is essential in our efforts to restore degraded lands.  That is why letters like the one below mean so much to us.  Evans Muswahili recently registered for our agroforestry training program.  He wrote to let us know his plans:

Dear Cathie-

I hope this mail finds you in good health. I write to inform you that I received the training manual through my postal address three days ago. [I] am very happy about it. I will read and share it with fellow farmers here in rural Vihiga of western Kenya. Attached, is a photo of me holding the manual [see below].

[I] am sure the manual will be very useful to many people here. I hope to write the subsequent exam in three months time since I have adequate time for reading and researching on the suggested methodologies/technologies.

Thanks a lot once more. Pass my regards to all.

Sincerely,
EVANS MUSWAHILI

Mali and Burkina Faso - Projects New and Old
Africa Program Officer Ethan Budiansky is currently traveling throughout Mali and Burkina Faso with local coordinator, Mohamed Traore.  They are visiting many of the projects developed in 2009 as well as projects from as far back as 2007, when activities with Mohamed first began.  The projects in Mali are very impressive; they display unique activities including boaobab tree nurseries, jatropha soap and biodiesel, and cut and carry animal forage systems.

Ethan and Mohamed also met with the Peace Corps Director in Mali to discuss future collaboration.  In Burkina Faso they will be participating in a Peace Corps meeting on food security.

The Philippines - Maintaining seedlings in Zambales Mountains
Field technicians in the Philippines are steadily working to keep seedlings watered and protected from fires as lack of rain continues.  Our partnering organization TREES Philippines have been walking up the steep hillsides to ensure high survival of the seedlings planted last season and to cut wild grasses to create firebreaks as there have already been many wildfires in the area. Luckily, students from local high schools and colleges have volunteered to assist in maintaining our reforestation efforts in the area. Ramon Magsaysay Technical University (RMTU) has already assisted TREES Philippines by providing land to create nurseries and helping us with germination and species tests with trial seeds. We greatly appreciate their hard work and dedication as the high temperatures and steep hillsides make this a difficult task. We have heard that even with all of the difficulties they find this work very educational and rewarding.

Registering TREES in Tanzania
Trees for the Future is in the process of fully registering as an NGO in Tanzania. When Trees for the Future - East Africa is formally established in Tanzania, we will be able to further expand the program throughout the country. TREES - East Africa will then be able to collaborate on a larger scale with other International and Local NGO's in Tanzania. This will allow us to expand the individual programs and work with these other NGO's to add agroforestry and tree planting projects to their larger programs. We are all looking forward to this big step forward with Trees for the Future as we continue to plant trees to help rural farmers throughout Tanzania.

Kenya - Evans Muswahili displays his training manual	The Philippines - Students volunteer their time to water seedlings during an abnormally dry period	The Philippines - Students volunteering their time to reforest degraded hillsides

Yogis for Trees
Yoga Journal's San Francisco Conference was a great success.  People who attended had the opportunity to both discuss and practice yoga.  In addition, participants attending the evening's Trance Dance supported Yoga Journal's commitment to planting trees in India.  We would like to thank the Yoga Journal and all of those dancing yogis who donated to our efforts, for the second year in a row.  You can see pictures from the event here.


Featured Business Partnerships

In Ticketing has partnered with Trees for the Future to address Haiti's urgent need for sustainable natural resources. Reforestation in Haiti is crucial: less than 2% of the country's original forests remain due to a long history of unsustainable land use practices and a continuing dependence on trees for fuel wood and charcoal. Much of the land can no longer support human life, yet two-thirds of Haiti's population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is essential to improve the country's cultivable lands in order to provide long-term sources of food and income for the people of Haiti. More…


We're excited to announce a partnership with our friends at Care2.com.  You can earn Butterfly Credits by taking action on Care2, and then redeem those credits for gifts to good causes --like planting a tree through Trees for the Future.  More than 4,000 trees have been given so far! Visit Care2 to learn more about the Butterfly Rewards program, and explore opportunities to make a difference.


Join us on Facebook
For those of you who are new to facebook, or who have not joined yet, here is an invitation!  We plan to greatly expand our presence on facebook in 2010, both in our cause and on our profile.  With increased connectivity, we hope to be posting regular status updates from many of our field coordinators, along with pictures and stories from participants in the field.  Click here to go to our facebook page, from where you can also join our cause.


TREES Pictures on FLICKR
TREES has an incredible range of pictures from the past 30 years and as we distribute more cameras and GPS units to our field representatives, we are receiving more than ever before. We are working hard to put our best pictures from all of our project areas online. You can see our pictures by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/plant-trees/sets/ (no logins or passwords needed).  Enjoy and share with your friends! We compiled a special set of pictures for our 20th anniversary, which you can see here.


TREES is on SKYPE
Our international friends and partners will be happy to know that TREES can be called for free using SKYPE. Our skype name is treesftf - call us!