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News from the Field
Brazil - Over One Hundred People Trained and Ready for Nursery Season
As we head into spring (in the southern hemisphere), most of our coordination meetings and over half of our training workshops are complete. The demonstration plot at the Peixoto farm has been essential in displaying the possibilities for agroforestry in Brazil. People are excited to put into practice what they have learned from TREES workshops and to start their own circular gardens (like mini forest gardens). You can check out pictures from the workshops here. Program Coordinator Jeff Follett is in Brazil documenting our progress and discussing the program’s future plans with local staff and volunteers. Keep your eyes open for more updates from Brazil in mid-October.
Vetiver and Calliandra for Erosion Control in Uganda
Trees for the Future has provided Vetiver grass to Moses Mukhoba of Randa United Farmers Group based in Bududa District, near Mbale, Uganda. This Vetiver grass will be used in cooperation with Callinadra calothyrsus seedlings to stabilize farming terraces on the steep hillsides of Bududa District. The Vetiver grass will stabilize the recently established contours until the Calliandra trees’ roots grow large enough to stabilize the hillside. After which the Vetiver grass is then removed to another area for soil stabilization. Vetiver grass is difficult and expensive to obtain compared to other grasses, but it s the most effective grass in Africa for soil stabilization, and establishing contours and terraces.
Fieldwork in Haiti
Africa and Caribbean Program coordinator Ethan Budiansky is traveling to Haiti to assess the activities undertaken during the first rainy season. TREES Haiti Field Representative Timote George has been working with 13 different communities along the Arcadine Coast this year, training them in agroforestry techniques and helping them establish tree nurseries and plant trees. So far farmers, cooperatives, local organizations and school children have planted over 500,000 trees and are en route to plant another 500,000 during the upcoming second rainy season. On this trip, Ethan and Timote will also be traveling North to Gonaives to evaluate expanding TREES' program to this region in 2010 in collaboration with the Yélé foundation.
Report from the 2nd World Conference on Agroforestry
David Tye, TREES East Africa Regional Program Coordinator, attended the 2nd World Congress on Agroforestry (WCA), which was held from August 23-28, 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya. The main theme for this year was sustainable land management along with a focus on Food Security issues. The Keynote speakers for this year included Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai and the IPCC Chairman, Dr. R.K. Pachauri. The technical sessions covered issues ranging from planting trees with crops to improve yields, the benefits of fodder trees with raising livestock, the benefits of trees to stabilize food security, and climate change mitigation through tree planting. One of the more interesting issues to arise from the 2nd WCA is the World Agroforestry Center’s Evergreen Revolution Initiative to improve food security efforts in Africa and make the African Continent completely self sufficient in food production. The information absorbed during the 2nd WCA will assist Trees for the Future in developing more effective agroforestry projects in the coming years.
On the Ground in Ethiopia
TREES Ethiopia Program Coordinator, Gabriel Buttram, recently returned from Ethiopia where he spent ten days observing and evaluating the progress this year. Gabe's trip coincided with the distribution of nearly 2.5 million trees, with our partners Greener Ethiopia. Gabe was able to take part in one of the tree distribution projects that took place in Addis Ababa and also spent much of his time visiting homes and meeting participating individuals and groups. It was a great opportunity for Gabe to meet program partners and to discuss plans for 2010 as well as to meet a few participants with whom he will be working when he moves to Ethiopia in October, to help provide increased coordination and technical capacity to one of TREES largest country programs.
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Subramanian distributing trees
in India
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Group Nursery of Young Star CIG
in Mamfe, Cameroon
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Planting trees in Haiti
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Introducing Leandro Monteiro
This month Leandro Monteiro joined our team at the main office in Silver Spring, Maryland. Leandro will be taking over Gabriel Buttram’s position as Business Partnerships Coordinator, as Gabe will be stationed in Ethiopia starting in October. Leandro has a professional background in marketing and communications and looks forward to using these skills to coordinate current partnerships and to seek out new partnerships with businesses interested in helping to grow our program. As a native of Brazil and an International Studies major in college, he is excited to be working in an environment where he can put his experience to use for a great cause and work with great people around the world.
Help TREES in the Facebook Cause Donation Drive
Please help us plant 20 million trees in the coming year! From October 7th through November 15th, Facebook Causes is holding their second giving challenge, where groups with the most unique daily donations are eligible to win part of $150,000 in overall prizes! Its not the amount donated, but the number of donors that counts. We need your help, and hope that we can all make a great impact together!
Marking TREES 20th Anniversary
The
year from August 2009-2010 is TREES 20th anniversary year. In light of
this, we are setting the challenging but reachable goal of planting 20
million trees in 2010. We can only do it with your support, so please donate and help us reach that goal!
We have also pulled together a handful of old photographs from over the years, which you can see here on flickr.
Trees Quarterly Newsletter Ready to Download
The latest issue of the Johnny Ipil Seed News, TREES quarterly newsletter, is available to download from our website. It is a retrospective issue, looking back at the past 20 plus years, and also offering some ideas as to where we are heading. Click here to go to our news page, where you can download the newsletter.
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 have 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!
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