Helping to Spread a Beautiful System
Many poor farmers in tropical rainforest countries today are
trapped in cycles of poverty with very little hope of improving the livelihoods
for themselves and their families. The only system of farming that they know is
called slash and burn agriculture, but this method is no longer environmentally
viable. The farmers themselves know that it is destroying the vital natural
resource, namely the soil, that they rely on to provide them with decent
harvests. It is also destroying more and more
of the rainforests, seriously harming biodiversity and releasing
enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This adds to the
phenomena of climate change, making the poor farmers more susceptible to
adverse and extreme weather conditions. Yet for most slash and burn farmers
around the world, there seems to be no choice. Their harvests may get worse
year on year, but it is the only way they know how to feed their families, and
the only other possible alternative seems to be to desert the land and go and
join the expanding populations of the polluted, desperate shanty towns.
Yet there is an alternative, if they only knew about it. An
agricultural technique called Inga Alley Cropping can help preserve the vital
structure and fertility of the soil, and help prevent the destruction of
countless areas of rainforest. By sowing their crops between rows of particular
species of Inga tree, which are pruned regularly to create a mulch, not only is
erosion significantly reduced but the vital elements of nitrogen and
phosphorous are retained within the soil. This means that poor farmers can
continue farming on the same plot for year after year without having to move
and burn more rainforest every two or three years, as slash and burn farming
currently obliges them to do.
Inga Alley Cropping What slash and burn leads to
Rainforest Saver, a small UK based charity is doing it very
best to disseminate information about this technique around all tropical
rainforest countries. At present though it is focusing mainly on Honduras and
the Cameroons as it is in these two countries, that it has developed good
relationships with various partners, who have the same dedication to improve
the livelihoods of poor farmers and help save the rainforests. At present, Rainforest
Saver has already funded training sessions for teachers and the setting up of 6
Demonstration Inga plots at 6 High Schools in Eastern Honduras, for it is the
young farmers of tomorrow, who will be most open to new ideas. This has been
carried out by our dedicated partner Dr Valle, who works at CURLA university in
La Ceiba, and is part of a recognized government scheme to improve
environmental education throughout Honduras . Unfortunately the
Honduran government is very poor and so such worthwhile initiatives wouldn’t
take place without the support of an overseas charity. Dr Valle would now like
to extend this scheme to schools in Western Honduras but to do so needs
considerable extra funding to pay for the transportation of seedlings and
accommodation for himself, his colleagues and assistant. Rainforest Saver has
therefore set up a Crowd Funding Project and very much hopes you will be
willing to help support our vital project. If enough young farmers of today are
educated in more sustainable agriculture, poor communities that are at present
destroying many of the rainforests, could both improve their own livelihoods
and become the effective guardians of these crucial eco-systems. By giving
knowledge and resources to those that work on the land, we can help transform
both their livelihoods and their environment for the better. Our ultimate aim for
this crowd funding project is to train 140 teachers from 23 schools, and
reaching our target will enable us to make a substantial difference to
environmental education in this area. Changing a whole system of agriculture is
not an easy task, but you can help seed this transformation in Western
Honduras, as we are already doing with considerable promise near the North
coast of Honduras .
Our partner Dr. Guillermo
Valle, teaching students in an Inga alley
We are offering a variety of prizes to encourage you to open
your heart and wallet. Yet whether you buy some cards, calendar or a T shirt,
get your children’s faces painted as rainforest animals, commission a poem or
request a rainforest tale, I hope your main reward will be to keep an eye on
the Rainforest Saver web site and see the project that you helped fund come to
fruition. So please click on http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/sustainable-farming-to-save-rainforestshonduras-2 and help young Honduran farmers learn how to
make a more sustainable and productive living from their land and enable them
to help save the rainforests.
