Can Poetry Help Save The Rainforests

Can Poetry Help Save The Rainforests?

Like many adolescents, I dabbled in the writing of poetry but in later years by and large gave up poetic scribbling until about 2 years ago. I then discovered the online writers and readers site called Jottify.com . I posted up one or two pieces and was surprised to find that some people actually seemed to appreciate what I’d written. This encouraged me to see the writing of poetry as a craft or art in which I might actually be able to improve. I also became interested in how one could use poetry to promote good causes, raise awareness and perhaps even stimulate people to become more involved in the important issues of the day, (or at least in what this particular poet considers to be the important issues of the day). In my last blog ‘How to Grow Rainforest Saver’, I suggested that our small charity needed to be more active and imaginative in its efforts to raise more funds and attract more members. As Chairman and blogger, I feel it is incumbent on me to set an example in this respect, and I am therefore going to see if I can use my poetic skills to raise money for Rainforest Saver’s vital work.

As someone old enough to have been educated without the assistance of computers or the World Wide Web, it is taking me time to fully understand how such tools as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube might be used to further the cause of Rainforest Saver. It is all very well having a Facebook presence and persuading people to Like it but this doesn’t bring in any extra funds, which is what Rainforest Saver, like every other charity, needs to continue its crucial work.  I have therefore come up with the idea of writing a 24 hour sponsored poem on Facebook, posting at least 12 lines every hour, and finding at least 12 extra lines, thus making a poem of 300 or more lines. I will ask people to sponsor me per line and I will take my laptop into my local town of Woking to promote both the writing of the poem and the work of Rainforest Saver. The poem will be called ‘A Love of Trees’ and will be both a personal response to our arboreal friends and a more general reflection on the importance of trees to our environment and society, focusing particularly on the work of Rainforest Saver. This will happen later today at dawn 1st of June and you can check my progress at https://www.facebook.com/rainforestsaver

Although the actual poem will be written on the day, I will carry out research, make notes and even converse with our sylvan brothers in order to hopefully get some inspiration. However, this poet also needs help from other people and so I will be asking people to send me their favourite photos of trees, or links to favourite paintings of trees. Of course I can not promise that I will write anything of any merit for my muse might be offended at the whole idea of producing poetry by the hour, and might decide to take the whole day off. I can only promise that I will try my best to write something that you might like to read.  In return I hope that you might be willing to encourage this apprentice poet and support Rainforest Saver by sponsoring me. Usually my inspiration doesn’t come from the prospect of personal profit, but as on this occasion any money raised will go to ensure more Inga trees are planted and more farmers helped to farm sustainably, the more the total increases at my Virgin Money Giving page, the more inspired I’ll be to write a half decent poem. After all it’s not every day you get the opportunity to help save the rainforests, improve the lives of poor farmers, and, admittedly in a minor way, be a patron of the poetic arts.

If anyone has any queries or suggestions, please email me at charles.barber13@gmail.com, making the subject heading Sponsored Poem. I hope that some of you that read this will be willing to sponsor me via the Rainforest Saver web site and I look forward to the challenge of trying to create a poem that is worthy of Rainforest Saver - www.rainforestsaver.org  . 

It is rather late in the day to provide this footnote, but I would just like to say thank you to all those that sponsored me and helped me raise over £500 for Rainforest Saver. If anyone would still like to read the poem it can be viewed at http://www.rainforestsaver.org/news/no43-love-trees .
I make no great claim about the merit of the poem but if you get bored reading it, warmly recommend you have a look at our fascinating web site.

How To Grow Rainforest Saver

How To Grow Rainforest Saver

For the last few years I have had the privilege and honour of being involved with a charity I care deeply about. As a gardener, who loves trees and is somewhat concerned about the state of the planet, Rainforest Saver is an organization that I’m very pleased to be a part of. I have seen it grow from difficult beginnings into a charity that, thanks to its UK supporters and its partners, is making a real difference to more sustainable farming in both Honduras and the Cameroons. It is partnerships such as ours that can not only help many poor farmers lift themselves out of poverty, but also ultimately save millions of acres of biodiverse rainforests for all our futures.

What we are trying to prevent. Hillsides that were once lush rainforest made barren by continual slash and burn agriculture.

Yet the scale of what we are trying to do can sometimes feel a bit daunting. At present we are a small charity with a limited membership and income. It was very pleasing in the autumn of 2012 to be able to celebrate the first Inga Alley Harvest in Africa and to know that 20 more farmers will soon be able to follow suit. However, there are so many more farmers that we could help if we only had more funds.  If we are really going to change an entrenched but unsustainable system of agriculture, that is damaging numerous rainforest eco-systems in numerous countries, we have to find the resources to grow. Those resources are to be found not only in our current membership and partners but also in our future ones. If we want to help our partners produce the vital Inga seedlings to get Inga Alley Cropping established in different regions, we need more members, raising more money to enable more sustainable Inga farms to be created.

Rainforest Saver stall at a public meeting

                                          

So what are the key ingredients or nutrients that Rainforest Saver needs to grow. We have come into existence at a time when there are more methods to get one’s message across than ever before. The potential of new means of communication such as Facebook, Twitter, skype and blogs is immense and Rainforest Saver is certainly more well known thanks to such media. However, clicking a Like button on a Facebook page won’t of itself provide Rainforest Saver with any more money to fund its vital work. We somehow need to activate some of the interest and awareness generated through such media into more serious commitment to help, which will be shown in increased donations or membership. Such donations and new members are more likely to come about if the person who discovers us on the net, can get involved in a more direct and active manner. If he can go and listen to a talk or take part in an event, or even merely sponsor someone else who is raising money for us, then there is more chance of getting a donation or recruiting a new member. In short, we ourselves need to be more active, giving talks, staging fund-raising events and trying to persuade any likely contenders to join the cause. Yet, I do not pretend this is easy as our limited membership probably all have very active lives already but if enough people are willing to spend a bit more time promoting the charity, we will be able to grow and do so much more.

RFS member repairing and selling bicycles to raise money for Rainforest Saver

As a charity that can play a key role in saving the rainforests, we should have environmentally concerned citizens from all over the world, eager to become members. Our mission is crucial, worthwhile and exciting but there is a huge pool of potential members that still need to be convinced. I believe that we need a more ambitious vision and a more global perspective to convince them. I have just had a look at the Greenpeace web site and was impressed to discover that there are now 50 Greenpeace organizations in different countries. As a charity that is promoting a simple technology that could be used in all rainforest countries, it is not inconceivable to me that at some point in the future, all those countries could have Rainforest Saver organizations, helping to fund and promote our work. Yet before such grandiose plans can even be considered we need to be a much more effective and popular organization within the UK.

First Inga Alley Cropping Maize Harvest in Africa

This is difficult when our limited membership is scattered around the UK. However, we do have two areas where there is a slightly larger membership, Edinburgh where the H.Q. is located and London and the South-east. If each of these areas could organize themselves into more active local groups and plan at least one fund-raising and awareness raising event each year it would make a start. This is not to decry all the individual efforts that have already been made by individual members, for such fund-raising work has been and will continue to be invaluable. However, if we can sometimes work together as groups, there is a potential to raise even more funds and attract more new members. Having written this blog, I now feel a rather uncomfortable obligation to try and set an example. So in the coming week I will try and persuade my fellow members in the South-east of England to collaborate with me to stage some form of fundraising event that will hopefully also raise the profile of Rainforest Saver.

The kind of Rainforest flower that we wish to preserve.

I am painfully aware that I do not have all the answers.  Setting up and running a successful charity is not easy. In many ways it is a tribute to our members that we have managed to achieve so much in such a short space of time. However, I do believe we could achieve so much more with a larger more involved membership. I am under no illusions that achieving such a goal will be either quick or easy but I’m hoping that in writing this blog, I might encourage a few more people to take a more active part in Rainforest Saver. With more support we can help numerous poor farmers lift themselves out of poverty and also help save some of the most precious eco-systems on our planet.

First Inga Alley Harvest in Africa

First Inga Alley Harvest in Africa

Mrs Antoinette Mendo has become the first farmer in tropical Africa to harvest a crop, using an exciting new technique called Inga Alley Cropping. She obtained more than 3 times the yield of maize that was grown on an adjacent plot, farmed in the traditional way. If the Inga method were to be widely implemented, it would help improve the livelihoods of millions of poor slash and burn farmers and help save millions of acres of rainforests.

In most tropical forest areas the traditional method of slash and burn farming is no longer sustainable. Due to population pressure the poor farmers are forced to move and farm on new plots that are becoming less and less fertile. Thus in some areas of tropical hillsides, land that was once lush tropical forest now appears completely barren, unable to support either forests or agriculture. Inga Alley Cropping can prevent this continual destruction and provide farmers with more secure, sustainable livelihoods.

It works by cleverly imitating the natural recycling process of the forest eco-system. The Inga trees are grown in alleys and when they’ve reached a certain height their branches are pruned and laid within the alley. Seeds are then sown within the decomposing mulch, while the trees rapidly re-grow. As the Inga mulch continuously re-cycles the nutrients and minimises erosion, the plot is able to maintain its fertility. This means that the farmer can get higher yields and continue to farm on the same plot year after year. Usually slash and burn farmers have to move every 3 years or so, burn another area of rainforest and start a new plot because they have exhausted the fertility of their old one.

Mrs Mendo was helped to start her plot in  by Gaston Bityo, who runs the NGO ‘Volunteers Serving Development’ and by the UK charity ‘Rainforest Saver’ (www.rainforestsaver.org) . Twenty more Cameroonian farmers have also started Inga plots and if sufficient funding can be found, the potential benefits of using the Inga system in the tropical areas of Africa, Central and South America, and South-east Asia are immense.  Regions in which both peoples and forests are currently struggling for survival could be transformed into places, where both humans and forests are once again thriving.  All the farmers need are the Inga seedlings and the necessary training and they can begin to improve both their livelihoods and the environment. All that Rainforest Saver and their partners need are the funds to make this happen.

An Introduction to Learning about the Rainforests

It is both a cause for concern and a matter of some regret that in spite of serving on the committee of a charity called Rainforest Saver, www.rainforestsaver.org,  my genuine knowledge of the rainforests could probably be squeezed onto an A4 sheet of paper.  In some ways this doesn’t matter too much. I know enough about them to know how precious and important they are. I also understand how the system of agriculture we are promoting called Inga Alley Cropping can not only lift poor slash and burn farmers out of poverty but also potentially save millions of acres of rainforests from destruction. Yet having visited our project partners in Honduras in September 2010 and having experienced a little of the rich diversity that tropical rainforests possess, I would like to gain a greater understanding of these remarkable eco-systems. 

I would also like to give a voice to the peoples that live in and around the rainforests, who know and value these eco-systems and whose very livelihoods depend upon them. It is the rights of these people that are so often overlooked by Western politicians when making their deals at conferences. It is these people that are sometimes thrown off the land they make their living from by decisions which claim to be protecting the rainforests. It is these people, who should hold the keys to protecting these vital eco-systems but who are too often ignored in decisions which affect their future livelihoods.

Yet one of the most encouraging signs of change is that such people are beginning to stand up for their rights. They are joining together to campaign for a fairer deal in this rapidly changing world and using the web to get their voices heard.  They are joined also by a few people in the so called ‘developed world’, who wish to help both protect the rainforests and the livelihoods of the people that live amongst them. To be effective in doing this though, it is helpful if they know as much as possible about both the lives of the people and the lives of the rainforests.  If you are asking people to give money to support projects, it is good to know not only about how this or that particular project will help the land and people, but also to be able to tell people details about the lives of the rainforest lands and the peoples. Thus in trying to learn more about the rainforests, I hope that I will not only be satisfying my own curiosity but also making myself a better advocate for the cause.

But I need help!!! I want to hear stories from the peoples that live in and around the rainforests. I want to know about the trees, plants, animals and people – about their daily lives, about their struggles, about their pleasures and their pain. I hope that the people and organizations to whom I send emails will provide much of the material for the first 4 blogs that I intend to write. They will be an introduction to the rainforests of four regions of the world – Central America, South America, Africa and South-east Asia. Hopefully when I have finished this task, I will know a little bit more about both the peoples and the habitats of the rainforests.


If anyone reading this has a story about a rainforest they would like to relate to me, I'd be delighted to hear from them and can be contacted at charles.barber13@gmail.com .

Charles Barber

Chairman of Rainforest Saver – www.rainforestsaver.org

Other Organizations that are worth checking out

The Global Forest Coalition - http://globalforestcoalition.org/

REDD Monitor - http://www.redd-monitor.org/

Why Inga Alley Cropping Deserves Funding

Why Inga Alley Cropping Deserves Funding

This is the story of a new agricultural technique that has the potential to lift many poor farmers out of poverty, and to help save millions of acres of tropical rainforest. Although the technique has been proved to work, sadly for a variety of reasons, it has struggled as yet to realize much of its potential. The technique was first developed and trialled by the tropical ecologist Mike Hands in Costa Rica the late 80s and early 90s. Funding from the EEC allowed him to experiment with species of Inga, that would be used as hedges and pruned when large enough to provide a mulch in which bean and corn seeds could be planted. This had the remarkable results of not only improving yields but also retaining the fertility on the plot that was being farmed. Mike Hands had previously seen the devastating consequences that could be caused by continuous slash and burn agriculture while working in Honduras, and this new technique seemed to offer the solution to the environmental and economic problems faced by so many slash and burn farmers.

         Honduran slopes made bare and infertile

by slash and burn agriculture.

Copyright : FUPNAPIB (a Honduran NGO)

 Tropical rainforest soils are usually thin and comparatively low in nutrients and so, particularly if you are farming on hillsides as many poor farmers are forced to do, once you have burnt an area of forest to plant your crops, the nutrients necessary to produce a healthy crop are quickly leached out of the soil. This means that the farmer has to burn more rainforest and move his plot every 3 years or so, in order to find land that would support him and his family. In areas where farmers returned too quickly to previously farmed plots, the nutrients would be leached out to such an extent that land that a few years previously may have been luxuriant rainforest, would now be turned into a type of poor man-made desert.

What the poor slash and burn farmer needed was a method of agriculture that would provide him with better, more reliable yields on the same piece of land, year after year. The Inga alley cropping technique has been shown to do this. Mike Hands had proved that not only could the Inga trees, as nitrogen fixing plants help retain nitrogen in the soil, they could also in conjunction with certain fungi conserve the vital nutrient of phosphorus. At the same time both the trees themselves, planted along the contour lines of the slope, and the valuable mulch they produced, reduced erosion and helped retain the thin vital top soil within the plot.  The larger branches that were pruned could also be used as a valuable source of firewood.

Pablo, a Honduran farmer with his tall crop

of maize, grown with Inga

Copyright Antony Melville (Rainforest Saver)

Unfortunately after Mike Hands’s successful trials in Costa Rica, the EEC, for reasons best known to themselves refused to fund the extension programme that could have helped fund a proper demonstration farm, seed orchard and full-time extension worker to give advice and support to the farmers.This was urgently needed to provide the impetus for this new method of farming to really take off.

In spite of this, with the help of a wealthy patron and an enthusiastic farmer, a demonstration farm was developed in Honduras and many farmers came to see the new system.  Many were enthusiastic to try it and some other local farmers were able to do so but the lack of Inga seed meant that many others were not able to take it up. Sadly due to shortages of funding and changes within the local NGO that was supporting the scheme, the spread of Inga alley cropping was not as rapid as many had hoped it would be. 

Now, though with the assistance of a charity called Rainforest Saver, working with a different Honduran NGO called Funavid and the agricultural experts at a nearby university in La Ceiba, named CURLA, there are plans to create another demonstration farm, together with an Inga seed nursery and to fund an extension worker that will assist the farmers to take up the new system.  The close liason with the university will also mean that further research can be carried out, and that many of the students will be trained in this form of agriculture.

Inga mulch between Inga trees, ready for CURLA students to sow crops on the Funavid land at Lucinda, Honduras - Photo Copyright : Tiiu Imbi-Miller (Rainforest Saver)

At the same time small demonstration Inga plots will be set up at a number of Agriculture High schools throughout the region and the teachers will receive training about the Inga system. In short, there is much to be enthusiastic and optimistic about.  However, the success of the scheme depends on acquiring sufficient funding to build efficiently on what has already been achieved. The land for the demonstration farm has been bought and some of the local farmers are keen to start Inga alley cropping but funds for a nursery, a proper road and an extension worker are urgently needed.

The opportunity to implement and demonstrate a new form of agriculture in tropical rainforest areas is one that is both exciting and challenging. Inga alley cropping can provide farmers with better yields year after year and also has numerous benefits for the environment. Thousands of acres of rainforest can be protected and erosion, which causes the silting up of rivers and damages coastal areas, particularly coral reefs, can be seriously reduced. If you have somehow managed to stumble across this blog and think you might be interested in getting involved in this exciting challenge, please email me or check out the Rainforest Saver web site.

Rainforest Saver  -   http://www.rainforestsaver.org/home/

  

    

HOW CAN WE HELP SAVE THE RAINFORESTS?

The difficulty of the so called ‘developed countries’ assisting the developing countries to save their rainforests was amply demonstrated at the recent climate change conference at Cancun. Environmentalists would no doubt applaud the decision to put some money behind a mechanism that would offer financial support to countries that committed themselves to conserving their rainforests.  This would both benefit the atmosphere of the planet by ensuring that the carbon remained safely within the forests and provide funds to help the developing countries to develop in a more sustainable manner. Anyone who heard or read about Mr Bharret Jagdeo, the President of Guyana’s speech to the conference could be in little doubt though, that Guyana, the first intended beneficiary of the scheme, was not at all happy with its current implementation.  There were clearly problems over deciding how much carbon is actually being stored in Guyana’s forests and this had led to delays in funding and an unfortunate atmosphere of mistrust. The speech seemed particularly targeted to Mr Stolteberg, the Prime minister of Norway, whose government had seemed so supportive of REDD, (the UN initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest degradation) and who had agreed to provide much of the funding to save Guyana’s rainforests. Hopefully this will prove to be merely a teething problem in a new system that has the potential to help many of the world’s poorest countries retain their wonderful biodiversity, assist in the process of preventing carbon emissions and develop in a way that improves their people’s livelihoods, while at the same time protecting their environment.

The initial difficulties in this process point perhaps to a wider problem

in the huge challenge of saving the tropical rainforests, which are both huge reservoirs of carbon and also the most biodiverse and potentially valuable eco-systems known to man.  Yet if we were to look at our recent history of rainforest conservation, only the most naive optimist with the most rosy tinted glasses, would have much faith in our ability to prevent the rapid destruction of much of the remaining rainforests.  Although there are committed environmentalists and organizations, both in tropical rainforest countries and the wider world, working tirelessly to protect certain areas of rainforest and winning occasional battles, it is the logging companies, the palm oil plantations, the mining companies and even the poor slash and burn farmers that ensure that more and more of the rainforests are destroyed each year. My belief is it is only when the governments and people in rainforest countries realize that it is in their short-term and long-term interest to protect the rainforests, that we have much chance of turning the tide of destruction. 

If they can see their rainforests as national assets to take pride in, if they can fully realize their eco-tourism and natural resource potential, and perhaps most importantly if these countries can develop sustainable agriculture and forestry programmes, then perhaps we can begin to turn the tide.  The recent summit at Cochabamba that Bolivia hosted gives some reason for hope. Their deep concern about global warming, their understandable anger at the relative inaction of the major carbon emitters and their desire to find a more sustainable form of development, in many ways put to shame the limited progress made at Cancun. It is vital that any funds that developed countries make available should not only pay individual countries for storing carbon in their forests but also be targeted to projects and organizations that can improve the livelihoods of people living in and on the margins of the rainforests. When the forests can be properly protected by their governments and when the local people are given a financial stake in their conservation, then there is a chance that overall forest cover in these countries can even begin to increase. After all an investment in a sustainable mahogany plantation is probably one of the best long-term investments you can make.

So, to return to the original question – how can we help save the rainforests? I suspect that there are very many different ways that we as individuals can help lend a hand in this daunting environmental challenge.  This monthly blog is partly intended to investigate those different ways, and to hopefully find out from people working in tropical forest conservation how they think enthusiastic amateurs such as myself might be able to help.  One of the ways, though, must be to join a rainforest conservation charity and I make no excuse for plugging the one that I have chosen to be involved with at the end of this first blog. The Rainforest Saver Foundation, http://www.rainforestsaver.org/ , charity no. SCO 39007 is supporting projects that will enable slash and burn farmers to stop repeatedly burning more and more areas of rainforest and instead use a new technique, which both protects the environment and provides them with a better, more secure livelihood. Please check out their web site and in the next blog, I’ll put forward the case for why its projects need and merit a substantial amount of funding. Who knows, I might even include some pictures next time.

Sources and Further Reading

The Rainforest Saver Foundation - http://www.rainforestsaver.org/home/ 

To find out more about the forest deal at Cancun, I recommend http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/dec/09/cancun-climate-change-summit-forests .

To try and get to grips with REDD, check out http://www.un-redd.org/ .