Dr. Anne Hallum of AIR receives the J. Sterling Morton Award from the Arbor Day Foundation

We are very proud of our three planting partners, RIPPLE Africa, SHI and AIR, who are doing a great job fighting both deforestation and poverty in developing countries. We feel even more proud when we hear about another award or recognition they received that is joining the long list of awards they already have.

So it is our pleasure to update you that Dr. Anne Hallum of the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR) was presented with the J. Sterling Morton Award, the highest honor given by the Arbor Day Foundation!

Award winners according to the Arbor Day Foundation are recognized for their leadership in the cause of tree planting, conservation,and environmental stewardship.

Congratulations to Dr. Hallum! She definitely deserves it for her ongoing efforts and endless work at AIR. Just to remind you, only last February she has been named one of CNN’s 2011 Heroes!

Here's more about why the Arbor Day Foundation awarded her with the prize (from their website):

Anne Hallum of the Alliance for International Reforestation (A.I.R) in DeLand, Fla., was presented with the J. Sterling Morton Award, the highest honor given by the Arbor Day Foundation. Hallum founded her nonprofit organization to help people in Guatemala by establishing a better, more sustainable quality of life through tree-planting.

The Morton Award is named after J. Sterling Morton, who founded Arbor Day in 1872.

Under Hallum's direction and guidance, the Alliance for International Reforestation has been educating residents in Guatemala and Nicaragua since 1993, working with 25 to 30 villages at a time, each for a period of five years. The staff (all native residents) educates indigenous volunteers about proper tree-planting and agroforestry that will provide sustainable farming as well as protection from frequent and dangerous mudslides. Through proper tree-planting, mountainside erosion is controlled and mudslides are avoided during the harshest of storms.

The native trees planted by local volunteers and farmers help preserve important forests, which have a tremendous impact on the villages. These trees improve nutrition for people and livestock, provide animal habitat, clean the air, protect local water, supply firewood, shade homes and fertilize crops. A.I.R. has worked with more than 110 villages in rural Guatemala and Nicaragua, adding more than 3.7 million trees to the region's rain forest.

You can find more information on AIR at http://www.air-guatemala.org/

Photo credit: Arbor Day Foundation

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read

New video from RIPPLE Africa: Deforestation, bush burning and Forest Conservation in Malawi

Our planting partner RIPPLE Africa is working in Malawi, Africa and is doing an amazing job there. They've just published a new video, showing the effects of deforestation and bush burning, and also illustrates the woodland conservation program that RIPPLE Africa has initiated.

This film shows both sides of reality in Malawi - deforestation and frustration on one side and reforestation and hope on the other side, which we're proud to support. You can read more about RIPPLE Africa on their website - www.rippleafrica.org and learn on our work with them on the last assessment we published last year.




Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Tree planting in Malawi - a new video of our planting partner, RIPPLE Africa

Our friends at RIPPLE Africa are completing these days another planting season of trees in Malawi, Africa.

They have published a very powerful video last month on the deforestation problems that Malawi is facing (In Malawi an area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every 10 minutes!) and the work RIPPLE Africa is doing with local communities to fight it.

The goal of their reforestation efforts is to plant and grow millions of trees every year and to "train, educate and empower the local communities to sustainably manage their environment to reduce poverty". We are proud to partner with RIPPLE Africa and support these goals and we hope you'll enjoy this video.

More details on RIPPLE Africa are available on their website - http://www.rippleafrica.org/. More information on our work with RIPPLE Africa can be found on our partners' page and on their annual assessments.



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Check out our green gift giveaway!

Visit with Sustainable Harvest International's Panama Office

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting, for the second time since moving to Panama, the folks of Sustainable Harvest International (SHI, or CSI, as the Spanish abbreviation of Cosecha Sostenible Internacional goes) and travel with them around the field in the Coclé province of Panama, to see how sustainable reforestation really happens.

When I first explained to some friends in Panama City that I am about to visit an organization working on reforestation with local communities in “El Interior” (Panamanian for “Boondocks”), to say they were skeptics would be an understatement. There is a reason for that of course. Slash & burn agriculture is widely practiced here and the humble day to day subsistence standard of living of many agricultural communities is regarded as a hindrance to seemingly lofty consideration of environmental impact and global warming. The work of Sustainable Harvest in Panama proved to me that change is possible, and is happening. All it takes is resolve and a lot of hard work. Sustainable Harvest has the dubious pleasure of never preaching to the choir, and making change happen where its most needed.

We first met with country director, Rodrigo Rodriguez, and field trainer Diomedes Arrocha at SHI's office in Penonomé, the regional capital. Since this time of the year the rains come down hard and heavy in the afternoon, we decided to head right out to the field and reserve the presentation about the recent activities to later. We started south on the Inter-American highway from Penonome and after about 5 minutes turned left towards the inland communities of Juan Diaz, San Juan de Dios and El Entradero.

Our first stop on the road was at the farm of Sebastian Arauz at the small community of El Chumical. Arauz planted with SHI's help 500 coffee plants and 500 guayacan trees in June. He was initially skeptic when SHI began working in the area two years ago, but the benefits demonstrated by his neighbors convinced him to give it a try. So what's the lure of reforestation? In a nutshell, by understanding the needs of the community and families, SHI is able to provide solutions, and while at it encourage sustainability, reforestation and organic farming. In this case for example, SHI is working with Sebastian Arauz on several levels. First of all they offer him free organic seeds of the shade loving coffee plant to create a commercially viable crop. They also provide him with the seeds of the beautiful native Guayacan that will provide the shade for the coffee plantation.

(Farmer Sebastian Arrauz (left) and Diomedes Arrocha of SHI (right)

However, it does not end here. In tropical Panama there are basically only two seasons. The rainy season and the dry season. In the area of El Chumical, where Arauz's farm is located, generations of unsustainable farming, burnings and tree cuttings along the rivers dwindled the natural water resources. Watering the plants during the dry season is not a trivial task, and SHI is helping with innovative manual pump designs, and know-how. The reforestation work being done upstream in other communities will eventually help Arauz and his farm as well.

For us at Eco-Libris it will be interesting to keep on following these coffee and Guayacan trees over the years and see them grow and transform the quite dreary landscape around them.

In the next blog installation I will tell more about SHI's organic farming and reforestation work in the communities of El Entradero, where they also introduced a more sustainable woodstove design that helped reduce the community's usage of firewood for cooking significantly.

To be continued...

How to make tree planting cool again?

World Environment Day was celebrated worldwide last Friday. While looking in Grist, one of my favorite green information resources, I found that it extends its "Screw Earth Day Campaign" to the World Environment Day. Moreover, Grist added: Official couldn’t have said it better: Forget tree planting with a link to Cameron Scott's article on SFGate.com "Time to move beyond planting trees". Scott opens with the following:

"Tomorrow is World Environment Day, an international holiday the U.N. implemented shortly after the U.S. created Earth Day. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to plant a tree. I'm going to tell you to do something bigger, better, more fun, and less tedious. After all, caring about the world you live in shouldn't feel like going to a funeral (now, pick up the shovel...)."

You can agree or disagree with Grist and Scott, but thinking of it for a while, I found that the most worrying point here is that planting trees might not be so cool anymore! I mean, I know the tree planting is more of an example here given to make a point and I'm sure nor Scott neither Grist have nothing against trees. But at the same time, can you imagine someone making a point with a negative context about local food? I doubt..

Tree planting, once the star in the green skies, just doesn't seem to be that shiny anymore. I guess the example we see here is one reason why it happened - tree planting might be strongly associated with going green and supporting the environment just on one day (Earth Day or World Environment Day), giving people and businesses fake feeling they done their share to combat global warming. It also might be that people just get tired of it - maybe you can't be the green queen forever!

Anyway, I believe Grist and Scott show here that more than all tree planting might have an image problem - it's not about convincing that tree planting is super-duper important, but about making it cool again. So how do you do it? How do you make tree planting cool again?

Here are few ideas I thought about:

1. Learn from the current king - there's no doubt who is now the strongest and most popular green theme - it's local food. It means tree planting needs urgently its own Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, maybe a bestseller like "Omnivore's Dilemma", a movie everyone is talking about for months, and of course it wouldn't hurt if Michelle Obama will plant a nice tree in her garden.

2. Get some celebs to grab a shovel - if Scarlet Johnson or Brad Pitt were doing it (and not only once a year, but on a more regular basis), I'm sure that tree planting won't feel "like going to a funeral", or maybe it will, but everyone would like to join!

3. More fun, less tedious - it doesn't have to involve porn activism (although this one caught even Grist's attention), or guerrilla tactics, but anything that will make tree planting less tedious and more interesting and fun is more than welcome.

4. Get the coolest green biz on board - if green businesses such as TerraCycle, Nau or Better Place will push forward tree planting there's a chance some of their coolness will stick to the trees! Any more ideas? comments? feedbacks? we'll be happy to hear from you!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolbris.net

*The photo at the top of the page is courtesy of our planting partner AIR

A great article about our planting partner AIR, or: How to plant the seeds of sustainable future

We're very proud of our planting partners and always happy to share the news about them. Today we have an article recently released at OurWorld 2.0, a UN webzine, about our planting partner AIR.

The writer, Adam Darragh, is a recent graduate of Stetson University who majored in Religious Studies. He went last summer to Guatemala with four other Stetson University students, to volunteer for a month with the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR), accompanied by AIR's founder, political science professor Dr. Anne Hallum from Stetson University.

Darragh helped with tree planting, is describing in the article the work he done with his colleauges and AIR's staff, planting trees , building four fuel-efficient stoves for community leaders, planting vegetables, and working alongside students and teachers to build improvements to schools that partner with AIR.

Here's a part where he speaks about his tree planting experience:

"We arrived in June during Guatemala’s rainy season, months after community-operated tree nurseries started by AIR had planted and raised thousands of seedlings of pine, peach, and other kinds of trees. Our average day was spent hopping into pickup trucks, heading to the tree nursery, then riding with the villagers to farmlands, deforested hillsides, or post-landslide slopes. Under the direction of AIR staff and village farmers, we planted as many trees as we could before the monsoon-like rains arrived."

Darragh not only describing the efforts of AIR to teach communities an alternative way to the slash and burn practices, but also the way AIR is working in general, collaborating with families and communities, putting an emphasis on education as well respect to the locals, to ensure the effectiveness of their programs. Darragh explains:

"My experience with AIR has shown me that the world’s reforestation issues can’t be top-down, enforced change, but rather must be the product of individuals, their families, and their communities. While much of AIR’s support comes from gracious donors, the actual work is done by a dedicated group of Guatemalans who partner with farmers, whole villages and schools in education and planting.

It’s a community-based effort, which remains effective because it tempers the goal — reforestation and community development — with respect for Guatemalan cultural heritage and area-specific needs."

In all, AIR has planted so far more than three million trees in Guatemala and Nicaragua, educated more than 1,600 families in sustainable, organic farming methods and built more than 700 fuel-efficient ovens have been built (only recently, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues granted AIR US $8,200 to build additional brick stoves in Guatemala).

If you want to learn more about AIR and the great work they do, you're welcome to read this great article at http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/2009/04/21/roots-that-bind. You can also visit their website at www2.stetson.edu/air

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

* Photos are courtesy of AIR

Celebrating RIPPLE Africa's planting season - last photo

Today we have the last beautiful photo from Malawi, Africa, where our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January.

In the photo you can see Agnes Nyakayira of the Chigwiti Afforestation club, and I hope you recognize the logo in the sign :)























We hope you enjoyed all the photos we published here on our blog as part of our celebration of the end of another successful planting season in Malawi. All of the photos will be available very soon on our planting gallery, together with many other beautiful photos from our planting partners.

Once again, thank you to RIPPLE Africa for their dedicated work in Malawi. We're proud to be part of it!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Celebrating RIPPLE Africa's planting season

Today we have another beautiful photo from Malawi, Africa, where our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January.

In the photo you can see Walter and Milika with a 3 year old Senderella tree.


Tomorrow we have the last photo so don't forget to check it out.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Daily photo from the planting season in Malawi, Africa

We continue to present you with photos from Malawi, Africa, where our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January.

Today we have a beautiful photo of tree seedlings at Chgwiti tree nursery.


We have two more photos to show you (on Wednesday and Thursday) so stay tuned!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Our plating partner AIR won U.N. grant for service in Guatemala

Last week we had news from two of our plating partners, SHI and RIPPLE Africa, and today we're happy to update you with news from our third planting partner - The Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR).

AIR,headquartered at Stetson University, has received a grant for $8,200 from the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to build brick stoves in Maya communities in Sololá, Guatemala.

“It is a small grant, but for AIR to be recognized by the United Nations in an extraordinarily competitive area, is very exciting,” said Dr. Anne Hallum, Stetson professor of Political Science and U.S. chair of the reforestation program. “AIR has always worked closely with Maya leaders in dozens of communities, so it is appropriate to have a grant from this particular U.N. Forum.”

AIR plants trees, establishes tree nurseries and provides environmental education in Central America. Stetson students volunteer with the organization during six-week programs, working side-by-side with local AIR staff in Guatemala. Since 1993, AIR has trained more than 1,500 Guatemalan farmers, provided materials for more than 700 fuel-efficient stoves and planted more than 3 million trees. In 2004, AIR was recognized by the Guatemalan government’s forestry institute as the most effective nongovernmental environmental organization.

The U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is described on its Web site as “an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council, with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.”

AIR is working with Eco-Libris since 2007 and you can read more on our collaboration on AIR first year's assessment, which is available at http://www.ecolibris.net/AIR_Assessment.pdf

Congrats to AIR and to Dr. Hallum for this grant and the recognition of their important work in Guatemala by the U.N.! You can read more about AIR at http://www2.stetson.edu/air

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

PHOTO: A recipient of an AIR stove helps in its construction in Guatemala. (Photo courtesy Stetson University senior Jesse L. Paquin.)

The daily photo from Malawi, Africa

We hope you're enjoying our daily presentations of photos from Malawi, Africa, where our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today we have another photo that combines hope on one side and the devestating reality on the other side. The photo is of Chiefs Forest guards that RIPPLE Africa organized to visit recently destroyed forests.

We'll continue our celebration this upcoming week with new photos from RIPPLE Africa.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Another photo from Malawi, Africa

We continue our daily presentation here of photos from Malawi, Africa, where our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today we have a photo of the Makuzi Afforestation club.

We'll continue our celebration this upcoming week with new photos from RIPPLE Africa.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

The daily photo from Malawi, Africa

Following our promise yesterday, we present here every day for a week a photo from Malawi, Africa our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today we have a sad picture of a sad reality in Malawi: We're seeing part of 10 acres destroyed by one man in 3 months.

We'll continue our celebration tomorrow with a new photo from RIPPLE Africa.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

The daily photo from Malawi, Africa

Following our promise yesterday, we present here every day for a week a photo from Malawi, Africa our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today our photo is of Fumbani Ripple Africa manager:


















We'll continue our celebration tomorrow with a new beautiful photo so stay tuned!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Photos are courtesy of RIPPLE Africa (www.rippleafrica.org)

RIPPLE Africa finished another successful planting season in Malawi, Africa

Our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season in Malawi, Africa with about 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January! Kudos to RIPPLE Africa!

RIPPLE Africa was established in 2003 by Geoff and Liz Furber from the UK. RIPPLE Africa is a non-profit organization involved with environmental projects, education and healthcare in Malawi, Africa. It works in cooperation with local chiefs - traditional authorities and the local communities, who take a major part in RIPPLE Africa’s various activities, including its planting operations.

Malawi is a poor country and 80% of its people live in rural areas. Wood is a necessary part of everyday life, and there is also tremendous pressure to clear forests for agriculture. Hence, trees in Malawi are being cut down at an alarming rate. An area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every 10 minutes. RIPPLE Africa’s tree planting project is centered in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi, Africa, an area of 4,000 square kilometers.

We also had a part in this planting season with 26,575 trees being planted on behalf of Eco-Libris' customers (check our first year's assessment for further details)! We hope to bring you soon an interview with Geoff Furber who will tell us more on the planting season and about RIPPLE Africa's work in Malawi.

In the meantime, we would like to celebrate this planting season with beautiful photos we received from RIPPLE Africa, and for one week we'll show you every day a new photo they've sent us. We'll have soon all the photos on our planting gallery and you can already see them all on our Facebook group (which of course you're welcome to join!)

The first photo we have here is of Catherine and team budding oranges.

You're welcome to visit RIPPLE Africa's website at www.rippleafrica.org.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

An update from our planting partner SHI

Our planting partner Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) has released their update for February 2009 and it's a good opportunity to get updated in the wonderful work they're doing in Central America.

Founded in 1997 by Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Florence Reed, Sustainable Harvest International addresses the tropical deforestation crisis in Central America by providing farmers with sustainable alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture. SHI facilitates long-term collaboration among trained local agricultural staff, farmers and communities to implement sustainable land-use practices that alleviate poverty by restoring ecological stability. You can find the assessment of our first year of collaboration with SHI on this link.

So what you can find on the update?

Seed Loans Make An Impact -Testimony From The Field (Nicaragua): An interesting testimony of Alejandro Gutierrez of El Asentamiento, Kukra Hill in Nicaragua about his experience with SHI.

Here's a part of it: "Sustainable Harvest is not an organization that just gives over everything, but rather they teach mutual collaboration. They give us knowledge and we must put it into practice. They lend us grain but we return it so that it can serve other producers, like the loans of seeds and beans. Thank you for helping us so that we can have a little more."

First-Hand in the Field - SHI Board Chair, Tony Barrington, visits Panama:

Tony Barriganton reports on a visit that a group of SHI board members, spouses, friends and staff made to SHI's field program in Panama on January.

You can find there also links with details on SHI's Sustainable Chocolate Tour, Annie's Homegrown collaboration with SHI supporting village schools and more.

You can find February update on this link - http://sustainableharvest.org/mailings/2009/february/SHI_2009_02_Update.html

You're also invited to check out SHI's website, where you can find much more information (and great photos) on their work.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

* Photo above: Some SHI Board members with Panamanian staff and program participants in January 2009 (courtesy of SHI)

My Green Resolution for 2009 - Dr. Anne Hallum of the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR)

We continue with our journey looking to learn more about our partners' green resolutions for 2009, and today we have a very special guest: Dr. Anne Hallum, Founder and Director of the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR), which is one of Eco-Libris planting partners.

AIR is working mainly in Guatemala, where it plants trees and is involved in other activities such as providing environmental education for teachers and farmers, digging wells, building fuel-efficient brick ovens. AIR was founded by Dr. Anne Hallum in 1992 at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where she serves as a Political Science Professor.

In its first year of operations Eco-Libris planted more than 25,000 trees with AIR. You are welcome to learn more about it from our annual assessment of these operations.

Dr. Anne Hallum and residents reforesting a hillside near Xetonox, 2008. Photo courtsey of AIR.

Hello Anne. What's your professional green resolution for 2009?
To plant even more trees in Guatemala, and to write successful grants for expansion. I will also be teaching two Environmental politics classes this semester, so another professional resolution is to engage and motivate students to “green the campus” (to buy Eco-Libris stickers, for instance).

If you have a personal green resolution for 2009, what is it?
My personal green resolution is to make our backyard more of a refuge for birds: more birdbaths, bird houses, planting more trees, and leaving any dead ones standing for woodpeckers. Almost 80 percent of North American bird species are in decline from habitat loss. I also resolve to continue to reduce my own use of water and carbon fuels….

What’s your green wish for 2009?
My green wish is for world leaders to quickly negotiate a new Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and to give it some teeth. (Meanwhile, I wish for environmental activism on the ground to continue to spread.)

If you have any other greetings, please feel free to add them.
The AIR staff in Guatemala send heartfelt thanks to every person who bought Eco-Libris stickers, and to every bookstore and publisher who sold them. We have several tree nurseries in Guatemala, dedicated to growing trees in your name.

Any other plans for 2009?
AIR-Guatemala was just awarded a small grant from the United Nations (UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues), to build more fuel-efficient stoves! This is a prestigious recognition that AIR works directly with indigenous people. Every stove conserves a ton of firewood a year; and each family with a stove volunteers in planting many trees. We also plan to plant trees to protect the Mayuelas River watershed, in a brand new region of Guatemala.

Happy New Year, For the Earth!

Anne Hallum, The Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR)

Thanks, Anne!

Here's more about AIR:

The Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR) is a non-profit organization working to make a difference for the people of Guatemala and Nicaragua. AIR was founded by Political Science Professor Anne M. Hallum in 1992 at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. AIR's objective is to assist local communities in Central America to conserve their environment through reforestation, sustainable farming, and education. So far, AIR planted more than 3 million trees in Guatemala and Nicaragua. In 2004, AIR was named The Best Environmental NGO in Guatemala for 2004, by the national government's forestry institute in Guatemala.

AIR works to initiate continuous reforestation programs at the community level. All of AIR's projects are based on the philosophy that direct community involvement in all phases of the projects, from their design to their implementation, is essential for the success and sustainability of project activities.

The daily destruction of forests that occurs in Guatemala is a serious problem - each year more than 1620 square kilometers are deforested. This has already had a severe negative impact on the environment: water sources are quickly disappearing, 65% of Guatemalan soil is considered highly susceptible to erosion and air quality is deteriorating rapidly. In addition, deforestation leads to the depletion of essential nutrients in the soils, especially those used for agricultural activities. As these soils become drained of nutrients and no longer support agriculture, populations migrate to virgin areas and conduct slash-and-burn activities, continuing the cycle of deforestation.

The replanting of trees on community lands, in addition to otherwise conserving the environment, replenishes soil nutrients, and therefore decelerates the destruction of the virgin forests that remain in Guatemala.

More information on AIR can be found on its website:
http://www.stetson.edu/org/air/

AIR's First Year Assessment: http://www.ecolibris.net/AIR_Assessment.pdf

Women who work at AIR's nursery in San Andres ,Itzapa, Guatemala, which is supported by Eco-Libris. AIR has worked here for six years, producing and planting tens of thousands of trees. Photo courtsey of AIR.

So far on "My Green Resolution for 2009":

Surendra James Conti of East West Bookstore

Jennifer Taylor of GreetQ

Bill Roth, author of "On Empty (Out of Time)"

Vonda Schaefer of Valley Books

Madeline Kaplan, author of "Planet Earth Gets Well"

Chris Flynn of Torpedo

Edain Duguay of Wyrdwood Publications

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

New research from Australia: agroforestry and reforestation are an important carbon sink

There is an ongoing debate on the effectiveness of trees planting operations as a tool mitigate global warming. A new research from Australia adds more input into it, showing that agroforestry and reforestation are an important carbon sink.

The research, as reported on The Age, was conducted by researchers from Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, and Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries. It was presented to an agriculture, greenhouse gases and emissions trading conference on the Gold Coast.

Dr. Beverley Henry from MLA, who presented the research, showed that different forms of land management had a variety of effects on soil carbon. She said, according to the article, that researchers, analysing data from 74 publications on land-use changes, had made several conclusions:

A change from native forest to crops decreased soil carbon by 42%; pasture to crop (59% decrease); native forest or pasture to broad-leaved plantation (no big change); native forest or pasture to pine plantation (12-15% decrease); native forest to pasture (8% increase); crop to pasture (18% increase); crop to secondary forest (53% increase); and crop to pasture (19% increase).

Some of the conclusions of the research presented by Dr Henry were:

• Introducing cropping into uncleared land or pasture in good condition decreased soil carbon.
  
• There was thus potential to sequester carbon in soils if cropping lands were converted to pasture or forest.


• Conservation tillage practices might retain up to 25% more carbon in soils than conventional tillage.


• Removing grazing pressure would in theory be expected to improve below-ground carbon stocks. However, under low disturbance regimes, grasses may become moribund, producing less root biomass.

This is only one research out of many researches that focus on this important issue, but it definitely gives some interesting input to think about when coming to plan how to fight global warming most effectively.

In any case, we have to remember that the value of tree planting operations, such as the the UNEP planting campaign, which as we reported set a goal of having 7 billion trees planted by the end of 2009, is not just because of carbon sequestering. Trees are one of the most important natural resources we have and have many other significant benefits, such as decreasing the chances for natural disasters such as floods, protection of important water resources, reduction of soil erosion, etc.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Picture Courtesy of Sustainable Harvest international

World Fair Trade Day 2008: Fair Trade + Ecology

Tomorrow is World Fair Trade Day, and this year's theme is “Fair Trade + Ecology”. It was first celebrated in 2005, and has taken place each year since, on the second Saturday in May.

Here's the wiki definition of fair trade:

“Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach to alleviating global poverty and promoting sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as consciousness of social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and flowers.”

You can read more about it on IFAT's website, the organization that is an umbrella network for hundreds of fair trade organizations from all around the world.

So, what's so green about fair trade? There are several reasons that fair trade products can be greener than others, but here is the main one: Many fair trade products or materials are manufactured by local communities in developing countries, where resources and infrastructure are scarce, and continuous subsistence and livelihood are dependent on the sustained existence of these resources. Since the community in a fair trade setting is much more empowered than in an exploitative setting, it can often take positive action to make sure that its production practices do not irrevocably harm its surroundings.

For example, we can take fair trade rubber tapping in the Brazilian Amazon, conducted by local community co-ops that also stand against deforestation. Veja, is a French company that sources the rubber used to make it's line of fair-trade sneakers from such co-operatives. If the rain forest is destroyed, as is often the case with renegade logging operations, these tappers lose their livelihood and way of life. Fair Trade enables them to compete with rubber coming from big rubber tree plantations, and helps them keep the forests alive and flourishing.

But the thing I like best about the way Fair Trade and Environmentalism interact is that these are simply complimentary. They help one another but do not necessitate one another. Paying a fair living wage, and refraining from cutting down the rain forest are simply good things to do on their own, without any external or material incentives.

Yep, I'll celebrate that!

Eylon @ Eco-Libris

Plant a Tree for Every Book you Read!

Planting updates from RIPPLE Africa

Eco-Libris is very proud of its great planting partners, which are planting the trees for the books

that are balanced out by our customers. We bring you from time to time updates on the planting operations and other interesting news from them, and today I am very excited to bring you the latest news from RIPPLE Africa.

RIPPLE Africa, a UK registered non-profit organization that was established in 2003 by Liz and Geoff Furber, is working in Malawi, Africa. Malawi is heavily suffering from deforestation and RIPPLE Africa is working with local communities to plant trees, which will benefit both the environment and the locals. Besides the planting operations, RIPPLE Afric is also invoved in Malawi in health and education programs.

The trees planting season in Malawi is during December/January, after the trees seedlings are been raised in nurseries for a couple of months. RIPPLE Africa reports on its last newsletter on the very successful planting of December 07/Janurary 08 (which also included 2,000 trees of Eco-Libris customers) as follows:

Tree Planting Programme 2007-2008 - Our tree planting programme has developed very quickly over the past two years and, with the small resources that we have had, the RIPPLE Africa staff and the communities have achieved amazing results.

We have had a very successful tree planting programme during the last 12 months, and 1,250,000 tree seedlings have been raised in 137 tree nurseries — we estimate that we now have about 3,000 people working on this project.

Last year, many of the trees were planted in a variety of areas, and it was difficult to monitor and manage these trees. This year, through the guidance of our new supervisors, we have encouraged communities to plant the majority of trees in a few selected areas. This will mean that monitoring and caring for the trees will be easier. It is important to make sure that communities look after these trees for at least the first two years by clearing the grass from around each tree, preventing bush burning, and preventing goats from roaming freely in these areas.

Also, by protecting these areas, trees that have previously been cut down will be given the chance to grow again. This secondary growth will provide diversity and, because the trees will have established roots, they will grow more quickly and more successfully than the newly planted trees.

We will be changing the emphasis of the project during 2008 to provide much more awareness training and monitoring. We have certainly experienced failures where trees have been planted and then, in the dry season, bush fires have killed a number of them. Our goal for this year is to maintain the existing 137 nurseries and only to establish an additional 23 nurseries.

We now have four supervisors, two assistant supervisors, and two awareness training officers employed on the tree planting programme. All of these staff live locally and are working hard to achieve the goals set by RIPPLE Africa.

RIPPLE Africa has another planting program of fruit trees, which was started recently. Here's the report on this program:

Alupro Fruit Tree Growing Project — An Exciting Start!In June 2007, Alupro sponsored our fruit tree project. Our aim was to establish a fruit tree nursery at Mwaya with a greenhouse for grafting and budding, and to grow fruit trees in some of the community tree nurseries.

The communities and the RIPPLE Africa staff have been so excited and enthusiastic about this programme that we have extended the fruit tree project to all of our nurseries. They have been growing lemon trees as hardy root stock for oranges and tangerines, mangos for grafting, guavas and pawpaws, and some avocados. These improved fruit trees will provide valuable income generation from the sale of the tree seedlings and eventually the sale of fruit. Also, local communities will benefit from eating the fruit.

We held a very exciting meeting with the senior chiefs and gave them navel oranges, purchased from a supermarket in Lilongwe and imported from South Africa. They had never seen oranges like these before, and our aim is for communities to be able to grow large, juicy oranges in the future. We have already organised the purchase of budwood from improved orange and tangerine trees to be budded on to the hardy lemon stock.

In November 2007, Cherry Hamson, the Communications Director for Alupro, visited Mwaya to see how the project was developing. Cherry is very passionate about this project being an enormous success. She is promoting the project with local authorities and schools in the UK, and many of them have featured the project in their magazines and websites.

These are great news from RIPPLE Africa! If you want to read more news on their other interesting and important projects, please check out the February news page - http://www.rippleafrica.org/ripple_news_ripplenews17.htm. You can also find a lot of interesting information on RIPPLE Africa, their work in Malawi, the people they work with and on Malawi itself on their website - http://www.rippleafrica.org/.

And if you want to see some of the green action, here are some great photos from the newsletter:

David Banda, a forest guard, with one of the community tree nursery members

One of the 137 RIPPLE Africa tree nurseries











The Senior Chiefs learning about deforestation and how it is affecting the communities at Chikwawa

One of the heavily deforested and eroded hills at Chikwawa











Recently planted trees at Kachere Primary School — growing quickly!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!