By Sue Howells | Project Leader
Dear HERD Supporters
We are delighted to report back about our land microproject that we ran three months ago on GlobalGiving.
Your kindness and support for the project was overwhelming, and we managed to reach our goal in just one day! THANK YOU so much!
Our team have been busy, and the great news is that we only used half of the budget, as we managed to do a lot without heavy machinery, and rather gave much needed temporary work to local labourers that had been hard hit during Covid. So your contribution went beyond our project and helped put some food on other tables too!
We will be using the rest of the budget to do another big piece of land in the coming months.
Adine explained the project in this video or see attached - where you can see the difference between one piece of land untreated versus a treated piece of land.
Brushpacking, as we refer to it, helps rejuvenate the land where there has been a lot of foot traffic from the elephants over time.
The soil is turned and afterwards interlocked with thorn branches that both stimulate growth and creates a barrier to flowing water from heavy rains, that could wash away valuable topsoil. This will provide grass seeds entering from the surrounding environment with a microhabitat suited for germination. In an attempt to speed up the rehabilitation process, elephant manure from the herd can be added to the fertiliser to provide a substrate for optimal plant growth. Seeds are added to the manure mix too.
Our project goal was to cover 50 Hectares, the team has completed an area of 42,6 Hectares (aerial photo of the section completed attached, but please note that is an old image of the area taken, it is just to reflect the size of the area on the reserve).
With the other half of the funding, we will aim to do another 50 Hectares and more if possible.
The ultimate goal would be to cover at least 1000 hectares that surround the frequently traversed pieces of land surrounding the stables, but that will take time, patience and perseverance, and considerable costs. But we will take it one piece of land at a time!
Thank you again for your kindness and support.
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