Dear Donors,
We’d like to send you a big thank you for supporting us so far, and share some exciting news: we are scaling up as promised!
This weekend Iracambi and the local school collaborated in the creation of the first Science Fair in nine years. Students presented models of erupting volcanos, water wheels and wind energy, they talked about environmental issues facing the community, and the winners of the Science Fair will be visiting Iracambi for a tour on Friday the 13th of November.
Our team had a stand with a variety of seedlings on display that were given away to farmers who agreed to have plots of their land surveyed for future reforestation. It was such a success with so much interest that we have decided to ramp up our reforestation efforts! This is a final report for ‘Water for the Atlantic Rainforest People’ but it is also the birth of ‘Forests 4 Water: Planting 10,000 trees in Brazil’. We are reorganizing, refocusing and reforesting.
Click here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/forests-4-water/
Your generous donations will be redirected towards this new project. We are expanding our forest nursery to produce more seedlings. We are assembling a forestry team to spread the word and plant the trees. We are being more strategic, using our Geographical Information System to survey each plot, and the forestry team is finding the right species to plant in the right location so that these trees have the highest effect on protecting our water sources. But this is just the beginning. We aim to increase our reforestation goal to 50,000 trees, and create a carbon sink to attack climate change at its root!
We invite you to join a dedicated group of concerned citizens and scientists taking action and supporting Forests 4 Water. Together we'll save rainforests, protect biodiversity and endangered species and combat global climate change. Thank you for supporting us!
Down in the Forest Something Stirred....
Remember that? Well, things are certainly stirring down in our forests. We've managed to secure fencing materials for the first farmers which are now in place, our tree seedlings are ready to go, each property has its individual plan so that we, (and the farmers) know exactly which species of tree to plant, in which soils and on which parts of the property.
Now all we have to do is wait for the rains. And they can't come soon enough! It's been terrifically hot here (as well as in many other parts of the world,) and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when it dawned grey and damp yesterday. So if the promised storms really do arrive, then we can go ahead and get the planting going.
There are more exciting things in the pipeline too. Due to the success of this pilot project, we are planning to scale up. More farmers, more trees, more water. More impact on mitigating the effects of climate change. We have recently been included in a pilot scheme to plant trees for carbon offsets. Our nursery manager is hiring an assistant so that he can produce more tree seedlings. And so that we can download some of his encylopedic knowledge of all things tree related. Our students are helping make more seed tables.
So it's all good! And we couldn't do it without you, dear donors. Thank you for your support and stay tuned for the next instalment of the forest water project.
Rainforest best to you all,
Toni, Gui, and the forestry team
Links:
We have lots of good news to share!
The first one is, two days ago, we received two brazilian interns, who will help us to develop better agroforestry systems for our region. They are Felipe Dantas and Carlos Rubens, both agroecology students from the Federal Technology Institute, in Rio Pomba, Minas Gerais state. On their second day, they had a chance to climb up Itajuru, the highest rock in our area (1640m above the sea level), scorting a group of local youth who are part of Iracambi´s Environment Education Program "Young Eco-Leaders of the Rainforest" (check our project GG page below) There they had a chance to see forest fragmentation in action, and check the big picture of the scenario where they will implement their ideas.
Tomorrow we´ll visit our first local producer eager to reforest part of his lands. This is a special case, as this farmer already works with a big variety of fruits. The big issue is that he plants all of them conventionally, using lots of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and thus contaminating his water sources. Having a chance to reforest in his land, is also a chance to build a fruit agroforest system, and prove him that it actually works. So hands and minds on the job and fingers crossed!
On Saturday we´re visiting two other rural producers, but in this case our main task we´ll be recovering their springs. Carlos and Felipe have already given us awesome suggestions of how to plan our agroforest systems in a way that the local fauna help us to bring more tree´s diversity. Isn´t it cool?
On next Saturday, August first, we´ll have a chance to present our project and interns in a local gathering organized by our neighboors from Serra do Brigadeiro State Park. We´re looking forward to meet local farmers and recruit more people willing to preserve their springs.
And it is also important to say that we´re studying a partnership between Iracambi and IEF (the State Park Institution in Minas Gerais) to sum up our reforesting efforts, and see if we can provide free fencing materials for the springs we reforest, as nowadays it is the biggest cost for the farmers.
All this good news wouldn´t be real if it wasn´t for surreal people like you, our friends and supporters, who have contributed to our program.
Thanks for all your help and keep it real!
Gui, Felipe, Carlos, Toni and all the Iracambi Staff
Links:
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