Fall 2010 - A
POWER OF PLANTING INITIATIVE NEWSLETTER Power of Planting in Review (2007 – 2010) Highlights of Ibsar’s activities and the way forward Ibsar launched its Power of Planting initiative in the fall of 2007 with the objective of bringing the culture of tree planting closer to communities. It is part Ibsar’s philosophy that every individual of society should hold dear to his/her heart and mind that they have a right to the sovereignty of their natural and cultural heritage. Our biological and cultural diversity (also termed bio-cultural diversity) is what shapes our cultural and natural landscapes. Reforestation has quickly become a big topic of interests, and both public and private investors are scrambling (and even competing) to outplant one another with limited species, and quite often the wrong species (exotic or alien tree
species), and with poor planning and execution strategies (e.g. lack of appropriate species to altitude index, poor timing, lack of proper planting guidelines, etc). Ibsar aims to promote the civic participation in small tree planting efforts while educating participants about the importance of using the appropriate native species in order to plant and care for them more responsibly. Through our program we have managed to successfully produce over 60,000 native seedlings from 35 species, and planted them through over 40 organized tree planting events with some 200 plus volunteers. We also launched 3 community-operated village nurseries.
‘Seeds of Hope, Trees for Tomorrow’ 3rd Planting Season Highlights This past summer (Jul-Aug 2010), Ibsar initiated post-planting
maintenance and monitoring activities for AUB volunteers with help and coordination from the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service (CCECS). Maintenance trips were organized in Tripoli, Hammana, Houmine al Faouqa, Sultan Yaaqoub, Barouk and Miniara respectively, and volunteers from AUB, St. Mary’s Orthodox College, ACS and visiting scouts from France performed various tasks such as weeding, stonemulching, watering and cleaning around the planting sites. Follow-up maintenance is not easy and the days were hot, but these activities are just as important as planting trees while offering opportunities for volunteers to continue visiting sites they planted ensuring that proper care and attention are paid to the seedlings.
Village nurseries: Successful launching of a second municipality operated native tree nursery On October 12th, 2010, a workshop was organized to launch Ibsar’s second village nursery in Aarsal, Lebanon (the first was established in the village of Michmich, Akkar). The village tree nursery consists of a five by seven (5 x 7 m²) greenhouse (plastic with metal tubing) assembled in the municipal garden next to Al Chafaq public school., Staff members from Ibsar were accompanied by volunteers from the village and volunteers from the Aarsal vocational school helped in leveling the grounds of the greenhouse before laying the weed mat prior to the seed planting workshop.. Shortly after, volunteers were shown how to assemble the Ibsar Seedling Boxes (ISBs), helped prepare the soil mixture and filled the ISBs with soil and moved them into the greenhouse. They then assisted in the planting of around 4,500 seeds of four different native species: ‘Zaarour’ (Hawthorn; Crataegus azarolus), Ijas barri (Syrian pear; Pyrus syriaca), Butum (wild pistachio; Pistacia terebinthus ssp. palaestina), and qaikab (Montpellier maple; Acer monspassulanum ssp. microphyllum). Printed on recycled paper