VOL. IX, NO. 3
Thoughts on a Hillside In areas of Central America the farmland can be on slopes up to 70° where farmers grow crops and maintain livestock. These hillsides and mountains make up much of the territory in this part of the world and people depend on these lands to be productive and provide benefits. These hills were once covered in thick forests filled with biodiversity. Now people must face the realization that these hillsides have been cut, logged, burned and poorly maintained with out dated agriculture systems. These hillsides are not heavily forested anymore, and this is causing problems we are just beginning to see and understand. Ben Haase is a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador. He is one of the first to serve in a newly opened natural resources conservation program. He is young, long on energy but short on useful technology or support. That hasn't discouraged Ben Haase in El Salvador him, though. He's showing people what he knows (Ben's making organic fertilizer by cultivating earthworms, naturally, he gets a lot of visitors to his house). Ben also located some Leucaena Tree seeds and started a nursery in his back yard. Earlier this summer I visited Ben near San Miguel, the part of El Salvador devastated by last year's earthquakes. He then invited two other volunteers from nearby villages who also had questions. Our first stop was the local office of the Ministry of Natural Resources where Ben's assigned. Two hours later, we had heard several really creative reasons why nothing can be done to help either the environment or local farmers. Undaunted, we headed back to Ben's hill-
FALL, 2002 side hacienda. With plenty of sunlight left, it seemed a good idea to get out on the land and look the situation over first hand. We had a great view of a whole mountainside of farm plots. We saw a lot of things going wrong. The discussion turned to better alternatives: how could these steep hills ever be restored to a condition where they could sustainably produce the needs of local farmers? Two things I didn't notice at first. One was that the place I selected to sit was actually a red ant hill, from which I quickly rolled and continued the conversation on my knees. The second was that as neighbors came past bringing their cattle in for the night, they too stopped and listened to what we were saying. Pretty soon, the workshop was continuing in Spanish and we had a pretty fair crowd, with both sides now really into the conversation. We learned that in these remote uplands, there are only two things people can always sell: coffee and cattle are the cash crops. The cattle survive, but at a very high price in damage to trees and soils. The coffee crop is less every year and quality is dropping fast. Coffee is a crop of the forests and no amount of genetic engineering or chemical abuse will ever change that. A couple of long bus rides further, across to northern Honduras, Jaime Bustillo has been his usual busy and effective self. In the mountains around Santa Barbara, he's convinced seven towns
Dave’s hillside training draws crowd in El Salvador
Page 1 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002
Continued on page 5
9000 16th Street, P.O. Box 7027 Silver Spring, Maryland 20907 (800) 643-0001 (301) 565-0630 Homepage: http://www.treesftf.org
Dear Members and Friends, Every day I read in the newspapers about flooding, extreme drought, hot temperatures and global warming. I know these problems can be alleviated by planting trees. The lack of trees on uplands and the burning of firewood and fossil fuels is creating a burden on our environment. This impact is more acutely felt by the rural family which needs these land benefits to survive. We can help people by planting trees and promoting sustainable development. Most of us already know the facts about our environment. Our members know that this organization is trying to make a difference in people lives and that our efforts contribute to a natural recurrence of environmental diversity that has benefited thousands. We can preach about the impact we are making in improved agriculture techniques and sustainable development, but the fact is we have a long way to go in supporting more projects in developing countries. We want to initiate country wide agricultural and forestry projects wherever we can. Training centers and rural nurseries, staffed by local leaders, will implement projects that will forest hundreds of hectares of land. The Loret Miller Ruppe Center will be our base of operations and Dave and other technicians will support the projects by initiating programs that will fund these centers. This will be necessary if we are to plant the millions more trees than we did last year. An update on the Ruppe Center; we are worlds apart from where we were just six months ago. Seeds are being sent to new countries, visitors are dropping in from all around the world and we are more organized than ever. Our programs can now effectively be pitched to concerned citizens, business and foundations interested in helping plant trees. Now all we need is for them to take a swing. If they don’t, we are all in trouble. Just as the West Nile Virus is sweeping north, poverty and natural disaster will approach our own doorstep. I remain optimistic because there are many people now who understand and want to do something. It is very rare indeed to have a community say no to our ideas. In fact, critical areas in the world like China and India are increasingly requesting our assistance and we now hear from South America quite often. Many Peace Corps volunteers contact us and are highly motivated to work on agriculture and forestry programs. Let’s face it, there isn’t a lot of forest left in the world and what’s left is disappearing quickly. Proposals have been rewritten and inquiry letters have been sent to foundations in the last month or two and we have high hopes for our future. I hope you can continue to support our programs and let me know your ideas on how to help. One idea I recently received involves packaging seeds for sale in this country, similar to what National Parks do with the Sequoia tree seeds. That might raise funds, but you know our limited staff and resources are barely maintaining the projects we are supporting right now. Also, the carbon credit may be just around the corner, and brokers are knocking at our door more and more. Our efforts are making a difference and when it comes to carbon sequestration, we are where the tire meets the road. Until next time. Sincerely,
Mike Jordan, Director Page 2 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002
Recent Visitors Arriving late from meetings in D.C. he rushed through our door and headed straight for the kitchen, quickly finding our coffee maker and promptly gave it the cleaning it needed. Confident we knew who this character was without ever meeting before, we smiled and waited for the tasty drops soon to reach our palate. Of course were talking about Paul Katzeff of Thanksgiving Coffee and his organic, shade grown coffee from Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Paul demonstrated the many techniques of ensuring quality cups and sampled some of his brew with us, before we sat down to business to discuss new projects in Nicaragua and Mexico. His organization currently offsets emissions and energy use and has been intrigal in supporting Greener Ethiopia. Thanks Paul, great stuff!
Anne Kimani shows Mike Jordan some of the products made from trees in Kenya, such as candles, soap, handicrafts, medicines and salves. We met Anne Kimani in New York at the United Nation’s Food & Trade Conference in July. Her Kenya Business Women’s Association had sent her to be an exhibitor and to seek UN support and to develop partnerships with other NGO’s and non-profits doing development projects. Anne’s exhibit was a treasure house of ideas and products produced in rural communities from trees and the environment. The products include; honey, royal jelly, beeswax handicrafts and gum Arabic produced by Acacia Senegal trees. One tree in particular yielded a large number of products. It’s called the Neem Tree (Azdiracthia inducas) which we use in some of our projects. The Kenya Women’s Association yields a great many useful products including some effective skin medications.
Paul Katzeff, owner of Thanksgiving Coffee and former president of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. He recently established cupping centers in Nicaragua to monitor quality. Bill Campbell heads Seasoned Energy, Ltd., an energy service business in Philadelphia. He works with organizations and businesses interested in renewable energy and visited us to discuss the rising levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Bill sees a two way approach. At his end, he’s getting local communities to initiate projects using energy from alternate (sustainable) fuels. He also believes the trees we plant remove great amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; Trees for the Future has 4.1 million trees registered with the U.S. Dept. of Energy and remove 100,000 tons of CO² out of the air every year. This was Bill’s first trip here and we enjoyed his perspective and enthusiasm for conserving the environment.
William Campbell operates a renewable energy company and wants to jointly approach industry and energy companies to purchase “carbon credits”.
Page 3 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002
Sustainable Development At the invitation of the United Nations, Trees for the Future and several other not-for-profit organizations participated in the US "Aid-and-Trade" conference in New York last June. This preliminary event led up to the conference about "sustainable development" now taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa. As the developing world faces growing famine, rapid depletion of its natural resources, unfair trade practices and resulting poverty, as the whole world faces a growing threat of climate change, we all need to know a lot more about sustainable development. But with hotel rooms for this conference costing $235.00 per night, it's doubtful the participants will have a clear view about how to sustainably help the world's poorest communities.
New International Projects!
Next Stop, Nigeria In a ongoing partnership program between LAND O' LAKES and TREES, staff technician Dave Deppner spent much of August in Nigeria, working
with several women's cooperatives to develop livelihood projects. The work is centered in Kano, a major city only 65 miles from the rapidly encroaching desert. Because 75% of the fuel in Kano is firewood, planting trees is becoming a very serious concern. A detailed report will appear in your next newsletter.
Headlines
Seeds and training tools were sent to people requesting assistance from our organization. Each project yields about 5,000 trees.
Our technical training package includes 15,000 seeds, books, videos, leaflets and progress report. Emmanuel Turay, Freetown, Siera Leone, Africa Kontoh Raynold, Accra, Ghana, Africa Francis Sakuda, Ngong Hills, Kenya, Africa Ajay Harialker, Calcutta, India Ms. S Christy. Tami Nadu, India Phillip Bizzel, Quito, Ecuador, S. America Sakeena Bonzu, La Accra, Ghana, Africa Abid Jamil, Faisalabad, Pakistan, Asia Anne Fitzgerald, Serra Kunda, Gambia, Africa Carlos, Cordoba, Argentina, S. America Michael Bailey Ministries, Philippines Eben Mensah, Accra, Ghana, Africa
Reports are increasingly detailing the world’s tragic environmental situation and the impact it is having on our infrastructure and health. We are always interested in learning more about the areas hit the hardest and what people are doing to meet the crisis. If you have a letter or article regarding the environment and it’s affects on people, send it to us. Above are some headlines recently published in U.S. paper’s highlighting the problems that are all too real due to environmental devastation around the world.
Page 4 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002
Thoughts on a Hillside continued from page 1 to join together to develop a program to bring forests back to the mountains. Again, this is an area famous for its coffee and again, lately, there's been a lot less to brag about. We visited all these towns, checking school and municipal nursery projects. Mostly, we looked almost straight up: slopes in that area must average 70º or more. It's tough terrain and almost totally treeless. The cavalcade stopped for lunch the first day in an out-oftown restaurant from which you can get a good view of the surrounding mountains. One community leader has a women's club determined to save their mountains. She pointed to a spot on a mountain across the valley and told us her group has planted almost 500 trees up there! And yet, that one mountainside needs nearly fivehundred thousand trees. Clearly, there has to be a better way to save these lands. What can you say? Imagine dragging all those soil filled three-pound plastic bag seedlings up a hill meant for a goat! Those women worked hard for 500 trees. A big part of the answer is a technique called "bare stem planting". The Trees for the Future program began using this idea in the early 1980's and developed much of the technology. For many useful species, it does away with plastic bags and digging the large holes to accommodate them. One person can carry 200 seedlings up even a steep mountainside. A team of three people can plant as many as 200 trees an hour - an acre of trees in a single morning! Ben and his friends have planted 2000 seeds directly on the hillsides and he planted 200 Leucaena using the “bare-stem” method. He started a small nursery site near his house for transplanting in August and September.
Ben is demonstrating that the bare stem planting works and his mortality rate is only around 10%. He wants to plant up to 20,000 next year and he has farmers interested as they see the progress he is making. He says he has 150-200 avocado, mango and citrus rootstocks prepared to teach grafting and he is working with k-9 grade students planting trees around a neighborhood soccer field. People are asking for trees from Ben and he complies as best he can. Although these trees are a beginning - not an end in themselves, the idea works. With trees, the land is protected and water supplies are restored. Soil quality improves and the land returns to productivity. Then the diversity starts to return. Now there's time to bring back other more valuable species. This is your program working, restoring devastated uplands around the world. There are great challenges but we're proving it can be done.
Trees Rep. Jaime Bustillo in front of a nursery
Hurricane Mitch came to Central America in late October, 1998. In less than a week, it dropped 75 inches of rain on much of Honduras. That’s a year’s supply! People said the mountainsides looked like some giant cat had clawed the land. This valley was buried in mud from the erosion off the hills. Thousands died and hundreds of thousands lost their homes. That’s the rainy season these days, but the dry season is even worse. The mountains don’t hold the water anymore and all of the soil is filling the rivers and washing out to sea. Returning tree cover to these uplands will go a long way in solving these problems. Page 5 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002
I am a biological chemist specializing in medicines and the environment. For 30 years I have worked in places like the Middle East, Europe and in the States. I have seen first hand the devastation caused by loss of vegetation and tree coverage and the problems this creates for farmers and rural populations. However, I observed the remedial effects of newly planted trees and how they helped reduce erosion, particularly in the Republic of Turkey, where tree planting by the military is commonplace. I came n contact with Trees for the Future in 1994, when I met Dave and Grace Deppner. We have had many discussions on the positive effects of world wide tree planting projects on the local level. Tree planting and cultivation by rural people is one of the most efficient and environmentally sound methods to permanently rehabilitate soils. Earlier this year, Dave invited me to join the board of directors, an invitation I am happy to accept. Peter Falk, Board Member
I came to America from Ethiopia nearly 30 years ago. I returned to my homeland in 1999 to find more than 70% of the forests cleared and I resolved to do something about the resulting devastation and poverty. That's when I sought the help and advice of TREES FOR THE FUTURE. Together, over these last two years, we have built an organization there, Greener Ethiopia, with more than 24,000 member families. Last year, they planted over 700,000 trees to shade coffee, restore the land and replenish water reserves. This year we expect to double that. I work at the project sites for several months each year. At our Maryland office, I'm encouraging businesses to join with us in planting trees in East Africa to reduce carbon and the threat of global climate change, as well as, benefit communities effected by the environmental degradation of the last 30 years. Bedru Sultan, Greener Ethiopia
Since this organization was formed, I have been a believer in the work we do here. My environmental concerns and hope for biodiversity led me to join this organization as a member of the Board of Directors. I have been a social worker in the U. S.A. for the last 30 years and my passion is for gardening and tennis. In the early 1990’s I introduced the Tree Pals program to schools in Taytay, Rizal Province, Philippines. Besides environmental projects with elementary school children, I taught tennis and succeeded in winning silver and gold medals in Regional and Junior Olympics competitions. I am an active member in the International Lions Club, Rockville, MD Chapter and I am coordinating an environmental project with the Lions Club in the Philippines. My ultimate goal is to promote tree planting to create benefits through sustainable development projects in rural communities. Lina San Miguel, Board Member
This summer has been a great experience and working for this organization has been very enlightening. It made me realize what was happening around the world and how vital trees are to our environment. I was impressed with the dedication and determination of its staff facing the overwhelming requests for help. There is so much work that needs to be done to make our environment more sustainable. I think that we can accomplish this by spreading the word about their important programs to inspire people to crusade against the overwhelming destruction that is happening. After working here for three months, I now have a global perspective. I am taking this knowledge back to St. John’s University where I am attending school and applying it to my future plans of being an environmentally conscience business woman or as a lawyer. Thanh Dinh, Associate
Page 6 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002
Opinion: Clear water! Cool Water! Water! We Pulled into Town on a hot April afternoon near San Cristobal, El Salvador. Peace Corps had asked Trees for the Future to provide onsite training to some of the agroforestry volunteers. The volunteer, George, was waiting with what we thought was a greeting committee. But nobody was smiling! George didn't have to tell me the rest - we got big trouble. His friends were the local water committee. They looked unhappy because the water supply was far short of needs and nowhere near fit to drink. We took off across the hills to look at the source, a spring about halfway down a mountainside. The volume of the spring had been decreasing for a long time. The committee put the blame on a farmer, Sr. Caitano, who owned the land above the spring, where he planted corn. Sr. Caitano soon arrived to get in on the conversation. He felt he had a right to farm there, since it's his land, and he didn't see how his actions affected the water supply he and his neighbors use. I asked him if he sells the corn. Yes, he gets about 2,000 Colones ($220.00) for the crop. I asked him how much the fertilizer costs. He said about 1,200 Colones. I said "hey, hombre, by the time you buy the seed and do all this work, you're not making anything! Most of your money is wasted buying chemical fertilizer and, because of the steep slope, most of that is washing down to the spring with all that mud from your unprotected soil. That's why you're losing your farm and that's why the water tastes funny." Everybody agreed to that. We talked on for a while, agreeing that the flow of the spring was reduced because these uplands have been mostly stripped of trees. Sr. Caitano's farming wasn't doing much for him or the water supply but the thing the town really needed was trees, hundreds of thousands of them, with roots deep in the earth, holding rainwater and guiding it back into underground storage. Water, too much or too little, is the single biggest crisis today in Central America and other developing lands where the forests have been cleared. In Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras, and other major cities of the Region, people with cars load them with 5-Gal. cans, drive out into the countryside to find a stream or small river to fill the cans. They bring that water back to their families and neighbors. It's scary to think what kids in those cities are drinking this long dry season. A faraway problem? No!
Our taxes deliver emergency water to many of these larger communities, build cement catchments and reservoirs hoping to trap and hold water in future rainy seasons. It's wishful thinking. The crisis grows worse every year. It's time for some real answers. We believe that 80% of the water falling on Central America today is wasted. Why? Because 80% of the Region is mountainous-and there is virtually nothing on these hillsides to hold the water and return it to local aquifers. We point our that one 10-year old Guanacoste Tree standing on those mountains would hold over eight tons of water! How can we make that happen? With the help you so generously provide, we're at work in these mountains, training community leaders and field workers from other organizations in ways to integrate fastgrowing, deep-rooted, trees into agricultural systems. We're sustainably increasing harvests of food crops using leaves of these trees as organic fertilizer. We're showing how trees, planted on contours, form natural terraces to hold the soil-making the work so much easier. We tell people to stop using "matches and machete" farming that has long dominated local thinking and turn their mountains green again. If they do this their wells and streams, and those feeding the cities below, will give more than enough for their needs. Where we are working, people already see that we're right, but there are a lot of mountains in Central America. With your help we'll reach many more of them.
Dave Deppner, Founder
Cleaner water allows kids to cool off in a river Page 7 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002
Loret Miller Ruppe Center P.O. Box 7027 Silver Spring, Maryland 20907
Address change ? Duplicate Mailing? Change as shown Remove from List Mail Changes or Call 800-643-0001
Top Donors this Quarter Thanks to everyone who contributed this year. Listed below are the recent contributors for our programs to plant fast growing, permanent, beneficial trees in developing countries.
Permaworld-$5,420 Bertram Reich Trust-$5,000 Charles Delmar Fund-$3,000 Middlecott & Amos Byrd-$2,000 Thanksgiving Coffee-$1,875 Glickenhaus Foundation-$1,000 Mr. & Mrs. McCarthy-$500 Dr. & Mrs. William Jenckes-$500 Jean Daschbach-$500 Wildland Adventures-$500 Internet donations can be made through Network for Good.com
Johnny Ipil-Seed News is a quarterly newsletter of TREES FOR THE FUTURE, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people of developing countries begin environmentally beneficial, self-help projects. This newsletter is sent to all supporting members of TREES FOR THE FUTURE, to inform them of what their support is achieving. If you wish to receive this newsletter, or more information about TREES, please contact: TREES FOR THE FUTURE Loret Miller Ruppe Center 9000 16th Street, P.O. Box 7027 Silver Spring, MD 20907 Toll Free: 1.800.643.0001 Ph: 301.565.0630 Fax: 1.301.565.5012 info@treesftf.org, www.treesftf.org Dr. John R. Moore, Chairman; Dave and Grace Deppner, Founders Mike Jordan, Director Gabriel Mondragon, Asia/Pacific Program Jaime Bustillo, Central America Program Bedru Sultan, East Africa Program Thara G. Blanco, Belize Program
Page 8 Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. IX, No. 3 Fall, 2002