A month into my time here at International Analog Forestry Network HQ in Londres, Costa Rica, and the internship is going well. The IAFN secretariat is not directed to work in the community, but rather to help coordinate, support, and share information between analog forestry efforts worldwide, and that is what most of my time has been spent working on, via the wonders of technology. Nevertheless, we’ve been putting effort into developing positive relationships with the people here and hope that Londres can grow as a nucleus of AF activity, which means we’ve also been ‘washing our hands in the soil’ on a regular basis.
Our office location here is relatively new, so we are still getting some key elements in place. We built a swank compost shed, and have been gradually working away at a nursery (for plants, though there are plenty of babies in town), placing posts, putting in support cables, tensioning it all up, flattening the beds, fixing the shade cloth, and now stocking it up with plants. It hasn’t quite been an exercise in natural building, as we have been working with concrete supports, metal posts, and plastic shade cloth, but hopefully we have created a more permanent and impressive structure than bamboo and palms would have afford us. It is intended to serve as a communal nursery to support increasing the number and diversity of trees in the community, filling public spaces, home gardens, farms and fincas. We are lined up to design some of the landscaping for the high school once it moves to its new site, and I have started the communication ball rolling to get the staff and students involved in the process. At a meeting at the elementary school this morning I found many eager collaborators do outdoor environmental education! They have a lot of great stuff going on there already (veggie garden, hydroponics, young fruit trees, budding butterfly garden, awesome murals) which I am eager to learn more about. I am doing my best to keep collaboration and continuity in mind as we go.
After a good sweat outside in the morning, I have taken to jotting over to the stream where some fallen trees have made a pleasant waist deep swimming hole. Laying back in the water, I do my best to relax and stay calm, but can’t help but constantly anticipating the nibbles of fish. Gazing up, a huge dead tree stands leafless overhead and reminds me of winter and Canada and senescence in the fondest of ways. Rain usually begins trickling about this time and so I hustle back to the office for lunch.
Carrying on with work inside in the afternoon, a few projects have been on the go. We are preparing the structure for a huge plant database we will be hosting online to serve as a resource for designers, somewhat along the lines of Plants for a Future but inclusive of the tropics and tailored for easy AF application. At this point it is more of a head scratching, detail fixin task, but the grunt work of entering the data lies ahead. Updating Wikipedia pages, and assorted website and translation work round out the gig. Research I’ve done into carbon markets, accounting, and ecosystem service payment for some potential projects has been mostly puzzling and disconcerting, but is relevant given the rapidly growing forest carbon sector. That’s all for now.
After a good sweat outside in the morning, I have taken to jotting over to the stream where some fallen trees have made a pleasant waist deep swimming hole. Laying back in the water, I do my best to relax and stay calm, but can’t help but constantly anticipating the nibbles of fish. Gazing up, a huge dead tree stands leafless overhead and reminds me of winter and Canada and senescence in the fondest of ways. Rain usually begins trickling about this time and so I hustle back to the office for lunch.
Carrying on with work inside in the afternoon, a few projects have been on the go. We are preparing the structure for a huge plant database we will be hosting online to serve as a resource for designers, somewhat along the lines of Plants for a Future but inclusive of the tropics and tailored for easy AF application. At this point it is more of a head scratching, detail fixin task, but the grunt work of entering the data lies ahead. Updating Wikipedia pages, and assorted website and translation work round out the gig. Research I’ve done into carbon markets, accounting, and ecosystem service payment for some potential projects has been mostly puzzling and disconcerting, but is relevant given the rapidly growing forest carbon sector. That’s all for now.
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| Nursery and growing plant collection - what up!? |
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| A snippet of Milo's land, AF in action. |
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| Suriname cherries - just another roadside attraction. |
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