Update from Anna Hushlak in Honduras

It is 4:45 in the morning, still dark out and the sun is just beginning to creep up over Pico Bonito. The ocean is a steady rolling roar and as I reach out my arms to stretch, I can hear the Howler monkeys out the window doing the same. So begins another day in paradise. 

Mira and I are working alongside the Fundación Cuero y Salado (FUCSA) where we live in the Refugio de Vida Silvestre. While our days may begin with a quiet – well noisy if you consider the toucans outside – wake up, they are filled with a healthy bustle of projects and to-dos. So far, I’ve had my hands full with mangrove restoration, seed collection, gathering local knowledge on medicinal plants, sourcing out herbs for planting a demonstrative medicinal garden, employing the philosophies of permaculture to kitchen gardens, juggling environmental education and English classes, and of course making sure Sundays are dedicated to cheering on Salado’s soccer team (and by cheering I mean eating Eda’s pasteles). 

The projects in Salado are especially interesting given the community’s historic, cultural, and economic diversity. Formerly owned by Standard Fruit (now Dole) the surrounding area is being transformed from coconut monoculture to a biological corridor based on the principals of Analog Forestry. As the sun comes up, Mira is already out in the fields working hard, taking measurements, mapping, digging holes, and planting a mix of fruit trees. The legacy of agriculture in the area also drew in various different communities, leaving Salado home to a mix of Garífuna and Latino cultures. Given the isolation of the reserve – a bumpy hour and a half chicken bus ride from La Ceiba, followed by a grumbling 15 minute mototaxi, and ending with a 45 minute ‘train’ ride into the reserve – the community faces substantial economic development challenges. Still, within the community, Doña Irma and Doña Fatima offer tasty lunches of balleadas and fried fish, little pulperías sell eggs and juice, Jairo busily carves jewelry in the joyería, Martiza and Indio put together solar panels and the fishermen head out every morning in their wooden Cayucos.

Upon our arrival, we were treated to an amazing ride up the mangroves into ‘Monkey Channel’ where we shared a tree of viscoyol fruit with a white faced monkey. We then headed back down the estuary and out to sea where we watched the sun set while rocking on the Caribbean. The community has been wonderfully welcoming and have invited us into their gardens and homes, taught us how to make tortillas (shaping them didn’t go so well), showing us how to properly place a fishing hook through the eyes of a fish, and a few of the young girls have even given me lessons on properly combing and pulling back my hair. Looking forward to the month to come, we are getting ready to host the community parcela kitchen garden competition, work with FUCSA to train local guides for improved eco-tourism, and of course eager to welcom Dr. Ranil Senanayake later this month. Enough for now, time to get back to work!

Que le vaya bien!

Anna + Mira  

Update from Adam Dickinson & Elisa Bernier from Dominican Republic

http://www.endadom.org.do/

Well, it’s been a little over three weeks since we landed in the Dominican Republic, and plenty has been happening!  Here in the Dominican Republic, we’re working for an organization called ENDA-Dominicana (ENDA stands for Environment and Development Action, and is an international NGO based out of Senegal).  After landing in the country, we spent the first couple of days reviewing the documentation of the projects to get a better sense of what we would like to do.  There was a lot to go through, and it still feels like there are tons to learn. ENDA-Dom has been active in environmental and community development projects for over thirty years, so it’s no surprise that only a handful of people are aware of the full scope of their involvement throughout Dominican Republic.   

We also spent a good portion of the first two weeks figuring out our living situation.  Since our internships are based around the town of Cotuí, we’re primarily living at the apartment that our director rents there.  The apartment, we should add, is a palace compared to our modest digs at Falls Brook.  It is huge, has all the amenities one could want, and is in a brand new building.  It is also right next to one of the most happening nightclubs in Cotuí, the De Melissa Car Wash – so named because it is, in fact, a car wash during the day.  Many nightspots are similarly repurposed during the work day, which helps to explain why a town of 17 000 people has three massive car washing establishments.  Multi-functional landscape elements: THIS is permaculture.  We’re also renting a (far more humble) room in Santo Domingo because our work requires us to spend a day or two every week in the capital at ENDA’s main office.  The lady of the house has rented to interns before, so she knows what to expect from us. 

The main ENDA project that we’re working with is both super interesting, and very controversial.  ENDA has partnered with a large Canadian mining company, Barrick Gold, to carry out a reforestation and community development project in the area around the Barrick mine, near Cotuí.  The project itself is pretty extensive, as the area stretches from the Pueblo Viejo mine all the way to Los Haitises National Park, on the eastern coast.  The idea is to encourage landowners to plant trees on their land for the purpose of either having managed woodlots or agroforestry systems.  This would allow people to obtain an economic yield from the trees they plant, either from timber harvesting or the sale of fruits such as cocoa, plantain, or citrus.  Naturally, since the major corporate partner is a giant mining company, controversy has followed – there are protests against the mine every so often, and we’ve been told to keep a low profile when those occur.  We’ve also been shown around some of the other ENDA projects in the area – they’ve been supporting a bunch of small woodworking businesses and sawmills, with the goal of increasing local production.  While the Dominican Republic has incredible forest resources and an advanced management system, it still imports something like 90% of its lumber because the local industry has not been able to match demand.  Many of the difficulties that local industries face is due to the extremely stringent laws surrounding the right to cut down trees for lumber, which have been in place for over 50 years, since the Trujillo dictatorship.  Ironically, the result of these environmental protection laws is that lumber is imported from countries that suffer from overharvesting, such as Honduras and Brazil. 
 

Over the last week or so, we’ve been figuring out where we interns fit into all of this.  Our boss in Santo Domingo has urged us to get to work on spreading the word about the project, since there has not been a lot of publicity since the planting started last year, and the project staff have not had time to publicize their results.  In addition to the promotion/website work, we’ve been accompanying the technical staff of the project into the field to help with surveys and follow-up with project partners.  These visits allow us to interview involved members in order to improve dialogue between stakeholders and gather information to relay results publicly.  We’re also realizing there are lot of opportunities for collaboration through the network of interns in the area who are working on similar projects.  To make sure our outreach efforts continue after we leave in March, we are working on youth capacity building programs to teach them how to carry on with website updating and project promotion. 

And that’s not all!  We’ve also been meeting amazing people.  Our co-workers in the Cotuí and Santo Domingo offices have been amazing friends and supports over the last weeks.  We had two very memorable couchsurfing experiences with wonderful, generous hosts while we were finding places to stay and becoming acquainted with the Dominican life.  The project partners that we have met in the villages around Cotuí have been incredible and welcomed us into their homes from the beginning.  We’ve also met some international interns from Canada and Korea, and have heard of others from Japan and the United States in the area.  All in all, I think we’re in for a really wonderful few months!

Naomi Krucker – Organic Agriculture Facilitator in Mexico

After about 2 months in Mexico the fruits of my labour are really starting to blossom! Upon arriving in Mexico I was put in charge of a preexisting ‘garden’ that had been let go. ‘Let go’ was a bit of an understatement, however the jungle I had been gifted is now a lush Garden of Eden, full of a variety of different fruits and vegetables. Conquering the many obstacles along the way has made the fruit we are now enjoying even more delicious!

The community I am part of is called the Kibbutz, located near the town of Queretaro. We are aiming to be a sustainable community and a big part of that is growing all our own food. This is the first time they are growing organically here, so this process is very new for the community and sometimes challenging.  Climate differences, compost, and insects are some of the challenges I have been battling over the last 2 months, but I think I am coming out on top! I work right now with one other member of the community in the gardens, but have begun promoting an internship/ volunteer program here. I should mention the Kibbutz is also a religious space that host events, and welcome volunteers from all over the world to be a part of the community. The 30 hectares is covered in beautiful fields, architecture, and orchards of all the fruits you can think of. I feel very privileged to be a part of this ‘utopia’, as we call it.

My main goals here are: 1) grow enough food to sustain the community and visitors 2) Also grow enough food for 25 other families a month that will receive baskets of vegetable, this project is called ‘Club Agricola’ 3) Host a series of workshops centered around agriculture (chicken raising, organic pest management, permaculture,… and more to come!) 4) Eventually sell produce at an organic market in a nearby city .

More recently I have become involved in the promotion of volunteers with the emphasis on growing organic food. I would like to take interested students under my wing as interns for the remainder of my time here to have them grow and learn to farm organically! I have also been putting a lot of the permaculture skills I developed at FBC into practise here at the Kibbutz! I think an intern/ volunteer program focused on the gardens is a good way to ensure that the gardens continue after my time here is done.

Apart from work, I have made some incredible friends who have made it their job to expose me to every Mexican thing they possibly can. I have already travelled to many different cities, participated in some wild traditions and holidays, and eaten some things I didn’t even know could exist. I very much feel like a part of the community I live in and can’t imagine leaving in a few months!

Ian Thompson - Environmental Educator in Honduras

Working at the Regional Centre for Environmental Documentation and Interpretation (CREDIA) in La Ceiba Honduras is very different from working at the Falls Brook Centre. Instead of waking up every morning to a fresh, crisp morning for farmwork amidst a swarm of hungry blackflies I wake up much earlier with the heat of the day already spilling treacle-like through my window. I then set off for the CREDIA office where I do the majority of my work on translating documents, helping with attracting envrionmental and scientific tourism, or writing proposals for projects. So far I have worked on designing a greenhouse made out of plastic water bottles and a strategy for getting more young volunteers involved here at CREDIA. There have also been opportunities to meet NGOs from all over Latin America at international conferences hosted by CREDIA. It is very interesting to see the various perspectives on environmental issues and how different places choose to address these issues.

I also help with tours of the botanical gardens for school kids who come for a visit where they can learn more about the natural world that many city dwellers never see. Creating these links between people and their environment is very rewarding. Also, on a few occasions I have had the opportunity to help with puppet shows about protecting the wetlands. These have been performed in smaller communities for kids and we've been overwhelmed by the positive reactions we've received. One group even started their own environmental puppet team right after we left and have already begun producing shows!

Waheema Asghar - Biodiversity Restoration Facilitator in Costa Rica

Turrialba is treating me very, very kindly.  Where to begin?  Ive written down a few headings that I think have been the most important for me.  Here goes…

Location: Turrialba

Turrialba is a wonderful small all around Tico town.  Ive met some foreign tour guides and they like to call Turrialba their home.  Its peaceful, friendly, kind, gentle and is surrounded by mountains and the view of Turrialba volcano that shows off its white plume of smoke daily.  Its an hours drive to San Jose, and people head down to the capital over weekends very easily and cheaply.  Its 2.5 hours away to the closest beach on the Pacific coast.  Theres an ancient ruin nearby, Guyabo national park that many tourists don’t know about.      

Weather: Perfect

At first I was wishing I were closer to the shore, but the weather is absolutely perfect here.  Its more rainy and humid closer to the shore.  The weather in Turrialba is mosty sunny and warm around 25C-27C.  Its supposedly monsoon season but there hasn’t been any  inconveniences for me.  I would equate it to Canadas normal rainy days.  Except here, during the afternoon you may have some days with heavy rain that lasts 10 minutes and then the clouds soon flutter away.  The rains are great, cools everything off, and are fun to watch.  The mist they create between the mountains are spectacular, worth taking shots of.

Work:

Work in CATIE is wonderful, I most enjoy seeing the diversity of work that goes on around me.  That’s the advantage of working within a university.  There are students who are doing their phds and conversations with them are intriguing.  Then there are those working in Climate Change, The Bosques Program, seed banks, research and so many other neat departments.  I have been working with Felicia Granados who is consultant for CATIE who is helping CATIE receive Blue Flag distinction which is a nationally recognized program. 

This internship so far has been largely a learning experience.  I have learned a lot already in my twenty two days about the local culture, customs, ways of work and lifestyle.  Establishing relationships is very, very key and was something that was mentioned to me by Felicia early on.  To work with others, earning and maintaining trust first is more important that tackling anything else.  This is what I have been working on.  I will be heading out to the farms on my own and meeting the worker (98% of which only speak in Spanish) and become a familiar and trusted face by the workers.  To receive the Blue Flag distinction, the workers need to diligently enter in data about daily water use, diesel/gas use, electricity etc.  Because this data is of no use to the workers in their duties (and is added work), it often gets neglected making it difficult to prove the environmental initiatives that the farms are in fact taking.  Being a face for the program allows the workers to be conscientious of what needs to be done, and be done regularly.  Though being present on a farm does not seem like much work, it is very important in maintaining the bridge and motivating the team to continue with their good work in helping with record keeping.  Slowly it will become standard protocol, but the program is new and so is the additional record keeping.  Beyond that, I manipulate, extract the data received and take whats needed to input into the final report to the Blue Flag program.  I enjoy that my work involves being on the farm (which is beautiful), botanical garden (which is breathtaking) and indoor work, it’s the perfect balance.

Lina Johnston - Organic Agriculture Facilitator, Pinar del Rio, Cuba

I arrived in Pinar del Rio just over 3 weeks ago, and it has been a truly eye-opening adjustment period! The first phase of our pilot project to develop organic farms devoted to producing medicinal and culinary herbs involves interviewing many farmers. Most of my time has been spent biking out of the city centre to sub-urban farms, meeting many extraordinary farmers, and observing their farming practices. Not only has it been great to explore the incredibly green and lush sub-urban areas of Cuba, but it has also been inspiring to witness the commitment to organic agriculture and community development among farmers here. Greater production of medicinal plants, or what Cubans call “green medicine,” is not only a commercial endeavour for these farmers, but also, and more importantly, a way to support community needs for medicine. 

In addition to this project, I will be working with a farmer to develop his property using Permaculture design principles to cultivate medicinal plants, and will be helping to design a local community garden in a nearby neighbourhood.  

Oxen-- animal traction (Los bueyes-- la tracción animal)

Worm Humus (Lombricultura) 

Cavan Gates – Biodiversity Restoration Facilitator in Costa Rica

Londres, Costa Rica, is a town of about 1000 people inland fifiteen kilometers from Quepos, a larger town on the coast.  The predominant tourist attraction of the area is Manuel Antonio Park which is a twenty minute/₵50 bus ride from Quepos.  The road there is lined with restaurants, hotels, hostels and houses, all very expensive for the area and relatively expensive in the Canadian context.  A double room in a hostel might cost $40 and a hotel room $80, a burger $5-10 and a beer $2-3.  This is somewhat more expensive than the rest of the region, but in Quepos a double room at a hostel might cost $20 and a burger more towards $5 than $10.  This is all supported by a well developed tourist industry which means that most shop keepers speak some English, take US Dollars and that there are many North Americans and Europeans walking around town.  Food is diverse with restaurants ranging from “Comida Típica” to Mexican or Sushi restaurants. 

Londres, on the other hand, does not see many tourists and does not have the same tourist infrastructure.  For one thing, while it is only fifteen kilometers from Quepos, the road is unpaved and it takes about forty-five minutes to get there by car or bus.  The two main tourist attractions are horse back tours and rafting down the Rio Naranjo back down to Quepos.  Even with these, tourists do not normally explore the town or stay in town.  As a result, less people speak English, food is a little cheaper and there are less of the negative consequences of tourism.  A lot of people in town either work in Quepos or on the palm oil plantations that are endemic in the province.  There is an elementary school and a high school, although the elementary school has many more students and some high schoolers are bused to a different school.  Overall, the area is pretty laid back and the people are friendly.

My work so far has been mainly computer work, updating the website, translating and editing, but there is some field work with mapping an Analog Forestry plot and setting up a tree nursery.  Learning about Analog Forestry is great because it fits in so well with permaculture and organic agriculture.  The gist of it is to restore forests to the same form and ecological function as native climax forests while allowing some changes in species composition.  This allows more mainstream anthropocentric plants to be grown in an ecologically functional system.  Of course, staple carbohydrates like rice or wheat still require an open canopy system, but that can be incorporated into the AF or permaculture design of the farm.  Overall, it is a great system for restoring areas that strikes a balance between human and natural requirements.

El Rio Naranjo is the main river that runs through the town 

down to Quepos.  

One of Milo's Analog Forestry plots planted 18 months ago