Rebuild the Amazon

[sandsnakes]

http://www.ingafoundation.org/


If you are interested in re-afforestation and farming issues in the Amazon, look at this.

Dr Mike Hands and his group have found away of supporting local farmers, recapturing lost forest, feeding the population and stopping slash and burn. Pretty impressive stuff.

I have pledged £500 for them to buy a plot of land to use as a seed farm in memory of an old friend. On this one I have voted with my wallet. I look at it this way, I go to the moot and I see lots of kids having fun, I dont have any kids of my own but the ones I see I would like to have a wonderful life. So having air, water, food and stable environment while erradicating an area of poverty as well for £500 (my choice of donation) is well worth it for the kids future. £500 is probaly what I will spend on kit in the next two years, so its a fair bargin, just do a little make do and mend etc. Also it gives me the ability to ignore the Greenpeace eco warrior pain-in-the-bottom-with-a-clipboard when out shopping on a Sunday!.

Sandsnakes

 

[Tengu]

Thats brilliant

(if they are as good as they look....any independent reports??)

 

[Bushwhacker]

Stopping veggos from eating soya is another good method.
Thousands of acres of rainforest is chopped down to grow the stuff.

Quite ironic really, save one cute fluffy animal by not eating it - kill thousands by eating a substitute.

 

[sandsnakes]

Tengu,

lots of hard science behind this, its not a pipe dream or fantasy. The project is up and running what they just need is cash to buy more land and plant and raise seedlings to use as seed farms. It is thought that if they could scrape up a couple of million they could make a massive impact within a 10 year period. Forget high tech solutions go low tech and plant/farm. As a donation mine is about the largest they have recived from an individual. Each farm they produce from barren deafforested scrub land contributes to the forest, absorbes CO2, feeds familes and prevents the same area being cut and burnt every 4 years. So if you think of it, one plot over a 40 year period prevents the the same area of forest being burnt down ten times. Or in kilometers, plant one k and you prevent the loss of ten k in a 40 year period.

I have also talked to the guy and he knows his stuff. This is actually the future of the planet, they are working at using this model in Africa based on local African trees. The trick being getting a local tree which suits local conditions.

In this case a fiver will actually make a difference, goes to the people on the ground and will help save the amazon.

Tony, link up on here?

Sandsnakes

 

[gregorach]

Marvellous idea! Where do I send money?

 

[Bushwhacker]

How are the nutrients being put back into the barren soil to grow the trees?

 

[gregorach]

The trees have been specifically chosen for (among other things) their tolerance for infertile, acid, poorly drained soils.

 

[sandsnakes]

mikehands@tiscali.co.uk

This is Mike Hands email, drop him a line, like most inspired people they have not got round to saying send the cash here!

Bit like BCUK

Sandsnakes

 

[Bushwhacker]

The trees have been specifically chosen for (among other things) their tolerance for infertile, acid, poorly drained soils.

Surely that upsets the balance by replacing the rainforest with plants/trees that weren't there originally.

 

[gregorach]

They are native species.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Ah right.

The way I understand it, having just returned from the rainforest, is that the soil is very poor.
There is no biological activity at 2ft sub soil which is why the roots spread out rather than down.
30% of the rainforest is dead at any one time and this decay provides the nutrients for the living 70%.

 

[Emile]

Bushwhacker, it is/was my understanding that the majority of soya grown in (former) rainforest areas are grown for cattle and other livestock feed, rather than for vegetarian and other people's consumption, simply because significantly more soya is consumed by livestock than by people.

Just wondering whose understanding more accuratly reflects the situation... anyone else know anything about the main (direct) consumer of amazon-grown soya?

 

[gregorach]

Yes, it is my understanding that almost all of the soya grown in the Amazon ends up as animal feed. The UK Food Group agrees.

 

[Tengu]

and who are they?

 

[gregorach]

Why don't you read their website and find out?

 

[sam_acw]

I didn't realise slash and burn agriculture was a problem. I thought it meant cutting and burning an area, farming it for a few seasons till the productivity went down and then abandoning it to the forest to be slowly reclaimed.
Is it the scale which is causing the problem or have I got the wrong term? I though the term was mainly applied to indigenous groups :confused

 

[gregorach]

Slash and burn has been practised on a small scale by indigenous groups for millennia without too many obvious problems. However, once you scale it up to industrial proportions, it becomes a major problem - the forest can't recover if it's been wiped out for hundreds of miles in every direction. There is also the fact that rather than "farming it for a few seasons till the productivity went down and then abandoning it to the forest", the modern tendency is to apply more and more synthetic fertilisers so you can just keep farming it, thus breaking the cycle of regeneration. Rather than having a relatively small and more-or-less constant area under cultivation which regularly moves on, allowing the forest to regenerate, we are now simply extending the (already vast) area under cultivation every year.

 

[sam_acw]

Thank you, that explains it all very neatly.

 

[sandsnakes]

Just recived from Mike Hands :You_Rock_

Sandsnakes

I spoke with the Mopawi exec. director a couple of days ago.
The proposal for a hurricane refuge which will include Inga alleys; a biological corridor and seed-bank has now been taken up by the whole community.
It sounds to be snow-balling.
I shall keep you informed of progress.

with kind regards

Mike

Bushwhacker et al

You ask some fundamental and interesting questions. It just goes to show that we never know the complete picture until you talk to the man at the sharp end.

The areas they are using inga on are denuded, they will support a stringy grass and the odd bush. You can't grow crops on it or raise cattle it is so poor. The Inga Foundation replants what could be called 'moonscape' that is barren and non-productive areas. They use a native tree which regenerates the soil. Crops are planted between the rows of trees. You have to remember that people from all over South America are converging on the amazon and performing slash and burn farming. The mass of people is cutting, burning, despoiling at a far greater rate than the 'agro industry'. More to the point the poor cannot afford fertilser, so when the grounds dead they move on to the next spot and start again leaving a 'cursed earth' behind them. The reason why they slash and burn is the burnt wood provides a good fertilser, soot is one of the worlds oldest fertilsers. The victorian chimmney sweeps would sell the soot to wagoners who would bring in fresh vegetables and take out london soot. So its clear, fetilse and grow, in a natural cycle you would then leave it fallow for a couple of years using the ground for only one seasons crops.

The various govt bodies have tried banning the poor farmers, but you cannot outlaw poverty.The ground never recovers, never grows back. This process stops the need to slash and burn, restores canopy, allows animal passage, provides fuel and food and the big plus is food surplus. This is a solution that is proven to work, empowers people , is low tech which of course is why its ignored by many.

Sandsnakes

 

[sandsnakes]

The Secretary
Inga Foundation
Higher Penhale
Lostwithiel
Cornwall
PL22 0HY

We have an account in the name of Inga Foundation with Lloyds TSB Charities and Clubs section. All subject to the usual audits, etc.

Mike Hands