2010 Food Forest Gardening Workshop

On the 18th of May, CFI and CFI’s sister organisation, Community Forests Pemba, travelled to Uweleni Secondary School and Ng’ombeni primary school in Mkoani, Pemba to help plant over 100 trees. CFP brought mtondoo — a native hardwood — seedlings, cinnamon seedlings, and lychee seedlings.  Lychee is a native fruit tree which produces a small, sweet, spikey, red fruit.

Pemba is a very hilly region, and erosion is constant worry for both schools during the rainy season. So, with the help of CFP and CFI, students took to the hills around their schools to plant the trees as a way to prevent catastrophic erosion and conserve their environment.  More photos are coming soon…

Two students planting an mtondoo seedling.

Daimen and I arrived safe in Uganda and met with the members of SLINT (see Daimen’s post). We had a long bumpy drive to a small village in the Kiboga district, called Kiyuni, where community members were eager to learn about nursery set-up and tree care. This was motivated by members of SLINT who provided the community with Avocado seedlings the previous year. In our trip, Dennis, the executive director of SLINT, brought various indigenous tree seeds from the National Forest Center in Kampala.

Dennis presenting indigenous seeds to Kiyuni village

These seeds, along with a short workshop Daimen and I taught, were to start a community forestry project, as well as promoting self sufficient and sustainable ideas to members of  Kiyuni, a remote village with poor road access. Environmentally conscious and sustainable practices become necessary to villages such as Kiyuni, where reliance on external resources is not an option, and where these practices promote community self-sufficiency.

Me conducting nursery and tree-planting workshop in Kiyuni

We hope to support Kiyuni further in their tree planting initiatives, through working with SLINT, as well as promoting environmental education and conservation and food security through using Permaculture techniques.

Meeting Kiyuni community members

A few SLINT beneficiaries

Estelle and I have left Zach on Pemba and have made our way back to Uganda, in order to collaborate with a couple of great NGOs here before returning to Canada.  We’re hoping to expand our network in East Africa, and to join our community based resource management efforts with like-minded groups.

Community Forest Management Reporting

Sustainable Livelihoods International (SLINT) is a relatively young organization currently operating in Kiboga District, assisting communities there to combat food insecurity, poverty, and environmental degradation.  We were impressed with the thoughtfulness and passion with which Dennis and the rest of the team are carrying out their activities and see a bright future for SLINT.  Their website is http://www.slint.org/ if you would like to find out more them and the good work they’re doing in Kiboga.

CIDev Field Office and Local Members

We also met with Judith and Peter of the Centre for Integrated Development (CIDev) and they accompanied us on a tour of a Community Forest Management (CFM) project that they are facilitating in the Mabira Forest Reserve, Mukono District.  It was very interesting and inspiring to learn how CIDev helped to develop and implement a formal contract between the local community and the Ugandan National Forest Authority for this progressive type of resource management.

Community Managed Parcel in Mabira Forest Reserve

The Mehta Group had collaborated with the Ugandan government to have a third of this forest cleared for sugar cane growing, but the combined efforts of organizations like CIDev, local community groups, and environmentalists forced the suspension of this plan in 2007.

Site Visit in Mabira

With strong support for Community Forest Management this forest and the many endangered species that reside there can be preserved while providing employment, household resources, and endless ecological services for the surrounding communities.  Its the type of progressive conservation that CFI endorses, one that directly involves the biggest stakeholders, and we hope to learn from CIDev how we might reproduce this model on Pemba and at home in Canada.

Introduction to Backyard Beekeeping (June 19 – 20) -  Sackville, NB

This summer, Community Forests International will be offering a beginners course in small scale apiculture with an emphasis on “natural” management techniques, hands-on practice, and basic honey bee biology and behaviour. Participants will alternate between classroom instruction and discussion, and actual demonstrations and individual practice working with the bees.

The two day course is designed to give participants sufficient knowledge and confidence to begin their own adventure as keepers of bees. Instructors possess a combined 57 years of experience working with bees, as well as 7 years of instruction and extension experience.

Couples and children welcome and encouraged. The cost of the workshop is by donation (recommended at 135$ for the individual, $200 a couple). Space is extremely limited as this course offers participants a very high degree of hands-on exposure. Contact info(at)forestsinternational.org or call (514) 839-0546 for more details.

Click Here to register Online!