Here’s to Neil and Robin’s Camp!

by on June 13, 2011

CFI sends a huge shout-out to all the treeplanters of Neil Whan and Robin McCullough’s camps who donated their daily earnings to CFI, collectively contributing over $8200 to CFI’s projects in Pemba, Tanzania. Cheesyness aside, this kind of generosity is truly inspiring.

For those of you have never spent a Canadian summer in the bush planting trees, the trade deserves a bit of an introduction. Tree-planting is an incredibly taxing job, both physically and mentally. After planting anywhere from 2000 to 4000 (highballers in Ontario are known to hit 5k) trees in a day, planters are ferried back to camp where they then devour a meal, hang-out for a couple of hours, then go to sleep. Repeat until the summer is over.

Treeplanters can potentially make good money. But it doesn’t come easy – planters have to work the hardest day of their life, everyday, all summer, to come out of the summer with enough money to pay off a year’s worth of rent and tuition.

That’s why this donation means so much to us. The money’s not coming from the demographic typically associated with philanthropy. But that didn’t stop you from stepping-up. You gave because you believe in what CFI’s doing and you’d like to see your money allow those projects to go forward.

We’ve set out to raise $20, 000 over the summer. The beauty of this campaign is that ALL of the funds go directly and entirely to CFI’s projects in Pemba. Nothing gets tied up in over-head or administration costs. Click here to check out the projects that your donations support and check out the video below that does a great job of bringing the pieces together.

A Beginning in Pemba from Community Forests International on Vimeo.

Treeplanters are an incredibly important piece in all of this.

To help us reach our goal, click here. Thanks for your generosity.

Message to Pemba – Global tree planting day

by on May 31, 2011

Message to Pemba – Global tree planting day from Community Forests International on Vimeo.

CFI Public Lecture – Thursday May 19th – 7:00 pm

by on May 17, 2011

When: Thursday, May 19th – 7:00pm

Where: Tantramar Civic Centre

Jeff Schnurr, Sackville native and Executive Director of Community Forests International (CFI) will be sharing his experiences from a recent trip to Pemba, Tanzania at the Tantramar Civic Centre this weekk. The lecture will explore community led tree planting initiatives in Tanzania, and a new global tree planting initiative launching in Sackville on May 28th..

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CFI Volunteer Info Session

by on April 26, 2011

CFI Volunteer Information Session – May 5th.

 

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CFI  Welcomes you to an information session and meet & greet for new volunteers at it’s office – 10 School Lane, Sackville, NB this Thursday May 5th @ 7:00pm.  We will have coffee and snacks, and a short presentation.  Learn about what CFI is up to here in Sackville this summer, plus get filled in about our work abroad.

If you can’t make it, but want to get involved, contact us at info@forestsinternational.org

Hope to see you there!

Home Again

by on April 8, 2011

After a long and exciting winter in Pemba CIDA/ACIC Intern Brennan Daly is back on the east coast of Canada. With all of his experiences in mind Brennan will rejoin the CFI team to begin spring activities in Sackville NB. While in Pemba Brennan spent the majority of his time focused on the Pod Press / Biomass Briquette and Global Schools Link projects, both of which showed great progress during his stay. The Global Schools Link grew to include Utaani Secondary School while the Briquette Training Workshop put on in January broadened the skill set of community members to produce both organic planting pods and sustainable alternate fuels. Other successes include an series of Environmental Education workshops held in local schools and of course the opportunity to see thousands of trees growing in various nurseries around the island.

Brennan will be speaking about his experiences at the Bridge Street Cafe in Sackville on Tuesday April 12th from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm. Come out and learn about life in Pemba as well as other volunteer opportunities with CFI this summer!

 

Environmental Club at Utaani Secondary School

Environmental Club at Utaani Secondary School

 

Utaani Students Participate in The Global Schools Link

Utaani Students Participate in The Global Schools Link

 

A Pemban woman holding a biomass fuel briquette

A Pemban woman holding a biomass fuel briquette

 

A 6 month old Planting Pod housing a mango seedling

A 6 month old Planting Pod housing a mango seedling

 

Chasasa Community Nursery stocked full of seedlings ready for the planting season

Chasasa Community Nursery stocked full of seedlings ready for the planting season

 

New Global Schools Link Partner

by on February 15, 2011

Utaani Secondary School has officially joined the Global Schools Link! For the past few weeks the teachers and students of the schools Environmental Club have been getting used to the online platform and exploring the various discussion forums. This week Utaani will join other partner schools in the Global Classroom and participate in CFI’s new Global Climate Change program. The students will explore different elements of this modern dilemma, learning about causes and effects, as well as potential solutions on both local and global scales. To learn more about the Global Schools Link visit: www.globalschoolslink.org .

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Briquette Training

by on January 24, 2011

For three days last week we were joined by two Kenyan biomass fuel briquette experts who put on an excellent training session for the members of Chasasa and Shumba Vyomboni community nurseries. Mary and Francis Kavita have been making briquettes and training communities around Eastern Africa for over ten years now and brought with them a wealth of experience and passion for alternative fuel making that quickly inspired all those in attendance. Over the course of the session community members learned how to create solid biomass fuel briquettes out of nothing more than what they could find lying on the ground around them. Under the watchful eyes of the Kavita’s our group of about 15 (mostly women) successfully created briquettes from materials such as sawdust, mango leaves, goat manure, charcoal dust, grass and rice husks. The training was hailed as an overwhelmingly success by students and teachers alike. The pod presses were originally implemented by CFI to create organic seedling containers that would allow the communities to ween themselves off the expensive and wasteful black plastic bags traditionally used in tropical tree nurseries. With the addition of briquette making to their skill sets the communities will now be able to double their efforts in conserving Pemba’s forests by providing alternative cooking fuels to firewood or charcoal, lessening the strains on local forests. In addition they hope to sell the briquettes at local markets, hoping to provide themselves with a modest income to help cover nursery related costs.

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New Pod Press!

by on December 27, 2010

Last week our carpenter Ali (aka Mbobo) completed his work on our new pod press for the Chasasa Area Community Nursary. This press is used to compact organic material into nutrient rich containers to house tree seedlings. The use of these pods is still in the development phase however they offer the promise of allowing CFI to go plastic free by replacing the traditional black plastic bags with the new organic pods.

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The press was originally developed by the legacy foundation (www.legacyfound.org) to produce charcoal alternatives called briquettes. The difference between a fuel briquette and a plant pod is only in the recipe and the mold, briquettes are thicker and designed to burn while the pods are slender and help enhance plant growth. We hope to use the same press to adapt both methods, not only allowing us to put more trees in the ground, but also to reduce the stress on existing forests by offering alternates to charcoal and firewood.

 

Fundo Trip

by on December 27, 2010

Fundo is a  sliver of an island located just off the west coast of Pemba and is easily accessible by boat from Wete, a small port town. Currently Community Forests International supports several small nurseries on the island; the following pictures chronicle a recent feild trip to the island.

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Leaving Wete port.

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These wooden boats are a common sight in  the waters around Pemba.

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Approaching Fundo after about a 30 minute ride.

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Fundo is surrounded by a huge reef, at low tide you may be forced to anchor your boat several hundread meters from shore and walk  the rest of the way.

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After reaching the shore its only a short walk through the villages until you arrive at the tree nursary.

 

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Mbarouk checking out the seedlings with local community members

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The nursaries on Fundo are not large, however after seeing the success of the project many local residents have formed groups and started thier own nurseries, expanding CFI’s presence on the island.

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Seven month old seedlings looking healthy.

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After just two years the trees are soaring over the heads of Fundo community members.

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Blogging via CBC

by on December 21, 2010

Executive Director, Jeff Schnurr talks about why he volunteers – check out the link here

My story: In light of my recent nomination as one of CBC’s Top 10 Champions of Change, I’ve been able to reflect on volunteerism and what keeps me involved with Community Forests International. To be honest, I’ve never really thought of myself as a volunteer, or what I do as charitable — to me the work I’m engaged in offers me a path for positive change, providing me with a meaningful way to interact with the people and places that surround me.

At 21 years of age, I found myself in Pemba, Tanzania, and like many Canadians my age I was up against the pressures of early adulthood. What did I want to do with my life? What did I hope to achieve? The questions that had been asked of me since high school had carried me across the globe, crossing more than 35 borders before dropping me on the island I would come to know so well. The quest for meaning, for purpose and the void it caused had me searching — and when several Pembans asked me if I thought we could plant trees as I’d done in Canada, I felt a new sense of place, a new sense of belonging.

That was more than four years ago, and since then I’ve been working to make good on the promise I’d once made in Pemba. And although we’ve managed to plant more than 300,000 trees in 14 rural communities, there have been hardships. For the first three years of our tree-planting project, I wasn’t able to raise enough funds to pay our Pemban staff members (and now do intermittently). I remember sitting in our director, Mbarouk Mussa Omar’s house, in the spring of 2009 and asking Mbarouk if he thought we could keep working without pay, if maybe he thought it was time he looked for some other type of work. I’d put my flight to Tanzania on my Visa card, and was beginning to harbour serious doubts as a fundraiser and Mbarouk’s answer couldn’t have done more to firm my beliefs. “Jeff, I cannot leave this work. I cannot go back to another job — our work is with our communities, and tree-planting is a way we can make a difference.” Here was a father of eight children, unsure of where his next meal was coming from, and volunteering his time for the same reasons I was.

The Pemba Trees project is what I do. The purpose and the meaning that comes from my efforts, and the people that work alongside me help sustain my vision. Together, we have been able to support the thousands of Pemban that now plant trees for timber, fruit and the countless ecosystem services they provide.

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