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We've moved our blog to http://conservationcarbon.wordpress.com/ Please follow us there.
Via http://www.webinknow.com/2011/03/biodiversity-and-business-leadership.html, which has some great thoughts on the subject.
The team at the Conservation Carbon Company made a special field visit to our Analog Forestry, Carbon Credit project in Hinuduma, Sri Lanka on the 10th of January. This was a major milestone and we were very pleased with the outcome. Our partners at Rainforest Rescue International (RRI) did a great job in facilitating our visit.
Our priority was to meet the farmers currently on our team who cultivate the Forest Garden plots and hand over the first batch of payments to them. In addition to this, we also inducted new farmers into our program. Furthermore, we conducted a seminar to educate and update the farmers on our activities.
Our management signs agreements with the farmers.
The Conservation Carbon Company management also made a personal inspection of each plot. Somethings that really drove home the the complexity of our conservation efforts can be seen in these pictures of areas outside our project zone. While to the casual observer the presence of these trees and other vegetation can be be seen to be a positive sign, in fact this is not the case.
The new growth (light green vegetation in the foreground) that can be seen in this picture is the result of the forest being cleared and outside species gaining a foothold.
After this, we had lunch at a farmer's house. While we were enjoying the panoramic view, we noticed this coconut tree (on the right of the picture). This too is an invasive species that should not be present in this area.
Following lunch, we had a hike through the forest and came across this brook that gushed clear water.
We heard numerous frogs species around it - a good indication as to the health of the local ecosystem. This also emphasised to us the importance of the location as a watershed area and why the organic aspects of our Analog Forestry and Forest Garden products are so important. They eliminate the introduction of pesticides and chemicals into the water supply.
We also visit the nursery for native plants that Rainforest Rescue International run. Something new that they had done since our visit was to build a series of artificial pools. Their hope is that this will aid in the breeding cycle of frogs, which can be re-introduced into the wild.
Our last activity before leaving was a visit to a small local school (about 80 pupils in total). In conjunction with RRI, we distributed books and school-bags to the children. There were a couple of touching moments when the school's band played for us. Lacking the resources to purchase musical instruments, they had improvised using pieces of tube, making wind instruments out for them.The families of the children also gave us vegetables as parting gifts. We plan to to more for the school as CSR activities - our next goal is to give them grilling to secure the building against wildllife.
Great photo essay in the Guardian.
CBNRM is a bottom-up approach that gives local communities, who are the ones to bear the costs of preserving and conserving resources, legal rights to manage those resources and benefit from their use. In economic terms, CBNRM gives local people incentives to preserve rather than poach or overuse the forests, wildlife or fisheries they control.
This article really connected with us. The concept described bears many similarities with our own practices and certainly has the same goals - to make preserving the natural ecosystem an economically viable option for local communities.
via www.facebook.com
The scenes of deforestation as native forests are replaced by "cash crops" are all too familiar.
People, particularly small-hold farmers, need practical, economically viable alternatives. That's what we try to offer at CCC
Value-added carbon credits for socially and environmentally aware organizations and individuals.
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