summer 2008 newsletter
DESCRIPTION
Trees for the Future Summer 2008 Newsletter A quarterly newsletter of Trees for the Future, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people of the world’s poorest communities to begin environmentally beneficial, self-help projects.This newsletter informs readers of recent events, plans, financial mattersand how their support is helping people. Trees for the Future is a Maryland based non-profit that helps communities in the developing world plant beneficial trees. Through seed distribution, agroforestry training, and on-site country programs, we have empowered rural groups to restore tree cover to their lands. Since 1989, we have helped to plant over 60 million trees. Planting trees protects the environment and helps to preserve traditional livelihoods and cultures for generations. For more information visit us at www.plant-trees.orgTRANSCRIPT
Honeybees are fascinating
insects and one of the most spec-
tacular social animals in the
world. Honey, wax, royal jelly
and propolis are all valuable by-
products of the honey bee, whose
main function, pollination of
fruits and vegetables, has an incal-
culable value to humanity..
Honey is valued everywhere. It
contains carbohydrates, proteins,
water, essential oils, vitamins and
minerals. It sweetens food and is
used in cultural ceremonies.
Eating honey or using it as an
ointment is part of many tradition-
al ceremonies such as birth, mar-
riage, and funeral. In Ethiopia,
honey wine is brewed especially
for weddings. In Masai communities of East Africa,
honey is used to pay dowry.
For centuries, honey has been used as a medicine, typ-
ically as a treatment of ulcers, burns and wounds.
Studies suggest that the use of natural honey has the
potential to reduce 7% of total cholesterol level and 6%
of total blood sugar.
Honey can be collected from wild sources, or from
managed bee colonies foraging in forests or among
cultivated plants. The exploitation of honey, if done
properly, does not harm the environment. It can foster
both farm productivity and biodiversity conservation,
as sustainable honey production requires good land
management, plenty of bee forage, and an absence of
toxic chemicals. Tree crops can be well integrated into
an apicultural system, providing economic and envi-
ronmental benefits to the participating communities
Honeybees & the World Food Supply
Honeybees are the most important agricultural crop
pollinator in the world. Bees’ food resources-nectar,
pollen and honeydew- have little direct economic use
for humans. However, bees pollinate plants and trees
that constitute about 25% of the human diet. In North
America alone, honey bees pollinate over 90 different
agricultural crops.
The relative importance of pollination service varies
from crop to crop. Some crops, such as sunflowers,
clover, beans, almonds, and melons are completely
dependent on bees. Crops such as cowpea, sesame,
peaches, soybeans, and orange, although not complete-
Page 1
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
The quarterly newsletter of Trees for the FutureSummer 2008 Vol. XVI, No. 2
Bees for the Future
continued page 4
The recent SCAA
Conference in Minneapolis
was in may ways a conver-
gence of agricultural leaders
from many parts of the
Developing World where
coffee is an important
export.
The country being honored
this year is Ethiopia, the
home of coffee and where,
with our partner, Greener
Ethiopia, we presently have some 6,200,000 seedlings
waiting for the rainy season to be transplanted.
Hundreds of Ethiopian Americans attended the event
and were re-united with their friends from back home.
So it wasn’t surprising when they started something
that has become known as the “Minneapolis
Doctrine”, which begins: Ethiopia says NO!!!
It wasn’t long until exhibitors and delegates from
Kenya, from Burundi, from other nations, joined in:
We also say NO!!! NO to what? Quite a few things as
a matter of fact.
NO to the international gangsterism masquerading as
“globalization” – and to all the ways it has found to
bring grief to the poverty-stricken peoples of these
developing nations:
NO to international price-rigging of food and farm
supplies
NO to the hoarding of food that makes this possible.
NO to poisoning our lands with chemical fertilizers
and pesticides.
NO to corporate land-grabbing and –
NO to the political and corporate greed that makes it
possible
NO to starving children begging in the streets
And NO to a lot of other actions that have driven peo-
ple to the plight they find themselves in today. For
example, NO to the so-called international “develop-
ment programs” and the local officials that welcome
the extra money these impractical and costly projects
bring with them, which become loans in inflated dol-
lars that must be repaid even when the projects prove
disastrous.
And NO also to the greedy officials who look the
other way when these giant corporations, attempting to
grab land for “plantations”, strip away the natural
resources on which local resi-Page 2
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Johnny Ipil-Seed News is a quarterly newsletter of TREES
FOR THE FUTURE, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to
helping people of the world’s poorest communities to begin
environmentally beneficial, self-help projects.
This newsletter is printed using wind energy on recycled paper
with soy-based ink and is sent to all supporting members to
inform them of recent events, plans, financial matters and how
their support is helping people.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. John R. Moore - Chairman, Dr. Peter Falk - Vice Chairman,
Mr. Oscar V. Gruspe - Finance Officer, Dave Deppner -
President, Mr. Bedru Sultan, Ms. Marilou Herman, Mr. Franz
Stuppard - Members, R. Grace Deppner - Recording Secretary
(non-voting)
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Mr. Franz N. Stuppard - Advisor on Haiti, Dr. Mizani Kristos -
West African Development, Dr. James Brewbaker - University
of Hawaii, Mr. William Campbell - Seasoned Energy, Mr. Steve
McCrea - Global Climate Change, FL, Dr. Malcolm Novins -
George Mason University, Dr. Noel Vietmeyer - The Vetiver
Institute, Mr. Sean Griffin - Forestry & GIS Specialist, Mr. John
Leary - Advisor on Senegal
STAFF
Dave Deppner - Founder, Executive Director
R. Grace Deppner - Founder, Associate Director
Maryann Manuel - Membership Services
Gorav Seth - Ruppe Center Coordinator
Josh Bogart - Central America Coordinator
Ethan Budianski - West Africa Coordinator
Jeff Follett - South America Coordinator
Francis Deppner - Southeast Asia Coordinator
David Tye - East Africa Coordinator
Brandy Lellou - Grants Program Coordinator
Tebabu Assefa - Media/Education Coordinator
Jennifer Carter - TREE PALS Coordinator
Gabe Buttram - Business Partner Coordinator
FIELD TECHNICIANS
Jean Bosco - Burundi, Louis Nkembi - Cameroon, Dr. Yigezu
Shimeles - Ethiopia, Dr. Pascal Woldomariam - Ethiopia,
Guillermo Valle - Honduras, Subramanian Periyasamy - India,
Sagapala Gangisetty - India, Donal Perez - Nicaragua, Gabby
Mondragon - Philippines, Danny Zabala - Philippines, Theresa
Cahilig - Philippines, Omar Ndao - Senegal
To receive this newsletter or for more information, contact:
TREES FOR THE FUTURE
The Loret Miller Ruppe Center
for Sustainable Development
P.O. Box 7027
Silver Spring, MD 20907
Toll Free: 1-800-643-0001
Ph: 301-565-0630
WWW.PLANT-TREES.ORG
Opinion:Defiance!
dents depend for their very lives.
The “Minnesota Doctrine” has a long and, we think
justifiable list of the grievances of the world’s rural
poor. Heading the list of their needs is something that,
for most of them, was long taken for granted: FOOD
SECURITY. Over the years, for most communities,
this was not a major concern. Well, it is now. And when
the food is gone, or people think it’s gone, we now
have riots in the streets.
It should be no surprise that the global situation has
come to this. The real question is: why have we, in the
more affluent world, not joined our voices with theirs?
Are we truly that much better off? Is our own future
that secure? Are we a part of the solution – or are we
part of the problem?
It was, after all, our dollars that made possible a pro-
gram of supposed “energy independence” whereby
giant corporations, despite excellent advice against the
idea, detailing the possible “unintended conse-
quences”, decided to take a food staple – corn – and
turn it into something we can burn in our cars. And the
price of bread and milk has since doubled here at
home while people throughout Central America con-
tend with the cost of their main foodstuff –again corn
– which has also more than doubled.
And it might be added that, in producing these
bumper crops of corn, we have done serious damage to
our own lands and water resources. The nitrogen and
phosphorous running off corn fields here in Maryland
is quickly poisoning the Chesapeake Bay.
It’s our own energy industry that discourages the
development of safe and sustainable alternative
sources of energy. It wasn’t so long ago that we trem-
bled at the thought of $100-a-barrel oil. Now our gov-
ernment is stockpiling it at $125 a barrel. With the
energy czars earning $40 billion+ per year while
accepting billions more in government grants for main-
taining the status quo, should we not wonder if they
really are trying to find and develop sustainable alter-
natives” Do they really have our best interests at heart?
To all of this, your TREES program recognizes the
reality taking place in the streets and in the fields of the
Developing World. We know that restoring FOOD and
WATER SECURITY, and developing ENERGY
SECURITY are vital to the welfare of every person on
this planet. We believe that it is not only possible but
that, in fact, the simple but practical technology is
being rapidly developed and that acceptance is grow-
ing even faster. Our own sort of defiance is the devel-
opment of more acceptable,
more holistic, approaches to restoring trees and stabil-
ity to the world’s degraded lands.
A good bit of the technology employed comes from
looking backward over the centuries when there was a
far closer relationship between people and the forests
that surrounded them. For example chemical fertiliz-
ers, which so many consider indispensable to agricul-
ture today, have not been around all that long – fortu-
nately, we believe. Before that, crops grew well in a
system now called “organic”. Our FOREST GARDEN
program is, of necessity, organic – because the partici-
pants have no access, and little money, to do otherwise
even if they wanted to. Still, year by year, their crops
increase as we all get smarter - together.
The same may well be true of energy: can it be grown
on trees? Would this then be a strong incentive for peo-
ple to bring back sustainably-managed forests to the
world’s degraded and abandoned lands? Not so many
years ago, small towns across our Midwest had “gas
houses”. When Lincoln entertained, the White House
was lit by gas derived from wood. The technology has
since been greatly improved.
Is this “22nd Century thinking”? No, we’re finding
ourselves way behind the curve on new technologies
already being developed. In fact, we have now brought
on a new technician to help TREES catch up. As
TREES concentrates more and more on environmental
education in the villages we serve, we’re getting offers
to provide us with many new technical breakthroughs:
bicycles that generate electricity, and balloons tethered
1000 feet above these rural communities, each generat-
ing enough electricity to light a small village. We hope
soon for electrically-powered motorbikes to make our
field representatives far more mobile. We’re integrat-
ing energy-producing plants into our projects – and
finding ways to make charcoal of exportable quality as
a sustainable, environmentally beneficial, energy com-
modity.
We certainly hope, and believe, this is a world far dif-
ferent from what the children of these rural villages
will grow up in – and that they should have a good look
at it, and start thinking about it, now. We greatly appre-
ciate the support you are providing to this program. We
need your ideas as well – while there is still time.
Page 3
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
ly dependent on the bee, have substantially increased
yields when pollinated by bees. The monetary value of
these pollination service amounts to $14 billion in the
United States alone.
Unfortunately, deforestation, the
use of genetically modified crops
and insecticides, herbicides, and
pesticides have reduced honeybee
populations worldwide. Poor land
management further reduces their
habitat. The collapse of honeybee
colonies here in North America and
in Europe must be of great concern
to everybody involved in agricul-
ture – and to the rest of us as well.
While a number of possible reasons
have been mentioned, we find it
noteworthy that this is taking place
in parts of the world where chemical farm products –
pesticides and fertilizers – have been heavily applied
for many years while in parts of the world where these
products have been unavailable to the great majority of
farmers, the bee populations continue to thrive.
The bee population loss has reached a critical stage.
This phenomenon, whose cause has not been fully iso-
lated, is termed "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD). If
urgent action is not taken, CCD has the potential to
cause $15 billion in direct crop losses and $75 billion
in indirect losses, illustrating it’s impact on internation-
al agricultural markets. For example, the price of
honey increased by 30% compared to last year on the
US market. Some countries, like Turkey, have turned
from a honey exporting country into a honey importing
country. Even China, the leading honey export country,
reduced its exports to fulfill its domestic needs.
In general, the loss of the honeybee population under-
scores the critical link that bees play in bringing crops,
fruits, and vegetables to market. With such high lev-
els of loss of honey bees due to habitat destruction, dis-
ease, pests and other factors, it is not only a bee crisis
but more importantly a pollination crisis that severely
hurts agri-business and world food supply.
Honey bees and sustainable agriculture
Trees for the Future recognizes the importance of bee
pollination in meeting various community needs. In
our Agroforestry Training Manual, which was devel-
oped to empower communities in developing coun-
tries, we recommend that communities include trees
for bee forage as part of windbreaks, forest gardens
and alley cropping practices. One tree can provide as
much nectar and pollen as hun-
dreds of smaller plants. The greater
the habitat diversity, the higher the
benefit attained.
These techniques help increase the
diversity and abundance of crop
pollinators, and will help crop pro-
duction, in addition to direct eco-
nomic benefits. They also provide
habitat for wildlife and other bene-
ficial insects, such as predators and
parasites of pests. Integrating
honey production with agroforestry
projects by growing multipurpose
bee forage trees on farmers’ lands ensures a sustainable
supply of nectar and pollen. This not only provides
habitat and food for honeybees, but also diversifies
farmers’ income. Some of the trees we are planting that
provide good bee forage include Leucaena, Calliandra,
Grevillea, and Tree lucerne
Incorporating sound agroforestry practices also helps
crop pollination by helping reduce winds, making it
easier for pollinators to fly and visit flowers. Less wind
creates slightly elevated temperatures around plant-
ings, which increases the time that pollinators can be
active. Over all, our tree planting program through
agroforestry is benefiting communities in developing
countries and helping sustain the bee population.
Support for Beekeeping in Ethiopia
Due to the importance of beekeeping to sustainable
development, we are developing small-scale beekeep-
ing enterprises in local communities. In Ethiopia, we
have started beekeeping projects with our partners
Harmony Farms and the Oromia Coffee Cooperative in
Ethiopia to supplement our tree planting program.
Ethiopia is considered a potential giant for honey pro-
duction in Africa due to its diverse habitat and flora.
Bees are almost always present in the wild. Equipment
can be made from materials at hand, which creates
great opportunities for people who have no access to
financial capital.
Currently honey production and commercialization in
Page 4
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Bees for the Future (cont’d from page 1)
The collapse of honeybee colonies here in
North America and inEurope must be of
great concern to every-body involved in agri-culture – and to therest of us as well.
Ethiopia is mainly based on traditional methods, using hives
made from logs, bark and clay, which are hung on trees to attract
swarms of local bees. Production and commercialization from
these traditional hives is low. The use of modern box hives could
yield more than twice as much honey. We are actively involved in
planting many varieties of bee forage, and in supplying modern
hives. We have planted more than one-half million flowering
plants and distributed hundreds of hives. Harmony has 1000
hives and is increasing this to 25,000, and Oromia will soon have
100,000 hives.
Beekeeping also supports many different sectors within society
including village and urban traders, carpenters, tailors, and those
who make and sell tools and containers. However, the added
value is not fully exploited mainly due to low price and limited
marketing channels. In order to have better access to markets and
get better prices for honey, a constant supply of quality product is
needed. Currently, this is one of the major bottlenecks to creating
a better market in Ethiopia.
High quality standards and regular supplies can only be met
through improved production harvesting techniques, post harvest
handling, storage and processing. In this regard, our local part-
ners are building capacity in Ethiopia to overcome such prob-
lems. We are reaching out to as many communities as possible to help families make a responsible living by
launching small-scale beekeeping enterprises.
Editor’s Note: We are pleased to introduce Mohamed Chilalo (pictured on theright) who has been working hard as an intern doing research here. He bringstwo points of view, one from his homeland in Ethiopia and the other from histechnical education and research experience. Mohamed has considerableexperience in beekeeping, both using traditional (log) hives and more mod-ern systems and so we are most happy he took on this assignment.
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Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Traditional Beehive in Ethiopia
Bees for the Future (cont’d from page 4)
Modern wooden hives, which are
being distributed by our partner
Harmony Farms, on a hillside near
our training center in Qatbare.
This design costs less because it is
made entirely from local materials,
and it has a significantly increased
yield over polyurethane hives.
This April Joshua Bogart, TREES Central AmericaProgram Coordinator, spent 5 days in Nicaragua visit-ing project sites and providing technical support withDonal Perez, our in-country field representative. Theymet with many communities and organizations that areinterested and motivated to implement reforestationand agroforestry programs. Here isan excerpt from his report, whichaddresses local agroforestry practicesin the region.
On the 24th we visited the commu-
nity of Arenal, visiting the sites were
Donal is working on starting nurs-
eries. We went to the schools where
Donal has been giving workshops,
where we used the time to talk about
the type of agriculture that is prac-
ticed in the zone and talk to them
about how to fit more trees into their
production methods. Donal explained
that they were unable to start nurseries early because
they only get water in these communities 12 hours
once every 8 days.
The people in this region already are practicing a vari-
ety of agroforestry. Donal has a very intimate knowl-
edge of this system, as he grew up in this area.The sys-
tem of “gardening” that we saw was very similar to the
idea of a forest garden, with a high layer of coconut,
an understory of avocado, papaya, tamarind, etc, then
vegetables and flowers. It would be interesting to doc-
ument this and maybe experiment to give more uses to
this system. The main crop is Pitia (Dragon fruit,
Hylocereus spp.) but also grow Jocotes (hog plums,
Spondias purpurea), Tamarind (Tamarindus indica),
Avacado (Persea americana), coconut, pineapple, and
mammon (Melicoccus bijugatus). Along with these
Fruit species, the residents of the area also encourage
several timber and forage species such as Albizzia sp,
Enterolobium cyclocarpum, and
Brosimum sp. People also grow basic
grains and vegetables. This indige-
nous use of agroforestry gives us con-
siderable opportunity in the region
both as an opening in that the people
are already open to cultivating trees
which is often a hard first step, and to
document how the trees are used as
reference in other project areas.
People in the zone demonstrated a
lot of interest in the theme of refor-
estation, and how selected species
can fit into the production system of
the area. We are finding that there is work in various
areas, from education work in the schools to planting
of windbreaks in the north of the country. With the rel-
atively widespread use of agroforestry systems, there
is a lot of potential for empowering people to get more
uses from what they already have. For example I saw
a lot of Neem and Moringa, and from the conversa-
tions that I had it seems that these are some of the
species which are being underutilized.
Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Central
America, is at major risk for severe environmental
degradation. Our work has never been more necessary.
Page 6
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
The system of “gar-
dening” that we saw
was very similar to the
idea of a forest garden,
with a high layer of
coconut, an understo-
ry of avocado, papaya,
tamarind, etc, then
vegetables and flowers.
An alley of Jocote (Spondias purpurea) (left)
Nursery site for passiflora quadrangularis (right)
Indigenous Agroforestry Practices in Nicaragua
The Annual Conference of the SCAA (Specialty
Coffee Association of America) was held this year in
Minneapolis in early May. This year the Coffee
Industry honored Ethiopia where coffee was first dis-
covered some 3,000 years ago and which today
remains a major exporter of highly prized coffee beans.
Trees for the Future, Greener Ethiopia, Ethiopia
Airlines, and Andarge Asfaw traveled to Minneapolis,
Minnesota to explain ways that tree planting can bene-
fit coffee growing communities around the world while
also improving the quality of coffee in people’s cups.
The SCAA has become much more concerned in
recent years about the issue of sustainability. One rea-
son is that consumers today are much better informed
about how good coffee is produced, and they see the
relationship between coffee, which was always a forest
plant until very recently, and shade trees which bring
nutrients back to the soil and flavor to the cup.
This relationship has grown more important in recent
times as concern grows about climate change and the
public understands that a combination of coffee and
other crops, grown in the shade of deep-rooted legumi-
nous trees will remove a great amount of carbon from
the atmosphere every year.
Jason Long, President of the Sustainability
Committee of SCAA, has been a good friend of
TREES over the years. Not long ago, we planted
some 85,000 trees in the mountains above Lake
Yojoa in Honduras, which annually remove more
carbon dioxide than is emitted from the opera-
tions of Jason’s company, Café Imports.
Jason called TREES late last year and asked if
we were interested in planting enough trees to
offset the total emissions caused by this year’s
Conference and, if so, would we make a “carbon
calculation” to determine how many trees that
would be so the SCAA could provide a grant to
plant those trees. We did the arithmetic and deter-
mined that it would require planting 350,000
trees – at a cost of $35,000.00. The trees would
be planted in Tanzania, where much of the coffee
is grown, which is also very close to the Gombe
Stream National Park, which is a refuge for
Chimpanzees. In this way, the trees could per-
form an additional service by protecting the park.
Jason provided us with a booth at the
Convention, which we worked into two booths
and shared with our partners,
Greener Ethiopia and Ethiopian Airlines. Because
many Ethiopian-Americans attended the convention,
and because the coffee companies wanted to learn
more about the program, we stayed plenty busy. We all
were impressed with how excited people from the cof-
fee industry – growers, roasters, importers, and retail-
ers – are about sustainable production. Our team con-
sisted of Tebabu Assefa, Bedru Sultan, Dave Deppner,
Nate Dreyfus, Jennifer Carter, Winta Teferi, Jeff
Follett, Alex Muzo of Ethiopian Airlines and Andarge
Asfaw, a famed photographer from here in Silver
Spring. All through the three day convention, people
crowded into our booths.
We met with growers from several countries who
asked if we could help them develop shade-grown cof-
fee programs. Most important, we established a new
partnership with Tedessa Mekena, President of the
Oromia Coffee Group, which is three cooperatives
joined together to form an organization of some
340,000 family-members. With them, we will develop
programs that produce a wide range of fruit, vegeta-
bles, and honey in addition to coffee – all to be grown
in a Forest Garden concept.
Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference 2008
Page 7
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Dave Deppner and Tedessa Mekena of the Oromia Coffee
Group exchanging information and ideas for the coming
year
At the request of companies concerned about how to
reduce their “carbon footprint”, we often calculate
their emissions and how many trees need to be planted
to “offset” those emissions so that a company (or
maybe a family) can become “green.”
We did this for the SCAA Coffee Convention held this
year in Minnesota. We calculated air travel, automobile
travel (including taxis), we included hotel rooms for
7,500 people and heating/ cooling that monster of a
Convention Center. It required planting a lot of trees –
about 350,000 of them - to offset the projected 8,800
tons of carbon dioxide the event would produce.
What did surprise us was that way over half of the
emissions were caused by airplane travel. Travel by
automobiles/taxis was a distant second. Emissions gen-
erated from the convention center and 7,500 hotel
rooms were a comparatively minor part of the problem.
Air travel, now including charges for snack lunches
and for stowing luggage, is costing all of us a lot more
than we once thought it did. We’re sure you’ll be
pleased to know that there is one major airline, an
African airline, that sees the concern and is working to
make a difference. It’s Ethiopian Airlines.
Late last year, Ethiopian Airlines learned of our pro-
gram in the Guraghe Zone. They decided to join as a
partner with TREES and our other friends, Greener
Ethiopia and, now our newest partner, the Oromia
Coffee Group. Since then they have provided free air
travel for our technicians heading to various assign-
ments throughout Africa. Their help has made it possi-
ble to plant an additional 300,000 trees and more in
Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa.
This support gained the airline a great amount of
respect, recognition, and new business, not only in
Ethiopia but in the many countries they serve.
Encouraged by this, they are now planning to take an
active role in the tree planting programs already start-
ed. Presently they are the host airline for the Sullivan
Foundation conference on the environment, which is
now meeting in Arusha, Tanzania. There are some 250
delegates and TREES will be represented by Ethan
Budiansky who has been coordinating our Africa pro-
grams.
Now Ethiopian Airlines has announced that from
now on, they will plant one tree for every passenger
they carry. They are also informing passengers that
they can also be a part of the pro-
gram by voluntarily adding a small
amount that will be used to plant
even more trees.
The idea has been well received.
Ethiopian Airlines calculates that
they will be planting more than
2,500,000 trees per year, plus what
their passengers are adding. That
means that within a year these trees
will be taking some 60,000 tons of
carbon dioxide out of the air and that
will grow by the number of passen-
gers they carry, year after year.
Within just a few years, EA will be
flying green – zero carbon emis-
sions. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all
the airlines thought like that?
Page 8
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Ethiopian Airlines: Flying Green
Caption:The DC-3, which in World War II was often called the “Gooney Bird” was the first passenger
plane in Africa in the late 1930’s. As soon as the new, fuel efficient, Boing 787’s are ready to fly, this will
be the ship Ethiopian Airlines flies to carry people between Africa, Europe and North America.
David Tye is our new East Africa Regional Program
Coordinator. He will be based in Tanzania to help facil-
itate projects and establish contacts throughout the
region. David is originally from Scottsdale, Arizona,
and studied Environmental Biology at Northern
Arizona University.
David served in the Peace Corps as an Environment
Volunteer in Tanzania from 2001-2003, where he
focused on agriculture, agroforestry, and natural
resources management. His time in Tanzania as a vol-
unteer helped him to understand the importance of
incorporating financial incentives into any conserva-
tion program.
Following his time in Peace Corps, David moved to
Washington, DC and worked as a program associate
for a small international development company, where
he learned project backstopping and the office side of
implementing international development projects. He
also started studying International Development at
American University focusing on rural development
and agroforestry.
In 2007, David traveled to Kenya and Tanzania to con-
duct research on why small-holder farmers generally
do not adopt agroforestry techniques for his Masters
Thesis. Last summer, he also worked with the Tanzanian Department of Forestry and learned how local govern-
ment officials implement development projects in Tanzania.
David is excited to work with Trees for the Future because of their commitment to working with local commu-
nities to improve the lives of rural farmers in countries throughout the world.
This July, David Tye will be heading to Moshi,
Tanzania to establish the Trees for the Future East
Africa Regional Office. By establishing a permanent
regional office, we will be able to provide stronger in
country technical support, and we will be able to work
more closely with our partners in Kenya, Tanzania,
Uganda, and Ethiopia.
David will be working with local non-profit organiza-
tions, communities, and concerned farmers to imple-
ment agroforestry and natural resource management
projects over a large swath of Eastern Africa. Moshi is
well situated for this purpose, as as it is located about
halfway between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on the
Tanzanian-Kenyan Highway, and is only 30 minutes
by minibus from Kilimanjaro International Airport.
Over the next year, we will be working closely with
our partners to establish tree nurseries and to provide
training seminars in agroforestry. During this work,
we will identify local coordinators who will assist
David in implementing these projects. Within eight
months, we hope to identify one country coordinator
for each country in the region. Coordinator will han-
dle much of the project implementation and training.
At our East Africa Regional Office, we will also be
establishing a training center that can be used to con-
duct training sessions. We will be developing a one-
acre forest garden next to the Regional Office, which
will be used as a demonstration plot for interested
farmers.
The strong regional presence afforded by this office
will enable us to work closely with the local and coun-
try coordinators to expand the East Africa Program,
helping more families to plant millions more trees.
TREES Opening East Africa Regional Office
Page 9
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Introducing David Tye
David in front of an Albizia schimperana he
planted while serving in Peace Corps
Weather throughout South and Southeast
Asia so far this year has been especially
hard on the people of both the lowlands and
the mountains. Whether this is due to
Climate Change or not, dry seasons are not
as dry and nobody seems quite sure just
when the planting season should begin.
People in the Irrawaddi delta of
Myanmar, once called Burma, have suf-
fered greatly from a massive cyclone that
destroyed rice crops, food and water sup-
plies, and left more than 1,500,000 people
destitute. The population has little shelter,
nothing to eat, and only muddy water to
drink, even though many thousands of tons
of relief goods stand only a short distance
away off shore, unable to move because of
government prohibitions.
A series of major typhoons has hit the
Philippines, starting in February. Rice
crops there have been pounded into the
mud by the heavy rains and flooding. In the
uplands, mostly unprotected by tree cover,
landslides are taking a big toll on human
life. And this is only May! The hurricane
and typhoon season does not even start until
next month!
The weather has been especially hard on our seed pro-
duction trees in the Philippines.. We now have seed
trees of very high quality of five different species but
heavy rains destroyed more than half of our early seed
crop and winds broke off the branches of many trees in
the lowlands – some of ours have not much left except
a shattered trunk about four feet high. Still, by this time
next year these will have grown back into real trees,
producing seeds again – that’s the kinds of hearty trees
your program is growing.
Despite the hard times, or perhaps because of them,
more groups than ever before are joining the program.
For instance, the day I’m writing this we got a call
from a well known Filipino inventor, Alfonso Puyat,
who has land in the mountain city of Baguio, much of
which is on slopes of 50 degrees or more. He sees the
deforestation there – and what heavy rains can do on
these unprotected slopes. He offers his large area of
land there as a demonstration of how the planting of
deep-rooted, leguminous trees can prevent these land-
slides. We’re supplying him
with seeds of about nine species that look promising
and he promises regular reports of how effective they
are.
Another request came from Joel Lee and the Lee
Family, who have started the Cebu Permaculture
Initiative in Cebu City where again, most of the sur-
rounding hills have been completely denuded. The
Forest Garden idea especially appeals to them as this
allows people in the project an assured supply of
healthy food at the same time it protects the city – and
the city’s water supply. The Lee Family offer their
place in the city as headquarters for our program in the
southern Philippines and an area of 40 hectares (100
acres) to be developed as a very big Forest Garden –
big enough to produce the food and energy needs of at
least a dozen families.
We were surprised to hear from a friend from long
ago, Elmer Sayer on the north coast of the big island –
Mindanao – whose organization is still working hard
and is now busy attempting to reforest a 700 hectare
site with about 1,200,000 trees.
Philippines Update:Stormy Weather
Trees Field Reps Danny Zabala and Phil Casupanan
standing on a mountainside that is being reforested
Page 10
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Stormy Weather (cont’d from p 10)
That’s how your program can grow when you have
good people like Elmer involved.
Our main program remains in Zambales Province
north of Manila and along the South China Sea. We
now have a team of three people on the job and they
are developing partnerships with 22 towns of the
Province.
Even there, our seed trees along the coast have most-
ly been shattered this winter season but the local
groups have been able to harvest well over a million
seeds. We found that the trees growing inland are in far
better shape and that local leaders were busy harvest-
ing – and immediately planting – the seeds.
The local organizations look to establish a training
center to teach people about the Forest Garden idea,
while also distributing seeds and training materials -
one that is easily accessible to all 22 towns of the
Province. The mayor of Botolan town, Roger Yap, has
long been a good friend to the project. He is offering us
use of a center high in the mountains where most of the
trees are being transplanted and is also looking for a
site where this permanent center can be established.
Meanwhile, the Antique project has acquired two
sites for demonstration of the Forest Garden. At one
site our local partner, the Marilou Cares Foundation,
has even built a bahay kubo (a small house made of
bamboo and nipa palm leaves) which will be the pro-
gram office there. Both will become seedling nurs-
eries, distributing seeds and seedlings to communities
throughout that province. As more groups join in, the
Philippine program will be able to plant more than two
million trees in 2009.
Page 11
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Amor Deloso, Governor of Zambales, & Dave
Deppner discussing sustainable charcoal
Dave and Grace Deppner showing off our 4 year old leucaena seed production trees
Page 12
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
India - Expanding to the North
Our work in India has been growing rapidly over the past year as more people are finding out about our pro-
gram and how it can help improve their livelihoods while protecting the environment. Thanks to this, we now
have more people, better seeds, and more trees being planted than ever before.
In 2007, we brought on Sagapala Gangisetty as our second field representative, which has expanded our work
into Andhra Pradesh, a cotton producing region where farmers are being hit hard by prolonged droughts and sky-
rocketing prices for agrochemicals. Gangisetty and his Green Tree Foundation are showing these communities
that alternatives exist that protect the environment while providing for the community.
Subramanian Periswamy, 300 km to the south in Tiruvannamalai, is working on a project to reforest Mount
Arunachala, a sacred pilgrimage spot that is visited by millions of pilgrims annually. He is also training and col-
laborating with many other NGOs and community leaders in the region, leading to new projects and new
alliances.
Thanks to Subramanian, Gangisetty, and all of our other partners in the area, not only will we be planting hun-
dreds of thousands of trees, but our agroforestry training manual has been translated into the local languages of
Telugu and Tamil, which are spoken by over 150 million speakers. This is helping us to reach new people and
start new projects.
Trees technician Gorav Seth will be travelling to India in August to provide in-country technical assistance and
support. We will have a detailed update on the progress for you this fall.
Our field representative Subrmanian Periswamy
with Mount Aruanchala in the background
Two year old trees (top), and monkeys playing in
a large ficus tree (bottom)
Page 13
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Gabe Buttram recently joined out team as our
Business Partnership Coordinator. He became interest-
ed in conservation and development while completing
an undergraduate degree in Construction Management
at Northern Arizona University where, through his
research and work with Habitat for Humanity, he con-
centrated on energy and cost efficient construction
methods. He also volunteered with local conservation
groups to protect the natural lands where he enjoyed
spending his free time.
Throughout the second half of his undergraduate edu-
cation, Gabe became set on the idea of working in a
developing country to share his knowledge and experi-
ences with others who might be able to use them. Soon
after finishing school, Peace Corps provided him with
the chance to do just that. For two years, Gabe served
as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho, Africa. While
there he spent much of his time working with a small
development and conservation project in the rural
highlands where he lived. The goals set by this project,
implemented by CARE Lesotho-South Africa, were to
improve livelihoods through the promotion of agro-
forestry and sustainable agriculture, tree nursery devel-
opment, and small business development. This, as is so
often the case, was an incredible and life-changing
experience for Gabe. He realized during Peace Corps
that livelihood security and conservation in the devel-
oping world was something he wanted to spend his life
working towards.
After Peace Corps, Gabe attended a Dual Master’s
Degree Program in Natural Resources and Sustainable
Development. Through this program, he was able to
spend two semesters studying international affairs and
global environmental policy at American University,
and another two semesters studying more pragmatic
elements of natural resource management at the UN
University for Peace in Costa Rica. He also had the
opportunity to work with a forestry conservation
organization, researching and studying the effects of
market mechanisms to control deforestation and miti-
gate climate change.
Gabe has recently graduated from this program and is
now very happy to be on board with Trees for the
Future. He feels this is a wonderful place to continue
working toward the improvement of livelihoods and
the protection of our environment.
Introducing Gabriel Buttram, Business Partnership Coordinator
In January, we brought Jeff on board to start a new
regional program in South America. Having served as
a Peace Corps volunteer in Suriname, Jeff is familiar
with the region. Over the past 4 months, Jeff has been
working with all of our contacts in the region to devel-
op a strong program and to introduce TREES to more
organizations in the region. Jeff will be spending 3
weeks in June in Brazil, meeting with leaders of 7
local organizations, and will be providing technical
support to farmers in the northeast of the country, a
region that is suffering from irregular and declining
rainfall.
He will be working with our local partner, Fernanda
Peixoto. They have already translated our agro-
forestry training manual into Portugese, and are going
to be conducting training sessions and workshops dur-
ing this trip.
Jeff has also been working with other countries in
South America, including Bolivia, Venezuela, and
Columbia.
Off to Brazil
This Febuary,, Jennifer Carter, a long-time friend of
Trees for the Future, approached us with an idea to
help empower local schoolchildren to respond to the
daunting concerns of climate change by participating
in proactive experiences in their local environment. It
seemed to us an ideal time to reactivate TREE PALS, a
program we launched in the
90’s that links schools
around the world in environ-
mental activities so that stu-
dents may share in corre-
spondence.
Jennifer approached
TREES because she knew
that we recognize the need
for youth participation in
response to global climate
change. After watching a
documentary on current
environmental events, her
16 year old son was begin-
ning to wonder what his life
would be like in what
seemed a world filled with
disaster. Acting on impulse,
she wrote down the idea of
planting seeds as a way to
dispel fear and inspire stu-
dents to nurture their envi-
ronment and drove to the Trees for the Future office the
following day.
In March, she began by researching current trends in
environmental education and consulted with local
teachers to create a comprehensive list full of multi-
disciplinary activities that would hopefully initiate
enthusiasm among corresponding students.
By April we were ready to go to Ethiopia to launch
our pilot program with schools that had expressed an
interest in TREE PALS. Working with a range of part-
ner schools from urban Addis Ababa to the rural areas
of the Guraghe Region (about 3 hours south) provided
the program with a wide range of student experiences.
Like all Trees for the Future projects, TREE PALS is
community-driven and was taking shape according to
the the interests and concerns of the students, teachers,
and parents involved. At the Future Talent Academy in
Addis Ababa, I invited each child to plant seeds to
establish the first TREE PALS
tree nursery. Overnight, a stewardship program was
organized by elementary students, kindergarten chil-
dren were bringing trash to their teachers, and high
school classes requested to stage a debate on carbon
offsets. There was so much activity that the school
placed the TREE PALS program on their website as a
permanent part of their cur-
ricula! By May, the
saplings, thanks to the care-
ful attention of young envi-
ronmentalists, had grown to
over 30 cm in height, and
they will soon be out-plant-
ed to benefit the local com-
munity.
These students, and the
two thousand others
Jennifer encountered on this
amazing trip to Ethiopia
became “TREE PALS” as
they sat responding to let-
ters written to them by chil-
dren in Washington DC and
suburban Maryland.
In June, Jennifer will trav-
el to Central America where
TREE PALS will incorpo-
rate the Forest Garden into
school plantings and,
together with teachers and parents, add a nutritional
component to the program. It is hoped that the Forest
Garden, a diverse planting of leguminous trees, fruit
trees, and vegetables, will serve to demonstrate the
impact the Forest Garden can have on overall health
and educational achievement.
By the end of this year the TREE PALS program will
have launched a dialog between thousands of students
from East Africa and Central America with students in
North America based on shared experiences in their
local environment. TREE PALS makes it clear that
each tree planted and each flower watered has a posi-
tive impact on the health of their new TREE PAL.
Get involved! Become a member of the growing
TREE PALS community! Email TREE PALS
Coordinator Jennifer Carter at [email protected]
for information on school participation and sponsor-
ships.
Bethlehem, a student at the Future Talent
Academy in Addis Ababa, with a tree seedling
Page 14
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
TREE PALS! Bringing Kids Together For Trees
Quotes from Tree Pals Participants
Dear Students of Miss Jennifer,
Hi! My name is Yeraeifirae Sileshi. I am going to tell you about my main point.It is
about planting trees. It is like this. The first day Miss Jennifer got to our class and
told us about what are we going to do and what you guys have done. The next week I
joined her project and started planting trees. We taught the lower grades how to plant
and take care of the plants.
My another point is asking you some questions.What have you done about the "Green
School"? Do you just plant trees or do you take care of them after the planting?Is
your school green? If you guys were Earth what will you say to children? Answer me
your questions by your next mail.
Thank you, Yeraeifirae
Page 15
Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XVI, No. 2
Dear Students of Grade 6 in West Brook School,
Hi...You know the Global Warming is ging to
occur in our planet Earth. You know that Miss
Jennifer came to our school and gave us seeds to
plant. We planted almost all seeds in our school
and we took some seeds and plant seeds in our
house. We saw your pictures. Miss Jennifer took
our pictures. You may see them. We have to clean
our environment and plant seedlings. So I guess
you did marvelous things to protect our mother
land Earth too.
Thank you! Hemen
Greetings from Ethiopia,
I'm Barcot.
You've probably heard of Global
Warming. I just wanted to know what
your school is doing to save the Earth!
In our school, we planted seeds and help
take care of them.
Peace-out, Barcot
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800-643-0001
Loret Miller Ruppe Center
P.O. Box 7027
Silver Spring, Maryland 20907
Printed by wind energy on recycled paper with soy ink
Inside
Trees for the Future is part of the Aid to AfricaFederation Our Combined Federal Campaign
Number is 10715
More Things About Forest Gardens
Every month, Trees for the Future sends out an e-
newsletter. Sign-up by going under “Join the
Mailing List” on www.plant-trees.org and entering
your email address.
E-Newsletter
Congress is at last taking up the issue of climate change
with a strategy known as “Cap and Trade” which might
possibly cut back American carbon emissions, but does
nothing to reduce the nearly 400 parts per million of
carbon already in the atmosphere.
At the same time the desperately poor of many devel-
oping nations are already rioting in the streets, or are
close to it, because there is no food – none they can
afford anyway. Meanwhile food, and the fertilizer to
make food grow, are stacked in locked warehouses.
Around the world, the price of food has increased over
70% in the past two years.
Growing crops and trees is the only practical way to
take carbon out of the atmosphere. Growing them
together, the idea of the Forest Garden, means more
food, better food, plus clean water, sustainably pro-
duced on less land and without the need for costly and
dangerous chemical inputs.
And taking far more carbon from the air at a much
lower cost per ton. Thanks to your help, these Forest
Gardens are being started now in several countries.
Early results are most encouraging. We’ll keep you
informed.
p. 1 Bees for the Future
p. 2 Opinion - Defiance!
p. 6 Agroforestry in Nicaragua
p. 7 SCAA Conference
p. 8 Ethiopian Airlines - Flying Green
p. 9 Introducing David Tye
p. 9 TREES East Africa Regional Office
p.10 Philippines - Stormy Weather
p.12 India -Expanding to the North
p.13 Introducing Gabriel Buttram
p.14 Tree Pals - Bringing Kids Together