Reforestation in Sitio Historico
In this issue of the EcoSouth website
Claudia Wild focues upon the reforestation component of the "Sitio
Historico" project, a painstaking endeavor that contributes to
maintenance of the natural environment and thereby to the survival of
the rural society.
Deforestation in Nicaragua has been quite strong over the past years. The open fire kitchen as well as construction of wooden houses contribute to a shortage of resources, and become a threat for the environment. The environmental situation is addressed through the project´s reforestation component, whereby each family must reforest one manzana of land (6,987 m2). Thus, possession of such a piece of land is a criteria for selection of the participants.
The project team organised several training sessions to ensure that the reforestation would be successful. A detailed knowledge is very important because the beneficiaries are responsible for the success of the reforestation on their own land.
To begin with growing the plants the beneficiaries received bags and afterwards collected the seeds to make the tree nursery
A parameter of the project was to vary
the species of plants. On average the beneficiaries planted 152 fruit
trees (citrus, avocado, mango) and 126 wood trees. Now there is a
wide variety on their terrain, field that they previously cultivated
under a monoculture system with only coffee or cacao.
Before the plants could be moved to their predetermined place the people had to clean the land and place posts to mark the terrain. The planting lot by lot is painstaking and slow considering the distances between each familiy´s terrain.
Although the plants are now in their place there is still much work to be done on the terrain, like weeding, sprinkling insecticide etc. While the death of some plants was unavoidable, those plants were replaced.
But the people do them with a great motivation, because the impact of the reforestation in their lives is enormous. On one hand they will be able to sell the products on the market, on the other hand thanks to the reforestation they ensure a sane environment for their families in the future.
The beneficiary or his family has always been the owner of the terrain, but the lack of financial means limited the possibilities to cultivate the land. The investment to cultivate the land is enormous for these people, when one considers that they barely have enough money to nourish the own families.