Notizie dai Monti Aberdare / Updates from the Aberdare mountains

TREE PLANTING IN KIBURU FOREST (WESTERN ABERDARE)

By the Kawama Youth Group

The 1^st June is a public holiday that is cerebrated nationally in Kenya. Members of Kawama Youth Group cerebrated the holiday in style, they woke up early to load the seedlings to the waiting truck waiting some 100m away. It would not get any further.

After loading the tree seedlings, the members took a matatu (local bus) to the site. This was not the end. The truck could only climb up to some 1 km away from the site that had been chose to plant the trees. Therefore, the seedlings were again to be loaded in cart pulled by a donkey that would be able to maneuver along the rough terrain. It was fun.

But even the donkey needed assistance and we were there to!

Three trips up and the seedlings were to the site, at last!

With help from rangers of the Kenya Forest Service, the trees planting started earnestly. We distributed the seedlings into the already done holes while others started planting.

It was not until 2 pm that planting was through. This day saw more than 3,000 tree seedlings planted.

It was a good day.

Tree planting resumes in the Aberdares! Hooray!

Hello everybody - as you know our friends of the Kawama Youth Group, who are planting trees in the Aberdare mountains, had all sorts of problems in the last year due to a terrible drought that killed almost all the trees in their nursery and made all plantings impossible for many months (see the story here). Fortunately the rain has now come back to Kenya, and the Kawama people have at last been able to resume planting trees!
I pasted below a short email that I just received from Sammy, the leader of the Kawama. This is a very welcome update on their recent activities.
All the best wishes to the Kawama Group and to their dedication to this difficult enterprise! We all hope to be able to continue helping their work in the next year

Luca

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HERE IS SAMMY'S EMAIL:

Hi Luca,

How is the family, now that you are back home?

We did plant trees at last on Sat 15th May. It was quite challenging due to the heavy rains but everybody was happy. It was an achievement that we have always looked forward to.

We transported all the seedlings at the first nursery but we were not able to plant all of them on the day. We managed to plant about 2,000 seedlings and we hope to plant the remaining, also about 2,000 on June 5th.

We had difficulties in transport due to bad road conditions, we were stuck several times before we even got to the nursery to pick the seedlings, we however managed after long hours of struggle. The second batch of seedlings, which we did not plant yet, was kept in a safe place in the garden of one of the neighbours to the forest. The rangers of the Kenya Forest Service collaborate with us and are regularly visiting the home to see that the seedlings are safe.

We drained all the financial resources that we had, so we are thinking on how to go about planting the remaining lot. It wou'nt take much since the element of transport is done with now. We only need fare for the members and refreshment.

I am not able to give you a more detailed report but I will soon, and am yet to receive the photos.

Best Regards,

Sammy.

News from the Aberdares

I have just received an email from the Kawama youth group, with some updates on the tree planting in the Aberdare mountains. As you can read, things are going on - despite the total lack of cooperation from the climate which in the last year has cursed us with the worst drought that Kenya had in the last 30 years (or maybe more!). Here is the update from the Kawama Group:

"In November we saw it good to plant some of our seedlings together with the Green Belt Movement which was planting in Ragia, a forest next to Kiburu where we have our planting site. The event was very successful, and we involved 15 of our members while GBM had 10 members from the adjacent community. We also had the District Forester with us and the Division Youth Officer as the Kenya Government representatives. This was a good opportunity to make good working relationships with the GBM as well the Government representatives. At the end of the day, we planted more than 500 trees, which are now growing fine as rain has been good in the last weeks.

We are now going to expand our two tree nurseries at Mwendandu and Njabini. As you can see from the photos the nurseries are growing big, At Njabini we have now more than 5,000 seedlings of several species such as Olea africana, Prunus africana and Dombeya cordata.

The older nursery at Mwendandu has more than 8,000 of the slow-growing Juniperus which is now at an advanced stage of growth and almost ready for planting, plus other species including more Dombeya, Prunus, and Olea, all of which have survived to the drought of the last months thanks to the hard work of the members who had to carry water on their shoulders from the well that is almost one kilometre from the nursery. This good availability of seedlings will ensure that we are set with a good diversity of trees to plant in the next season. We are also working on other species such as Solanecio which are not difficult to raise and are growing very fast. This process of raising seedlings might appear to be taking long but at some point people will see what we are doing. Unfortunately the bad effects of the prolonged drought have severely affected and slowed down the growth of our small trees. Now that rains have resumed we are looking forward to the next planting season in 2010.

In the meantime, we are very greatful for your continued support. Please also pass our gratitudeto all the donors who have helped us in any way."

Il progetto Loretta Armida - ripiantiamo la foresta dei Monti Aberdare con il Kawama Youth Group!

La foresta dei monti Aberdares, in Kenya, è la principale fonte di approvvigionamento di acqua per la regione di Nairobi, e l’unico rifugio per molte specie di piante ed animali.

Negli anni passati, oltre il 50% della foresta è stato distrutto da commercianti di legname senza scrupoli. Ora, la gente del luogo ha capito che le foreste vanno conservate perché sono fonti di acqua e di molte risorse vitali per l’uomo e per gli animali. Ricostituire la foresta perduta è possibile. Servono buona volontà, i semi degli alberi e pochi semplici strumenti.

Questo piccolo progetto nasce nel 2007 grazie alla collaborazione di molti amici e soprattuto di mio cognato Davide, che si è fatto in quattro per questa idea ed ha contribuito molte risorse. Vogliamo collaborare con un gruppo di squattrinati ma volonterosi giovani Kenyani, il Kawama youth group, per creare e mantenere un vivaio di alberi autoctoni (podocarpo, ginepro, hagenia, olivo africano). Gli alberi, dopo alcuni mesi di crescita nel vivaio, sono messi a dimora a 10 chilometri di distanza dal vivaio, in un sito dove fino a venti anni fa cresceva la foresta. Con cure adeguate e olio di gomito, il nostro rimboschimento sta ricreando un ambiente naturale che sarà piano piano (gli alberi impiegano anni per ricrescere, non aspettatevi miracoli!) ricolonizzato dalle piante e dagli animali autoctoni.


Il vivaio del Kawama youth group si chiama “Loretta Armida” in memoria di una nostra amica e per sottolineare che molto aiuto è arrivato dalla Società Canottieri Armida (di cui Davide mio cognato è socio). Dopo due anni di lavoro il vivaio – sopravvissuto (per ora) a due siccità grazie all’impegno dei ragazzi che hanno portato a spalla per chilometri l’acqua per innaffiare le piantine– comprende quasi 10.000 piante, e 1000 di queste sono già state messe a dimora nel sito scelto per la riforestazione.


In questi giorni siamo di nuovo in piena emergenza. Il Kenya è colpito dalla peggiore siccità degli ultimi 20 anni e la mancanza di acqua minaccia di sterminare le piantine che sono ancora molto giovani. Per salvarle occorre andare a piedi fino ad un torrente che si trova ad oltre un chilometro dal vivaio, e portare l’acqua a spalla su e giù per i bricchi. Una roba da fare spavento, ve lo giuro.

Il sito che abbiamo scelto per la riforestazione è messo a disposizione gratuitamente dal Forest Service (l’organismo statale responsabile per la gestione delle risorse forestali del Kenya). I semi vengono raccolti nella foresta, e la manodopera naturalmente viene prestata dai ragazzi che non aspettano altro che un piccolo aiuto da parte nostra per mettersi a lavorare. Ciò che ancora serve è una piccola cifra (circa 500€ per il 2009) per acquistare semplici strumenti agricoli, concime, una recinzione per proteggere gli alberi nelle prime fasi della crescita e per pagare le spese per il trasporto delle piante fino al sito scelto per la riforestazione (occorre noleggiar eun camin perché le piante sono veramente tante!). I costi complessivi sono bassissimi, molto inferiori a quelli di progetti analoghi gestiti da organizzazioni internazionali. Il segreto sta nel fatto che utilizziamo esclusivamente manodopera e tecnologie 100% made in Africa. Niente consulenze costose, nessuna tecnologia spaziale, solo molta buona volontà e molto lavoro!

TOTALE PROPOSTA 2009 PER IL KAWAMA YOUTH GROUP : 500 EURO