Reforestation Act Proposed for Haiti and Armenia

Satellite image showing deforestation in Haiti. This image depicts the border between Haiti (left) and the Dominican Republic (right).

An aid from Senator Dick Durbin’s office recently asked us to provide feedback on a bill introduced by the Illinois Senator that would reduce deforestation and promote reforestation in Armenia and Haiti.

The Haiti and Armenia Reforestation Act of 2013 intends to promote forestry, agroforestry, sustainable agriculture, pay-to-protect schemes, and local stewardship of forests in Haiti and Armenia, two countries that are largely deforested--98 percent and 93 percent, respectively.

The types of activities that would be eligible for funding through the bill include pay to protect programs, seed capital to forestry and agricultural cooperatives, technical training and oversight for reforestation efforts, adoption of clean cookstove technology, and technical and business training for local communities.

This bill brings to mind a framework for investing in forestry that was defined in the Guide to Investing in Locally Controlled Forestry. The guide, published by the Forests Dialogue and the Growing Forest Partnerships, divides forestry investments into two classes: enabling investment and asset investment.

Enabling investment is the foundational kind of capital that helps make forestry industry more attractive to traditional asset investors by securing land tenure and developing business and technical capacity. Asset investors benefit from enabling investment by investing in organizations that are better managed and more sustainable.

Funding through the Haiti and Armenia Reforestation Act of 2013 could be a powerful enabling investment because it would help address one of the key barriers for asset investors: lack of business capacity of the organization receiving financing. With grant support, NGOs or local government agencies could help small forestry enterprises become more “investable” by building their business and operational acumen.

We're inspired by the leadership of Sen. Durbin in proposing this bill, and hope that it is eventually passed into law once the government reopens.

Will Herbicides Reduce Long-Term Yields?

An employee taking a break from manual cleaning between plantain treesA recent article in the NY Times highlighted that a number of farmers in the US corn belt are seeing diminished returns from the use of popular herbicide glyphosate, or more popularly known as RoundUp.

This herbicide is a very popular tool used by plantation companies in Panama to control the quick growing undergrowth that can impede the development of trees.

What's most interesting is the story of a farmer who used the herbicide frequently and then stopped because he noticed his soil compacting and required a bigger tractor to till it. Since stopping using glyphosate he has continued to realize average to above average yields.

We’ve don’t use glyphosate to control vegetation growth on our plantations because we want to protect the long term fertility of our soils. We believe this will ultimately lead to better growth of our tropical woods and plantains. There’s also the obvious health risks of exposing our employees to to hazardous chemicals through fumigaition.

It will be interesting to see the longer term studies on the impacts of using this herbicide on crop yields. In the meantime, we look forward to comparing our long term results results to those forestry companies using glyphosate to control vegetation.

Forest Carbon Map of Panama

Overview of creating Panama's forest carbon map. Video courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science

Last week the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) announced that a team of remote sensing scientists had completed a forest carbon map of the entire country of Panama.

This is the first carbon map of an entire country, and we hope will lead the way to assessment of forest carbon stocks in other countries. The map helps to demonstrate more tangibly a critical service provided by the forest: the storage of carbon, which becomes CO2 when trees and vegetation are burned.

The map could also be a valuable tool for indigenous communities, including our partner community Arimae, if the REDD program becomes a reality in Panama. The map will help them to understand the financial value of the carbon in their remaining forests. REDD program payments represent an additional income stream for Indigenous communities, in addition to revenue from the tropical woods and plantains we’re growing.

The CAO team flew over parts of Panama using a sensor called LiDAR to gather data and then combine it with satellite imagery to create the new map. Greg Asner, lead for CAO, collaborated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) to collect the field measurements. STRI is working with many Indigenous groups, including Arimae, to teach them how to do the field measurements that are used to further calibrate the LiDAR readings. This National Geographic article gives a good overview of his work.

Panama is lucky to have this asset, and we hope that policymakers and the Panamanian Ministry of Environment put it to use for the benefit of Indigenous communities.

Biochar, Part Deux

Liriano regulating the biochar burn in ArimaeBuilding on the lessons we learned during our biochar training in February, we spent the past couple of weeks experimenting with producing biochar in our Arimae location. Biochar has been used for thousands of years as a way to increase soil fertility and crop productivity, something the soils in the Darien province really need.

The key with producing biochar is controlling air flow to the burn—permitting as little oxygen as possible from reaching the flame. For this reason we used a pit burning method for our first batch of biochar.

Check out all the photos from the burn »

We spent a couple of days chainsawing waste logs and digging a big hole to contain the logs, then fitted the hole with a bamboo chimney to regulate air flow to the burning logs. Once we ignited the stacked logs in the pit, we covered the fire with some wood and zinc, to further restrict air from reaching the burning logs. Unfortunately, we realized that our chimney was much too narrow for sufficient air flow, so not much wood was burned. We then extinguished the fire with water, and let it cool overnight for collection the next day. The next morning, when we came to collect the biochar, we realized that we hadn’t totally extinguished the fire the day before. All that was left in the hole was ash.

Learning from this setback, we didn’t use a chimney or covering for the pit for our next couple of burns. Good results. To collect the biochar from the toasted logs, we whack the log with a shovel or a machete, the biochar chips right off, and we re-stack the log on the fire and re-ignite it to produce more.

During the last burn, we decided that we were losing too many small chunks of biochar in the soil of the pit, so we tried to burn a pyre in the open. By separating the embers from the logs as they burn, we are able to really control the fire and collect the charcoal before any of it burned to ash. Even though a torrential downpour attempted to thwart our fire-building efforts, the flames were so hot, they burned through four hours of constant rain and actually dried us as we collected the charcoal and attended to the fire.

All told, we produced six big sacks of fertilizing biochar—that’s about 300 lbs. of yield-increasing, soil-enriching goodness! If we continue biochar production, we plan to build a simple hut to protect us from the elements; since it seems the wet season has arrived, we’ll need it.

Learn more about our impact in sustainable forestry.

Biochar: Soil Supercharger

Liriano and Yin make biochar. Click for a larger view.This week we'll be making biochar in the Arimae plantation. Biochar is relatively easy to make and should improve the quality of the soil in our projects, meaning higher plantain yields and faster growing trees. It's also a great way to take advantage of the fallen trees and branches that are normally a nuisance.

In February, Liriano, Yin, and I visited regional biochar expert and former Peace Corps Volunteer Alan Foster in Catrigandi, Panama Este to learn how to make biochar. We started the process by sawing mango tree branches into equal-sized logs and stacking them into a big five foot pile. Then we lit the pyre on fire, evoking the spirit of the limbs that were sacrificed for sake of soil improvement. Check out all the photos.

During the burn, Alan trained us to be aware of the changes of the smoke over time: white or light blue smoke means that moisture is being burned off, while darker smoke means the wood is burning. Once the wood was slightly crisped we extinguished the smoldering logs with water, and using a shovel we scraped off the biochar from the logs. Through a four hour burn of a 4x4x5 pyre we collected a sack of biochar, and this process is repeated.

We are adapting our process slightly due to the space limitations in our plantations: rather than stacking the wood in a pile, we are going to dig a pit. And because there is no water nearby, we are going to extinguish the smoldering by sealing off airflow by burying it.

This biochar is like an uncharged battery: it can potentially absorb nutrients from the soil and actually reduce yields! To "charge" it, Alan will use his biochar as a dry material for his composting latrine. We plan on adding our biochar to a mix of rice husk and chicken excrement to create a rich organic fertilizer, and expect to use this in the tree nursery for healthier trees and fatter plantains.