Enhancing Habitat Rehabilitation Through Community Engagement and Action
Presentation for un forest side event
1. Youth-led Agro-forestry: Preventing Illegal Logging and Child Labor through Organic Cocoa Farming Presented by Rebecca Chan and Jordan Hollarsmith Mahrizal Paru
Indonesia has the third largest tropical rainforest of any nation It is a biodiversity hotspot: 30% of its animals and 60% of its plants are endemic It has some of the highest deforestation rates in the world Logging is officially banned in Indonesia, but many rural people have no other options Tell this story: Mr Paru met a man who was logging illegally Why? “ I have two kids at home and I have not eaten for two days” No money, no job, nothing to sell Forced into illegal logging to feed his family Indonesia's forests are some of the most threatened in the world. Greenpeace estimates that forests covering equivalent of 300 football fields are cleared every hour
Poverty Kids don’t go to school, must work on farm Underemployment forces families to log Lack of resources Training, materials, start-up money Limits farmers to growing cash crops with low yield and low market price Under-used land Logged land: highly susceptible to erosion and landslides Major economic loss potential sink CO2
Example of illegally logged land: landslide danger area, CO2?
Idle land Either previously deforested or previously farmed, probably both Lack of start-up resources to efficiently use this land to generate income
Children going to work the family farm instead of going to school Poverty cycle, undereducation
incorporate local knowledge and needs into program farmers need startup money or can’t start farms income increases with farming (cocoa)—high prices for cocoa higher income don’t need kids to work up to ($2/kg, 2500 kg/yr, earn $5000/yr) $5000/year, more than enough to feed a family now: some grow cocoa but can’t get max yield some grow cash crops—chili, peanuts, banana; but yield is not good cocoa needs big investment, initial planting needs a lot of money project: offer seeds (major expense)
Step 1: training and teaching from expert Integral in scope of project is cocoa cycle Determining viable land
Step 2: field training Care and farming
how to prepare organic pesticides/fertilizer beetle leaves (organic pesticide), ferment it for about 3 weeks, then spray on farm won’t kill pests, but it will make the pests avoid the crops manure for fertilizer
Step 4: Preparing the land planting shade trees Gliricidia sepium : water holding capabilities, fast-growing
Step 5: growing seedlings in a nursery, Aceh (“ah-chay”)
Step 6: distribution of seedlings goes to farmers w/ viable land, proper training
Step 7: sale invest profits into next year’s crop break cycle of poverty
Slide 16: youth involvement and empowerment youth enthusiasm for planting
Slide 18: staff is expert in cocoa farming and goes to the land to meet the people (white shirt is Marizal, black shirt is expert) Not just in the village, also at the farms Tried to help solve farmers’ problems, figure out how much to plant Agricultural outreach Figure out how much they need, make sure they understand method
Slide 19: solve problems not only at the farm but also try to solve problems with the community, with staff present Discuss keeping children in school—this is the goal of the community Don’t want to bring them to the farms during school hours First: tell them not to use child labor Then: have the staff check on this when they go to the farms
Slide 20: Give small cash grant ($5) to not bring their kids to the farm Who has planted everything—also get cash grant ($5) Can see improvement Grants are a one-time thing
slide 25: if possible, take it beyond Indonesia (Africa) Ghana, Latin America (cocoa) Maintain focus on illegally logged land (owned by state) How to get control of it? If someone keeps planting for 30 years, it becomes his land Once you plant, it will grow for up to about 30 years, then you need to do replanting Focus is on recovery of that land Idle land—belongs to the farmers, but they don’t plant on it (no initial capital to start up) Model currently is just grants, but microfinancing projects is also possible Current funding: funding: embassy of japan—300 households Netherlands (hivos)—76 households Applied for grants dealing with illegal logging Green assistance for grassroots human security projects (Japan) Netherlands: hivos Who gets grant? Whoever wanted to farm, whoever had land Aceh, Indonesia (“AH-chay”)