September 5, 2012

Choosing to switch from slash and burn to Inga alley cropping is probably a bigger decision than most people who see this blog, myself included, this will ever have to make. I’m unlikely, and I’m very grateful for this, to ever have to make a decision upon which my own life and the lives of my whole family depend. But for slash and burn farmers here considering changing the way they farm, that’s the reality of what’s at stake. These families live on what they grow – that’s the bottom line. Life here is fragile. It lacks all...

August 12, 2012

On Friday we held an Open Day at our new Project Center in San Marcos.  It’s always a bit nerve wracking just before an event like this, waiting to see what the results of all that effort will be and wondering how many farmers will decide to make the trip, but it turns out we needn’t have worried. We had a great turn out, with 4 different communities represented, including the remote San Rafael and Betania. We even had quite a few women attend, something we have been pushing for as it’s really important for the whole family to understand...

We’re on our way up to one of the mountain villages and I’ve stopped a minute as we pass yet another freshly cleared slash and burn plot to try to take in what I’m seeing. I stand in the heavy silence and look out at the hillside strewn with smashed and shattered branches and tangled vegetation that, just a few days ago, was living forest. The scene feels surreal somehow, like a snapshot from some news broadcast. I can almost hear the voice-over….“this huge and growing catastrophe… a serious threat to the survival of the...

July 27, 2012

Last week I spent a few days staying with Catalina and her family, local farmers who live a days journey from the nearest road, high in the forested mountains around the Pico Bonito National Park. Their water source is a stream that runs past their house – in this season its reduced to a trickle but they told me that it used to be full all year round. The forests here provide a whole raft of ecosystem services, and on a local scale, water is one of the most important. To put it very simply, rainforests make rain, and lots of it (the clues in the...

July 23, 2012

This week we made the long journey up to San Rafiel and Betania; two communities perched high in the forest draped mountains, near the edge of the core area of Pico Bonito National Park. We began the trip by driving to San Marco, the nearest village with road access. From there on in, the best way to get around is on horseback. I did point out that I’d never ridden a horse before in my life. Faustino and Luis, the Inga Foundation’s agronomist, simply shrugged and replied that ‘there is always a first time’. And so we set off. Luckily, the horse...

July 17, 2012

Today I visited 3 different farmers; Martinez, Doña Rosario and Aladino and their families in El Pital village, who are farming with Inga or plan to start. If you’ve seen ‘Up In Smoke’ then you’ll remember the famous Aladino. You might also be glad to hear that not only is he now growing food for his own family using alley cropping but he’s also supporting other families in the village to take up alley cropping as well. Next I met the...

July 8, 2012

Hola, my name’s Issy, I’m 20 years old and a 2nd year student  at Exeter Uni studying Conservation and Ecology. I’m also the Inga Foundation’s website manager, and now that Uni is done for the summer I’m trading in student life for 2 months to join the Inga Foundation team in Honduras. While I’m away you will be able to follow what I’m up to through the Inga Foundation Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, plus I’ll be telling the...

April 25, 2012

We are delighted to announce that Up In Smoke, the documentary that follows 3 years in the life and work of Mike Hands and the Inga Foundation,  has won the Objectif d’argent Award (Best Development Message – a special UNDP Award) in Brussels at the Read More

April 19, 2012

Mike Hands is working with the Eden Project to create a demonstration of Inga alleys in their rainforest biome. The  biome already has an exhibit demonstrating the effects of slash and burn, with an area of burnt and blacked tree stumps, so to demonstrate sustainable solutions that can halt the devastation caused by slash and burn Eden are keen to install an area of Inga alley cropping right beside it. They have prepared a space for...

As well as subsistence food crops, cash crops are hugely important for Honduran families who need the money to buy what they cannot grow themselves, which includes everything from shoes to school books. Growing high value cash crops on slash and burn plots is often all but impossible as the plots are so far from family homes that families cannot manage to plant, nurture and guard demanding and expensive cash crops. By allowing families to grow crops right beside their homes, Inga alley cropping opens up a whole new range of...

A lot has been happening on the ground with our Cuero Valley project and there’s a real buzz about the place as we start work on our new Project Centre. Having finalised the deal and signed the deeds to the land in March, we have now drawn up a detailed plan for the 7ha that will house our project and education centre, areas for cash crop propagation and processing and our Inga seed bank. The picture on the left shows the first seedlings...