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Life and Death Choices Over How to Make Dinner


Life and Death Choices Over How to Make Dinner

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...

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That All-Important Other Option


That All-Important Other Option

August 12, 2012

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...

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Saving the Rain(forest)


Saving the Rain(forest)

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...

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‘Up In Smoke’ – the story continues…


‘Up In Smoke’ – the story continues…

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...

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Issy Meets Honduran Farmers; Martinez, Doña Rosario and Aladino


Issy Meets Honduran Farmers; Martinez, Doña Rosario and Aladino

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...

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Next stop Honduras


Next stop Honduras

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...

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