Report no 5. from seed and permaculture volunteers in Ecuador
July 2001by Holly Shiach
Activities undertaken in this period
On site
-Employment of local staff resumed in month of
June.
-Improvement and maintenance of site
-Completion of water system
-Renewed and upgraded plant register
-Produced basic educational materials on system and processes for seed and plant materials at MS
- Distribution of educational materials to Anya
(Cotacachi), Nicola Mears (Bahia) and CIBT (Quito)
- Seed harvest and storage
- Seed bank administration
- Multiplication of varieties
- Distribution of varieties in San Lorenzo, Ricaute,Intag, Bahia, Reserva Los Cedros, Quininde
- Plant sales from Madre Selva, including sales for community projects of World Vision in surrounding communities, and of the World Wildlife Fund for Awa indigenous communities
- Training of Nursery Manager in seed bank
- 2nd compost training for volunteers and staff at
Reserva Los Cedros
- Hosted Cormac from Ireland in making a video
which will be available for promotion, fundraising
and educational purposes.
- Second trial export of seed
- Regular staff meetings
- Meeting with Marta Mondragon Director of CIBT and staff re ongoing work plan
Fundraising
- Funding received from Centro de Investigaciones de los Bosques Tropicales for three months wages for local staff
- Continued communication regarding potential
funding for a Vetiver project at Madre Selva
- Extra volunteer funding received from Rainforest
Information Centre and Australian Volunteers
International and pledged by Seed Savers Network
- Wrote financial reports for Green Grants
- Investigacion of funding sources
Volunteer recruitment
- Wrote volunteer job descriptions for RIC website
- Compiled package of volunteer job descriptions
and registered with the South American Explorers Club volunteer program, which will advertise in the clubhouses and through a highly visited website - Ongoing communications with potential future volunteers!
And a bit of the story...
In June we said goodbye to Be Ward who worked at MadreSelva from February this year. Be made a great contribution in an all round way, working on the farm, cleaning and packaging seed, and also preparing lunches and doing more than his share around the house, (to the curiosity of local folks - cooking was one thing, but washing!!- ¡crazy Australianos!). He also gave good lessons in eating with chopsticks, (to add to the confusion.) Be made good friends locally learning the marimba and supporting a local marimba
cultural group in their preparations to tour Japan,
where he will meet up with them in October.
It was a great relief to everyone when Marta of Centro de Investigaciones de los Bosques Tropicales turned up at Madre Selva in June with news of funds to continue employment of Madre Selvas great team of staff for a few more months. Aldelmo and Frisman are continuing
with on ground works while Victor Grueso has rejoined the team after some time, and after recovery from a bad accident. Victor is working on community relations and communications from Madre Selva. His positivity and visionary way is a great asset to the team. Mauro Caicedo is currently working further out in the choco
by the community of Playa del Oro (an afro ecuadorian community with whom Madre Selva staff have worked by extension over the years, and in the 90's were able to successfully work a campaign for local folks to gain title as custodians of a large cultural reserve of the
area of the choco rainforest surrounding the pueblo.) He will be back!
I'm on my last days here, having already packed up in San Lorenzo. Its about tearing my heart in two to leave. Madre Selva is such an incredible place, for many reasons, for the rich and luscious community in which it exists, for the truly wild environment of which it is a part, for the commitment and skill of its staff of tropical permaculture wizards who really have a heart connection to the place and remain dedicated despite times of financial difficulty, for the sheer incredulousness that it exists at all considering the extreme nature of transport, climate, access to materials, and generally making things happen in such a place, for the sheer gorgeousness of a tropical fruit forest, and for the ever apparent grace that it is there for its REAL impact on food security and conservation of useful plant species in an area that is very poor and venerable (poverty, shifting land titles, growing urban population, border troubles with Columbia, isolation... I don't think I ever REALLY understood what real food security was till I came here) , AND, there is just a magic that
flows through the place, its as though the place
itself has a tenacity to make it despite the billion
obstacles of endurance in the "2 thirds world" wet
tropics! (Did I mention the afternoon annona in the hammock? OK, I like the place.) So, what can I say other than that for me its been a thoroughly inspiring experience that has taught me a million things and opened my heart and understanding in ways I didn't know possible.
It is almost a freak of nature that a project like
Madre Selva continues, the realities of funding a
project like this managed by a very grass roots
organisation (CIBT) themselves without salaries most of the time, a bunch of activists that has shifted faces by the by as volunteers and members come and go and give what they can to projects that are truly labours of love. To me it all appears a miracle of the greatest kind, yes, a most beautiful and inspiring freak of nature! I hope that more will come and through the support of many Madre Selva can continue
to thrive in this remote and amazing corner of the Earth.
A huge thanks to everyone who has supported my time and work here, I have really tried to do justice to the inspiring level of support I have received. Special thanks to Marta, Maritza and Jose, and of course John and Ruth, Jude and Michel, Dee, friends at Sustainable Futures, Julia and AVI, and my Wonder Mum. Big thanks too to all the other locos who have shared the life and work down there over this time and bought a bit of your own special brew to the locura. May San
Loco live on.
Helen Gilmour returns SOON and will continue to
support work at Madre Selva. Good luck H!!
Thanks again everyone for your support and interest.
Adios,
Holly Shiach