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Orlando shows students of the Rio Muchacho Environmental School the trees
that Planet Drum will plant with them.
Students from the Rio Muchacho School plant an Orange tree.
Very early in the rainy season (January 2nd), Kira digs holes for tree
planting on the hillside behind the greenhouse.
Students from the Fanny de Baird School dig up baby Guanabano trees for
transplanting during and educational workshop.
The Plant Drum crew delivers trees to a family in the San Miguel de Briceño
community.
Planet Drum volunteers digging holes.
Clay gives a presentation on the Dry Tropical Forest and Planet Drum
revegetation efforts in San Vicente.
CNEL officials and contractors meet at the Planet Drum greenhouse to sign
documents, deliver bottles, and pick up trees for distribution throughout
the Manabí province.
The Montufar School headmaster directs students carrying trees for planting
at the Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas urban revegetation site.
Montufar students plant trees in the Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas.
Orlando explains some of the finer details of tree planting to newly arrived
volunteers Frederic and Lisenn, and National Electric Company contractors,
who came to the greenhouse to pick up trees.
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It's been an odd rainy season so far, drier than
normal. In January it hardly rained at all, and in February it only rained
towards the end of the month. Finally, now in March it's raining a little
more. As of early February, only 20% of farmers in the province had
planted anything at all, which is totally unprecedented. Hopefully the
delayed, relatively weak rainy season will have enough juice to go through
the rest of March and into April, which would help both regional farmers
and Planet Drum's tree planting revegetation efforts. The most recent
rains have been critical so that the trees that we've been planting can
take root.
An
article was published in the Provincial newspaper "El Diario" about the
work that Planet Drum has accomplished during the past 16 years.
March 10th, 2015.
There has been a steady flow of volunteers and interns in the past few
months and despite the lack of rains, Planet Drum's revegetation efforts
continue to be strong. We are distributing trees through various outlets
to ensure that the more than 10,000 trees produced in 2014 get delivered
to as many different communities, landowners, and alliance organizations
as possible.
Outside of Bahia, trees have been distributed to the San Vicente
Municipality, Peñon del Sol Nature Reserve in San Clemente, San Miguel de
Briceño, and San Isidro. Within Bahia we've delivered trees to the
neighborhoods of El Astillero, Km 8, and La Cruz.
The National Electric Company has been working with Planet Drum in the
distribution of trees as part of their 'Electric Tree' program. They have
already delivered and planted over 2,000 trees in 23 different communities
throughout the Manabí province.
Planet Drum is now officially one of the National Electric Company's
regional contracts and their contractors are obligated to deliver and
oversee the planting of our fruit trees in the communities where they
implement new electrical infrastructure. This year, the plan is to
distribute more than 4,500 native fruit trees to 1,500 different families.
Several ceremonies were held at the greenhouse to commemorate the
collaboration. All of the contractors came to sign documents, deliver
recycled plastic bottles to the greenhouse, and pick up trees that they
will distribute and plant.
Planet Drum is also planting trees at revegetation sites in and around
Bahia, including the hillside below La Cruz, behind the University
Catolica, and in El Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas park, and in the Rio
Muchacho community. We had an amazing morning of tree planting with
students from the Montufar school in the Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas.
The children were really excited to be out planting trees and we planted
more than 150 trees with nearly 30 children in one morning!
There have been a variety of other community and educational activities
along with the revegetation activities. Several workshops have been held
at the greenhouse with the Montufar and Fanny de Baird Schools and the
Universidad Catolica. A presentation was given to city officials,
community members, and farmers in San Vicente, and a lecture on
bioregionalism and native plant revegetation was given to students at the
University Catolica.
The Provincial government set a goal to plant hundreds of thousands of
trees with schools, government institutions, and private residents on
February 21st. This Provincial Reforestation effort was coordinated by the
Corporacion for Reforestation of Manabi and Planet Drum provided them
approximately 1,500 trees. It was exciting to see reforestation efforts
getting so much publicity, and Planet Drum was happy to participate in the
project.
February 23rd was the 16th anniversary of the declaration of Bahía de
Caráquez as an ecological city. A ceremony was held in the Municipal
Theater, followed by an open house in the street in front of the
Municipality. Leann and Laura, two of Planet Drum's interns, helped design
a pamphlet about the ecocity and bioregional activities. A digital version
is available
here.
Looking ahead, we will be continuing tree production at the greenhouse
as well as plantings at field sites in various local communities, and
distributing trees to the Electric Company and various other revegetation
participants. There's always more to do.
Previous Report:
12/05/14
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After planting
trees with the children at their school, Clay and volunteer Jackson pass
out one tree to each student from the Rio Muchacho community to take home
and plant.
Orlando holds a
Guanabano tree that was planted last year at the Rio Muchacho school. The
tree is already taller than him.
Orlando passes
out Ebano trees to students from Fanny de Baird for transplanting to
reutilized plastic bottles.
Students from
the Fanny de Baird School dig up baby Guanabano trees for transplanting
during and educational workshop.
Ben and Danilo
plant trees atop the hill behind the greenhouse.
Danilo plants a
Pechiche tree on a friends farm in San Miguel de Briceño.
Orlando, Leann,
and Laura transplant baby Cereza trees into recycled plastic cups.
Patricio,
Marcelo Luque, and Clay address Bahia government officials during the 16th
anniversary of the declaration of Bahia Ecocity.
The Planet Drum
team poses with Sergio Zambrano, head of the environmental department
during an open house held for the Bahia Ecocity celebration.
Community
Engagement Intern Leann plants trees on the hillside above downtown Bahia
with students from the Montufar School.
The Planet Drum
crew poses with students from the Montufar School after a morning of tree
planting in Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas.
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