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... to this!
Rory's Well Carbon Life Balance initiative
is providing a solution to poverty
and climate change
• Building livelihoods
• Protecting the environment
• Having a positive impact on carbon emissions
Help us to help these communities change from
'slash and burn' to sustainable, regenerative agriculture.
Check out the detail below and see how a one-off
or small, regular donation can benefit people, our planet
and your 'carbon conscience'!
What we are doing...
Building Livelihoods
- Reinstating traditional farming enterprises that are sustainable such as the Inland Valley Swamp farms
- Diversification of farming enterprises and associated livelihoods eg introducing and supporting bee farming also helps carpenters who build the hives
- Diversification of farm crops – a wider range of cash crops will protect against disease and poor harvests
- Improving crop yields – supported by the use of Inga trees on the upland womens farms; a leguminous tree that fixes nitrogen
- Food security – storing food for longer term use and replanting stored seed
- Resilience to market fluctuations – storage allows crops to be sold at the optimal time
Protecting the Environment
- Reducing the loss of rain forest –by reducing the need for Slash and Burn
- Stabilising the soil – Inga trees and longer term crops prevent soil run-off
- Improving water quality by reducing sediment impact from soil run-off
- Natural pest control and natural fertility from the Inga trees which reduces the need for inputs
Having a Positive Impact on Carbon Emissions
- Major reduction of carbon emissions from reducing slash and burn
- Improved carbon sequestration from using Inga and longer term crops such as orchard trees and timber
How does this work?
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Bee Farming
Training people in bee farming, with hives sited in the forest enables them to develop alternative livelihoods using the forest without destroying it. This enhances the local economy, reducing the need for more slash and burn clearance. Destruction of wild bee colonies is reduced, pollination of crops enhanced and biodiversity encouraged. Every hectare of forest saved from slash & burn clearance saves the average carbon emissions of 2 UK citizens per year * |
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Swamp Rice Farms
Re-establishing permanent rice farms in the swamps reduces the need to clear land for upland rice farming by slash and burn. Our research with Bath University shows that this is already happening. Many farmers tell us that they will not go back to upland rice farming. Every hectare of upland saved from slash & burn clearance saves the average carbon emissions of 2 UK citizens per year * |
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Women's Farms
supported by Inga We are planting Inga trees to support crops in alleyways, and orchard and native hardwood trees in a grid system. The Inga grow rapidly, fixing nitrogen in the soil providing a natural fertiliser. Regular pollarding of the Inga trees, laying the leaves on the ground provides a thick organic mulch which:
This improves crop yields and enables the other trees to become established, increasing carbon uptake and firewood harvested during pollarding reduces the need for people to cut the surrounding forest. Every hectare of mixed Inga farming traps carbon in soil and plants equivalent to the average carbon emissions of 2 UK citizens per year * Also, every hectare of upland saved from slash & burn clearance due to the creation of a permanent farm saves the average carbon emissions of 2 UK citizens per year * * These figures are based on the model developed by Mike Hands of the Inga Foundation. This showed that over a twelve year period one hectare of mixed Inga farm should remove an average of 20.5 tonnes of CO2 per year from the atmosphere by sequestration in plants and soil and avoid the production of a further 25 tonnes of CO2 per year by clearance and burning. This would result in a net improvement in CO2 emissions of 45.5 tonnes CO2 per year or approximately the carbon footprint of 4 UK citizens per year* *Assuming mid-range figure of 11.4 tonnes CO2/yr UK citizen ref.www.carbonindependent.org |
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What next?
We are very excited by the possibility of doing something so positive for subsistence farmers while improving one of the main drivers of climate change.
The Demonstration Farm planted with Inga Alleys in 2019 should be ready for it’s first crops by May 2021.The Inga trees planted in Nov 2018 have now flowered and we hope to harvest seed this year which will produce saplings ready to plant out also in May 2021. Initially these will be planted in degraded areas previously used for women’s community farms to regenerate land for maize, beans and vegetables.
At this exciting time we would like to build a community of people interested in supporting this initiative, helping not only the subsistence farmers but also the land around the rainforest, reducing global carbon emissions and slash & burn deforestation. If you feel able to support us either by a monthly donation or a ‘one off’ amount (perhaps to balance that really essential flight?) we would love you to JOIN US!
The Demonstration Farm planted with Inga Alleys in 2019 should be ready for it’s first crops by May 2021.The Inga trees planted in Nov 2018 have now flowered and we hope to harvest seed this year which will produce saplings ready to plant out also in May 2021. Initially these will be planted in degraded areas previously used for women’s community farms to regenerate land for maize, beans and vegetables.
At this exciting time we would like to build a community of people interested in supporting this initiative, helping not only the subsistence farmers but also the land around the rainforest, reducing global carbon emissions and slash & burn deforestation. If you feel able to support us either by a monthly donation or a ‘one off’ amount (perhaps to balance that really essential flight?) we would love you to JOIN US!
UK Contact details:We are always looking for new ideas and funding to help us
with Rory’s Well - if you feel you could help in anyway, please get in touch! If you would like more information about Rory’s Well contact us at: [email protected] |
Rory's Well charity is based at: |
