Dear Colleagues:

Greetings and best wishes on a Sunday afternoon from Beijing.  Congratulations on all your good work.

I’d like to alert you to a line of enquiry that suggests functional solutions to Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, Desertification, Food Insecurity, Poverty, Disparity, Migration, Conflict, and Population Growth.

Although it is quite complex it can be summed up as “Integrated Poverty Eradication and Large-Scale Ecosystem Rehabilitation”.

This is based on scientific evidence that show the effects that biodiversity, biomass, accumulated organic matter and microclimates below tree canopies or above grass canopies, have on gas exchange, nutrient cycling and infiltration and retention of rainfall.   Simultaneously various econometric evaluations are emerging that provide an overwhelming rationale to invest and restore ecosystem function wherever it has been degraded.   And finally on functional models that show that it is possible to restore ecosystem function if you understand the principles which govern functionality.

This is rather welcome news, however, in order to restore ecosystem function over large areas it is necessary to end the behaviors that degraded the functionality in the first place.  This means that the growing human populations must change their behaviors replacing unsustainable lifestyles and livelihoods with sustainable ones.  This suggests that subsistence agriculture must end abruptly … not slowly over time.  Gradually the picture has become more and more clear and now it is possible to see why and how ending poverty for millions immediately is possible and what the implications of this would be for many of our most serious problems.

I first became interested in this when I began documenting the Loess Plateau in China.

What was most fascinating about the Loess Plateau when I first began to study it in 1995 was that this area was fundamentally ecologically ruined and had been for a very long time.  This effectively meant that the 10’s of millions of people who lived there were desperately poor.  Although the Loess Plateau had been the center of power and affluence for the Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties – some of the most creative in Chinese history - it has been famous for poverty and suffering for over 1000 years, scientifically described as the most eroded place on Earth and euphemistically known as “China’s Sorrow”.  For more than a millennium the region was continuously plagued by Floods, Droughts, Mudslides and dust storms.

Since restoration efforts began almost 15 years ago there has been a dramatic improvement in ecosystem function over broad areas.  Income and productivity increased as well by 10 times.   There is evidence that hydrological function can return when vegetation cover is restored, fertility and productivity can increase with organic matter and soil moisture and that if you differentiate and designate ecological and economic land (and resist the desire to choose all the species) it is possible to ensure that biodiversity will survive into future generations.

You can watch “The Lessons of the Loess Plateau” at <www.earthshope.org>.

You can see my recent presentation at the TALLBERG FORUM at the following URL  (or in the news posting below this text).

http://webbtv.compodium.se/tallberg09/ondemand/034/

You can see and hear Gro Harlem Brundtland, Amory Lovins, and all the other speakers at this years TALLBERG FORUM at the following URL

http://webbtv.compodium.se/tallberg09/

While the work in China is impressive it is not standing alone.

In the United States between 1933 and 1942, 5% of American Males worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  This was in reaction to a financial crisis (The Great Depression –beginning in 1929) and a huge ecological disaster (The Dust Bowl).  The men of the CCC planted between 3 and 5 billion trees and made 700 parks.  This highly successful intervention helped North America to sustain growth and affluence in the second half of the 20th century.

I’ve also been studying this in Africa, South America, South East Asia and Europe – so worldwide.  Scientific analysis of the data leads to the conclusion that soil moisture, fertility, relative humidity, microclimates, are all dynamic.  If we continue with existing trends then we can predict the outcome as long term negative trends accumulate in a vicious cycle.  But if we understand the natural systems functionality and do not disrupt it we can benefit from a virtuous cycle where organic matter, biomass and biodiversity are restored, helping us to achieve massive carbon sequestration gains, increased fertility from nutrient cycling and we can restore infiltration and retention of rainfall naturally, regulating the hydrological cycle and returning soil moisture, relative humidity and microclimates.  Ultimately if taken to scale this can reverse the trends that are leading to desertification, biodiversity loss, extreme weather events and even human induced climate changes.  But we have to realize that the scale is global and these disruptions are not a local problem but one that is a systemic problem on a planetary scale.

Once we get our minds around the size of the task – no less than ending poverty and restoring degraded land everywhere on earth – we can begin to see how this could be done.

A large number of specific actions have been identified.  These seem to work wherever they are tried in China, North America, Africa and Elsewhere.  It is possible to physically change the rainfall dynamic and infiltrate and retain the rain where it comes down.  These are a mixture of physical and biological measures.  World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) and Best Practices in Watershed Management contain most of these.  This helps to restore vegetation cover and biodiversity which then accumulates organic matter.  It is also important to replace the burning of biomass with a renewable energy source and this can be Methane Generation which provides sanitation benefits, energy for development and the fastest method for creating organic compost.  With infiltration and retention of rainfall it is possible to achieve tremendous gains in biomass production, accumulation of optimal levels of organic matter and if we differentiate and designate economic and ecological land, we can ensure that biodiversity will survive into future generations.

The lessons that are emerging to combat human induced climate change are many.  It is now possible to see predictable and catastrophic outcomes if we do not make a major non-marginal correction in human society and economy.   As the world moves toward Copenhagen it is important that solutions compete based on the merit of the ideas and not simply to enrich the wealthy who can manipulate the very large sums of money being discussed.

Revaluing ecosystem functions such as water, soil fertility and biodiversity and recognizing that restoring these functions is the key to reducing human impact on the climate provides the rationale to transfer very large amounts of money to restoration of degraded parts of the Earth.  This will benefit everyone by helping to mitigate against human induced climate change and it will help to redress the disparity that has left 100’s of millions of people desperately poor at the edges of large degraded ecosystems.

There are two main strategies discussed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  (UNFCCC) for the Fifteenth Convening of the Parties in Copenhagen in December.  The first can be described as Enhanced Clean Development Mechanism primarily using Carbon Capture and Storage and Energy Efficiency to mechanically reduce human greenhouse gas emissions.  The second is the Reduction of Emissions through the Decrease in Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) or essentially protecting the last remaining forests from being lost.  While it is possible to see merits in both of these efforts it is difficult to see how these can be suggested to be solutions.  With Enhanced CDM it is possible to lower human emissions but impossible for this alone to rebalance the carbon cycle.   It seems to go without saying that we need to protect all the remaining functional ecosystems which REDD is to do.

Objective analysis shows that there is vast carbon sequestration potential as well as many other benefits to restoring large-scale damaged ecosystems that cannot be found in Enhanced CDM or REDD.  Restoration also has the benefit of helping to take the poorest people in the world and make them into the solution while ending their poverty forever.

While this line of inquiry is challenging it may offer the best solution to myriad problems that are in fact inter-related and can only be solved by comprehensive solutions that address them all.

I think we are all challenged to find and analyze solutions in the public dialogue.

If this is interesting to you I’d be happy to write for any of your publications or to provide broadcast programming on the subject for your television stations.  Or, if you would like to follow this line of inquiry yourselves I would be happy to provide you with interviews, databases and contact information that I have gathered.

John D. Liu

Patrick Climate change, Ecosystem Rehabilitation, John D. Liu, Sustainable development

Please take a few minutes to go through the three parts of A Line in the Sand, produced in 2001 by our Environmental Education Media Project in conjunction with TVE International and BBC World’s EARTH REPORT.  It tells the Earth’s Hope story of human actions destroying an ecosystem, creating poverty and desertification and then rehabilitating the damaged area.  You’ll find many of the Lessons of the Loess Plateau themes throughout the video.

Remember the hierarchy of ecosystem functionality.

A Line in the Sand Part 1

A Line in the Sand Part 2

A Line in the Sand Part 3

Michael Collins Ecosystem Rehabilitation, Lessons of the Loess Plateau, Video Library A Line in the Sand

This is one of John’s old posts:

This is the beginning of the Earth’s Hope Tour of Africa and I hope that you will follow our trip on this web log and also post your thoughts on the “Earth’s Hope” Forum.

I’m having a deep breath.  Cape Town is a beautiful city where it rains while the sun shines.

I presented the first presentation of the “EARTH’S HOPE” message in Africa to an audience that included many ministers of environment including those from several countries on our tour.  The venue was the “High Level Round Table on Sustainable Land Management”.  The reception of the message is very encouraging.  Every speaker who followed mentioned the film and the China experience in land rehabilitation.  The Ministers of Environment from Rwanda and Tanzania were especially happy to note that the “EARTH’S HOPE” message was coming soon to there countries.  There were immediately inquiries as to whether I could visit Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Chad.  It is clear that there is a massive need and interest to learn more of how China has accomplished this.

The Minister of Environment from Rwanda who is our host next week stated that “There have been many meetings but there seems to be “missing link” and very little progress or even greater land degradation continues. What can be done on the ground?”

Many speakers have commented on the importance of community participation to ensure sustainability.  Even large funded programs by agencies eventually end and it is critical that the local people can carry on with sustainable agriculture in order to ensure ecologic

As I write this I am learning about several efforts in Tanzania, Senegal, Burundi, the Nile Trans-boundary, and Lesotho to protect land and water resources and how to involve communities in various land management projects.  These are very admirable but there is a general sense that this still too little and that there needs to be a scaling up of these initiatives to reach everyone and to achieve ecologic health.

In other developments, TerrAFRICA is meeting and is discussing how to collaborate with the “EARTH’S HOPE” initiative.  I’m especially interested in getting them into the GDLN conferences.

I have been approached by many delegates who appreciated the presentation and would like to find ways to collaborate.  One is Professor Eric O. Odada, of the Pan African Start Secretariat (PASS).  Professor Odada’s group is using GIS systems to identify the existing degraded environments in Africa and establishing base-line information about the ecosystems by researching what was lost from the systems.  This is extremely interesting in understanding how the “EARTH’S HOPE” initiative could help those in Africa who are trying to rehabilitate Africa’s degraded lands.

Join us as we travel through Africa showing what has been accomplished in China in terms of Sustainable Land Management!

John D. Liu

Michael Collins Africa, Ecosystem Rehabilitation Africa, Burkina Faso

Michael Collins Ecosystem Rehabilitation, Mission Statement Africa

This is one of John’s old posts:

We are at the Kivu Sun Hotel at Gisenyi, on the North side of Lake “Kivu “ which also borders on the Congo.  We are mostly resting, after a week of 12-hour days, except for Alex who is working on her Masters Degree in Communications for Development online with Malmö University in Sweden, together with participants from all over the world.

Two colleagues from the Ministry of Land and Environment, Frank Rutadinwa who directs reforestation and Antoine Capitani who protects wetlands,  traveled with us North from Kigali on Thursday and Friday and helped us film forest and wetland ecosystems and impact in Rwanda.

On Thursday, we visited the remnants of the Gishwati primary forest that over the last few decades has been devastated by encroaching agricultural lands.  Traditionally it must have been part of a great Forest that covered vast regions of what is now Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, the Congo and beyond.  It is the habitat of Gorillas, Chimpanzees and numerous other species that are now seriously endangered.  The Rwandan portion was around 25,000 hectares in 1960, by the 1994’s it was only 8000 hectares, and today only about 1,000 hectares remain.  Frank told us of measures to try to enlarge the forest but was deeply concerned about the encroachment of agriculture.

On the way to the forest we passed through an area that is very fertile with volcanic soils.  The people were just dropping bean seeds in among the volcanic rock and are able to get for them what seems like a reasonable crop.  This must have remained the same for many generations.  The people were friendly and of course were fascinated by the cameras and other equipment we have brought.  They are not shy about asking us to give them “Farangi” which apparently means money in the Kinyarwandan language.

Because of the fertility of the soils the population pressures on this area are so intense that the farmers have planted right to the tops of the mountains.  There are slopes of 60 and even 70 degrees that are planted.  It is evident that the soil stability is being disrupted.  Active erosion can be seen.   It is not surprising to note the erosion or to view the streams chocked with silt.  Where once the streams were clear now they run brown with silt and the inlets to the lake show vast color changes as the silt enters the lake.

The native trees except for the protected ones in the remaining forest are 95% Eucalyptus.  This is because the local people appreciate its fast growth and its usefulness as a fuel and a construction material.  But there is a controversy about displacing all the native species with alien ones.  The question of whether to try to replace the Eucalyptus has come up but it seems to be by far the strongest species of tree now in Rwanda.  It seems like a good idea to encourage the return of native tree species but it is also clear that the Eucalyptus is now serving and important role and it would not be good to try to eradicate it without first determining to replace its function.

On Friday we traveled to the high lake country near the Rwandan side of the Muhabura volcano.  On the other side, is Uganda where I was last year making “Beating the Drum Loudly”.  In Uganda, I visited the Gorillas that live in Bwindi National Park, but the Rwandans proudly told us that this year the Gorillas have moved into Rwanda.  Apparently the two governments had to hold a negotiation to discuss how to share tourism revenue because the Gorillas bring in millions per year.   This seems positive as it suggests the enormous value of the wildlife and natural habitat of the area especially in comparison to the potential of primitive agriculture.

This is an extraordinarily beautiful area with vast vistas overlooking volcanic lakes.  I remember fondly the school at Lake Bunyoni in Uganda, dancing and drumming for us.  We used them for the title sequence and the soundtrack of the film.  On both sides of the border there is vast potential for tourism.  It is a unique and charming place.  But it is suffering from consistently encroachment of the natural environment by unsustainable agriculture.  Priceless and beautiful wild areas are being degraded at an alarming rate.  This is leading to the loss of ecosystem function and greater poverty for the area.

The strongest indicator of this is the growing loss of natural hydrological regulation.  Everywhere we have gone everyone has shared the same concern.  They are worried that they are losing their water.

We traveled high up into the mountains to the Lake Buhondo hydroelectric station and then up to the top of the mountain to see Lake Bulera which feeds the system.   Then we traveled over a very dodgy road to the other side of the mountains to see the Rugezi highland wetlands.  We had already glimpsed these from the helicopter but the reality on the ground was sobering.  Many of the wetlands have been drained to convert them to agriculture.

This has nearly devastated the ecosystem.  The water levels are dropping precipitously.  It is having ripple effects throughout the region.  One teacher at the Agriculture College told us of a lake that has dropped 10 meters in a decade.   Antoine told us that Hydroelectric potential has dropped from 22 megawatts to only between 2 megawatts and even that is intermittent as they wait for the upper lake to recharge before releasing the water to the generators.  So most of the generators remain idle and the others only run when the water is sufficient.

We then rushed to the Institut Superieur de l’Agriculture et de l’Elevage (ISAE) where we shared the China “EARTH’S HOPE” experience to about 100 students and some of their Professors.  We were welcomed by the Rector and showed the 25 minute presentation of the “Loess Plateau Rehabilitation”.  There were many questions and many of the students stayed on discussing even though the student mess had opened and they were missing dinner.

The questions were very interesting.  The first question was about Economic and Ecologic land and showed the prevailing understanding that economics somehow trumps ecologic needs.  I tried to explain that in China the recent changes have meant that they have determined that it was necessary to treat ecologic and economic issues as a complementary system.  That the economic potential of agriculture certainly requires functional ecosystems and that since they have begun to differentiate and designate ecologic and economic land that the economic situation has vastly improved.

Others questioned whether it was possible to restore the degraded ecosystem in Rwanda where hydrological function, soil stability and natural fertility have been seriously affected in recent years.  I tried to answer this by noting that in China’s Loess Plateau a much more fundamentally degraded ecosystem had shown remarkable ability to return ecosystem function.  In Rwanda, far from being fundamentally degraded the ecosystem is only beginning to lose ecologic function.  But if this is not understood and addressed then the consequences are very clear and also very dire.

The concept of Ecologic and Economic land being together rather than ecologic land being isolated in a National Park and the rest of the land being economic seems to be new to most Rwandans.   Huge areas that have been moved to agriculture in recent years which has led to greater and greater loss of ecosystem function.

It will require research but on first reflection it seems that the rainfall may not be the problem, with a minimum of around 12,000 mm per year but more that natural infiltration has been lost with biodiversity loss and the disruption of soil stability, so that the water no longer stays in the system but is lost downstream instantly during a rainfall event.  The micro-climate below the canopy has also been lost because the canopy is mostly gone.  This seems a classic example of the early stages of disruption which if it continues can be very dangerous.

It should be noted that natural fertility is being lost at an alarming rate and that this will eventually cause yet more poverty among those who are already living a precarious existence.

It also seems that the conditions for rehabilitation are excellent.  The only problem is that 90% of the people live by primitive agriculture which is not at all sustainable and their unsustainable agricultural practices are causing the ecosystem function loss.  If there were alternatives for the people and they could be employed in rehabilitation efforts rather than continuing to degrade the environment then it seems very likely that this region could again flourish.

Michael Collins Africa, Ecosystem Rehabilitation Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Kigali, Rwanda

This is one of John’s old posts:

We have traveled out of the town of Butare with Venuste Ruhigana, who is in charge of soil conservation for Rwandan Agricultural Development Agency, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture.   We have seen step terraces, progressive terraces and traveled as far as the edge of the Nyungwe Forest.  They promise that we will return to the forest on Tuesday and I am very keen to go inside.  But in order to make it back in time to meet the Academic Vice Rector and the Dean of Agriculture at the National University in Butare we have turned back.

From the edge of the forest a great deal becomes clear as to what is happening in this region.  The humidity and temperature change is so great that it cannot only be attributed to the altitude.  I suspect that it is 5 degrees different at least in temperature and the relative humidity must be from zero in the agricultural districts to close to 20% at the edge of the forest and I don’t doubt its more inside.  It seems obvious that the respiration of the vegetation, the micro-climate differences beneath the canopy and the level of moisture retained in the soil and necromass are much greater in the natural setting and have been disrupted just in the agricultural areas.

This is the source of the Nile and for hydrologic function to begin to be disrupted even at the source is very troubling.  I wonder how many people are aware of this and how many are considering the potential of rehabilitation?  What must the consequences be downstream when there is impact already here?

Near to Butare and all along the road to the Forest there are terraced fields and stands of Eucalyptus.  The erosion in many places is obvious and in some severe.  The step terraces they are employing to mitigate the erosion are something new to my experience.  The people dig a series of trenches along the contour of the hillside with a break every three meters of so.  The idea is that during rains the erosion will gradually make a flat field if the trenches are maintained and the soil emptied out periodically.  However the examples we saw were apparently not designed by a technician because according to Venuste, the size of the trenches was too short, and the soil should have been placed uphill of the trenches but was downhill.  It seems to take 7 or 8 years for this technique to deliver flat fields.  We have seen some which were apparently made this way.

This will require more research but it seems to me that all we are seeing confirms the hypothesis that human impact here is disrupting several ecosystem functions.  Clearly the soil stability, natural fertility and hydrological functions are being degraded in this part of the country and seemingly virtually everywhere in Rwanda.  While there are some efforts to stem the loss of ecosystem function, from what we have seen so far they don’t seem to be equal in design to the size of the problem.  It as if the problems have been looked at as isolated events effecting perhaps individual farmers, individual fields and productivity and not viewed as part of a greater system.

But there are many factors including the rapidly rising population, the fact that more than 90% work in agriculture and the genocide that gripped Rwanda in 1994.  We are headed to one of many genocide memorials, this one at Murambi.

More later.  John

Michael Collins Africa, Ecosystem Rehabilitation

This is one of John’s old posts:

On Tuesday we met with Governors of the Provinces and Mayors of many of Rwanda’s cities.  We presented the Chinese experience of the Rehabilitation of the Loess Plateau.  The questions were astute.  Throughout Rwanda there seems to be an understanding that ecosystem function is being lost and that this is due to unsustainable agricultural practices.  But there is a great question of what could change the fate of the 90% of the people that live by subsistence or near subsistence farming.

This is what is so compelling about the China model.  That people who were the main agents of change were also peasant farmers who had been engaged in unsustainable agricultural activities.

But the essential knowledge was identified that could change generations of degradation toward the return of ecosystem function.  Attention must be paid because this is the exact knowledge that Rwanda and many other places around the world need right now.

We shared with the Governors and Mayors definitions that came from the Loess Plateau project.

The five essential ecosystem functions.

1.  Biodiversity

2.  Soil Stability

3.  Natural Fertility

4.  Hydrological Regulation

5.  Carbon Sequestration

Principles defined by the Loess Plateau project.

1.  Unsustainable Agricultural Practices must end

2.  Differentiation and designation of ecologic and economic land

3.  The entire dynamic changes

Requirements for large scale ecosystem rehabilitation.

1.  Awareness and belief that it is possible to rehabilitate large scale ecosystem rehabilitation.

2.  Adequate Science - continuous monitoring to ensure that you do no harm

3.  An enabling regulatory environment

4.  Sufficient investment

5.  Everyone must participate

Policies defined and enacted by the Chinese government due to the experiences on the Loess Plateau.

1.  Land Tenure - long term land use contracts

2.  Tree Cutting Ban

3.  Grazing Ban

4.  Ban on planting on steep slopes

5.  Designation of Ecologic Land

6.  Investment in the Economic Land

Michael Collins Africa, Ecosystem Rehabilitation Loess Plateau, Rwanda

This is one of John’s old posts:

Dr. Schilling, Director of the GIS Center

The National University of Rwanda is in a lovely campus in Butare, 2 and ½ hours drive South and West from Kigali.  Tall trees shade the campus and students sit and study in the forest.  It is really inspiring.   There is strong sense of competition and students are crowded around the administrative building looking for jobs that they might be qualified for.

After presenting the Earth’s Hope information on the 11th of September to Dr Silas Mureramanzi, the Academic Vice-Rector of the National University of Rwanda we arranged to present at 08:30 on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 to students in Biology, Agriculture and the Remote Sensing GIS Center.

Click here to learn more about the National University of Rwanda:

On the 12th in the morning we presented to the Governors and Mayors in Kigali and then drove back to Butare to visit the University for a second time.  The Academic Vice-Rector, Dr. Mureramanzi introduced us to the GIS Center, a very well endowed and equipped research and training center.  We are hopeful that we can work together with the Dr. Michele Schilling and her staff.  The center is associated with Weigenen University in the Netherlands and we are hopeful that together with the World Soil Information Center we can gain a much greater insight into the total area of degraded land in Rwanda and the potential for rehabilitation.

To learn more about the GIS Center at the National University Click here:

I also met Dr. Beth Kaplin, from Antioch University who is helping the National University develop a Conservation Biology Course, the first of its type in Rwanda.  This should have great potential if the EARTH’S HOPE message resonates with enough people in Rwanda.

(to learn more about Conservation Biology at the National University please contact Dr. Beth Kaplin bkaplin@antiochne.edu

Although apparently the Ministry of Land had communicated with the University it was only after we went there and presented to the vice-rector that they began to set up the presentation.  The auditorium was big, very nice and had a very good audio-visual technician named Jean-Paul who was able to give us really good pictures and sound compared to what we have had in other venues.  About 60 Students and Faculty came which was I thought a good turnout since the lead-time was so short.

After all that it was an excellent group of serious scholars and they were impressed by the Chinese experiences and how the Chinese experience might help them.  I was introduced by the Dean of Agriculture who had already watched the films we left with the Vice-Rector and was very keen to discuss the differences and similarities between China and Rwanda.  The audience was primarily interested in helping Rwanda to development and so many of the questions were about economics.  It was quite interesting to note that they took on board the idea that ecologic land and economic land could be right next to each other.  They are going to have to think about this.  But it will be truly wonderful if they do it.  Then the tops of all the hills and mountains could be forested again and the worst of the ecosystem function loss might be reversed.

It would be a great relief not to see exposed soil in Rwanda any more.  This is an epidemic.  The sloping land is cleared of trees, then the natural fertility is depleted within a few years and the type of agriculture that remains is often destructive.  The tragedy of this is that the great natural beauty of the area and the wealth of Rwandan biodiversity is rapidly being lost.  And the ecosystem function and the great beauty are certainly worth much, much more than the meager crops that can be scratched out of the hillsides.

The national discussion is about land, water, agriculture and poverty and the National University was no different.  Why is the water disappearing?  Can we do what the Chinese did?  What about population growth?  How do we provide land for the growing population?   These questions are all very pertinent and the poverty that goes along with the type of agriculture being practiced in Rwanda is certainly compelling.  But the answers to the questions must include intact ecosystems or the situation will only get worse.  The conditions in Rwanda are actually excellent.  There is plenty of rainfall.  It’s just that the natural waterways are being disrupted by misdirected engineering and by loss of vegetation cover.  But the vegetation cover would come back quickly if given a chance.

Perhaps one thing that I have noticed is an overemphasis on the engineering aspect of terracing and less of a focus on restoring vegetation cover.  This needs to be considered very carefully in Rwanda.

The National University Faculty was very interested in the Global Development Learning Network and joining their colleagues around the world to try to answer some of these fundamental questions.  Now that we have met with many of the political leaders and many of the academics I must say that Rwanda is really ready for and may already be enjoying a type of Renaissance.   They seem to want very badly to move beyond the hatred and brutality of the genocide and find a way forward toward a sustainable future.  They have many problems but they have an admirable focus and interest to find solutions.

Michael Collins Africa, Ecosystem Rehabilitation National University of Rwanda

This is one of John’s old posts:

My favorite place so far in Rwanda.

Following the presentation at the National University we went back to the Nyungwe National Forest.   I really wanted to film inside the forest and feel the difference between the natural environment of Rwanda and the human environment so altered by extensive agriculture.

Before we got deeply into the Nyungwe forest, we found teams of people preparing lumber and charcoal from Eucalyptus trees, just at the edge of the natural forest.  The method of sawing lumber with a giant saw wielded by 2 men reminded me of China.  One man stood below the log which was raised on a platform and the other man stood on the platform.  The motion was consistent and expert but the knowledge that if mechanized this could be done in seconds rather tempered my view.  And how much worse would that be if they had mechanization?  There might not be a single tree left standing.

The charcoal burning was even more primitive with the Eucalyptus wood burnt within a mud daubed hut so that it smoldered rather than burned.  The people then bag this and carry it for miles on their heads.  Could the world help these people get solar energy so that they wouldn’t have to devastate the forest just for cooking fuel?  There are serious population pressures in Rwanda which mean using wood and charcoal for cooking can potentially devastate the ecosystem.   And when considered in a global context it seems appalling that anyone needs to gather charcoal to cook, its just not necessary.  But they must have an alternative before they can change.

Inside, the Forest did not disappoint.  Monkey’s sat at the side of the road.  The canopy mostly blocked the sun and the light rain.  We found a waterfall springing from the hillside.   Wild orchids sweetly scented the spring that in turn misted them with moisture.  Ferns were everywhere near the edges of the forest.  When you walked into the forest there seemed to be a foot or so of leaves and twigs so that you sank with each step.  The fragrance that came up from the rotting vegetation smelled clean.

If anyone wants to know what is happening to Rwanda’s water all they need to do is go into the Nyungwe Forest and compare the situation with most of the agricultural lands.  First the sun can barely penetrate the canopy and so the evaporation rate is much reduced.  In addition the trees, the abundant undergrowth, and the decaying plant litter are all filled with moisture.  Compare that with exposed soil on a 60 degree slope baked by the sun and you get the general idea.

Michael Collins Ecosystem Rehabilitation Nyungwe Forest

This is one of John’s old posts:

We visited a very interesting project in Shinyanga known as NAFRAC.  The acronym is a perfect match but it stands for the Natural Forest Resources and Agro-forestry Management Center.

NAFRAC is a continuation of an earlier project called HASHI begun in 1986.   The manager is Mr. Wendelin Mlenge, who also worked on the earlier HADO project begun in the 1970’s.  Mr. Mlenge is integrating traditional land management structures with scientific sustainable land management practices.  He was highly praised for his accomplishments at the graduate seminar at the Institute for Resource Assessment at Dar Es Salaam University.

The reform that NAFRAC has added to the earlier “Top Down” approaches is to rely on local people and even cultural traditions.  The Ngitili is a type of fallow field that had long been held in reserve by the local people for hard times.  By keeping an area that was not grazed or cultivated it was possible during prolonged drought or other harsh periods to carefully open the Ngitili for use.  This saved the other lands from being pushed to collapse.

These best practices are combining science with community participation and this project is having results within the communities it serves.  But it needs to be scaled up to vast areas in order to influence ecosystem function like the loss of hydrological function that is taking place across a wide area.

Michael Collins Ecosystem Rehabilitation Dar es Salaam, Shinyanga, Tanzania