Pruning a lemon tree on a reforested plot, during a plantation monitoring visit in 2024 ©Ishpingo
Tena, Ecuador, July 2024
After three and a half years of tree planting, seedling monitoring, and agroforestry training, phase three of the participatory reforestation project in the Ecuadorian Amazon ended in mid-2024.
The promising findings from 2023 were confirmed by final checking of the plots during the first half of 2024.
By the end of the project, no fewer than 14,090 trees have been replanted on plots of agricultural land, and they are now well established! Just over one third are fruit trees and the rest timber.
The most recent monitoring, carried out in the first half of 2024, confirmed the survival rate of 78.1% for all 18,033 trees planted. The visits also revealed an improvement in the upkeep of the plots by farmers. Two factors explain their increased commitment: the desire to develop sustainable agroforestry practices that benefit both the environment and their farming activities and the influence of cocoa prices. Rising cocoa prices means farmers are better paid, but not only! They also take greater care of their cocoa plants as well as the trees distributed as part of the project, with which they were planted in association. Finally, the trees planted have now grown sufficiently to be able to better withstand competition from the other plants present on each plot of land.
To complete the work of the project, small equipment (pruning shears, spades) was purchased and distributed to beneficiaries who had been most strongly committed to the project. This final activity rewards the sincere involvement of farmers, as well as boosting the benefits of the project and relations between Ishpingo and the farmers.
Combining trees and banana trees for a sustainable agroforestry system – 2024 ©Ishpingo
The trust-based relationship with the beneficiaries is now firmly established. Local partner Ishpingo plans to capitalise on lessons learned from this project to strengthen the support offered to other planting phases ongoing, particularly in the Kachiwanuchka area, a new area of intervention for the organisation.
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