Selva el Ocote Biosphere Reserve, Mexico, April 2024
The project aims to help farmers and stockbreeders in the region shift to a silvopastoral system, i.e. a sustainable type of farming that combines forestry and pastoral goals. Thanks to the planting of 117,000 trees, local livestock farmers will have an income-generating activity that better respects the environment and protects the neighbouring Selva El Ocote reserve.
The project began in January 2022 with the selection of beneficiaries, setting up a community nursery to produce the forest seedlings, and planting trees in five cattle-breeding communities. All in all, over 162,500 young forestry and fodder trees have been planted.
At the beginning of 2023, the local communities set about building rainwater collection and storage systems to safeguard water supplies for their livestock throughout the year, especially the dry season. One system has been built in each of the five communities, supported by the A Tree for You project.
New forestry and forage seedlings were produced in 2023 to have a stock of seedlings for replanting those that failed to survive the dry season.
The trees planted in 2022 were monitored in July 2023. The operation revealed an average mortality rate of 50%, a result below what had been forecast for the project (a 70% survival rate). This high mortality rate can be explained by the extremely atypical year that was 2022, with a marked dry season and irregular rainy season. During the summer of 2022 there was a very intense heatwave and drought. As a result, the survival rate, which a few years ago was estimated at around 70%, fell to 50%.
Thanks to the stock of plants put aside in early 2023, all the dead plants were replaced at the end of the same year. After further monitoring in July 2024, we can reassess the number of living trees. The beneficiaries have been trained in tree maintenance to ensure their healthy development.
See you soon for news from the field!
