Charity Project

Charity
Project

Rainforest Saver

PROJECT: Agroforestry to replace slash and burn farming of tropical rainforest

LOCATION OF IMPACT: Cameroon and Ecuador

PROJECT COST: £100,000

We teach a technique of agroforestry called Inga Alley Cropping to small farmers and indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and village communities in Cameroon in the Congo Basin. This gives them an alternative to cutting and burning small patches of forest for new fields and enables them to grow high-nutrient, chemical-free crops inside the Inga alleys with yields often 10-15 times more than outside the alleys. The system reduces carbon emissions from forest loss, and sequesters carbon in the soil and trees, while restoring the soil, combating poverty, and protecting places with high biodiversity.

Inga alley cropping is a sustainable alternative to slash and burn farming. Inga is a leguminous (bean family) tree, so it fixes nitrogen. Inga trees are planted into degraded soil in rows with alleys between them. The trees grow fast and shade out the weeds. The trees are then pruned and the brush and leaves laid on the ground to make mulch, into which crops are sown after 5-6 weeks. The wood supplies firewood or makes biochar. After harvest the trees regrow and the cycle is repeated.

With your support we can reach more communities, schools and farmers, educate them and give them Inga Seedlings to plant and improve their land and crops. By increasing crop yields and allowing farmers to stay on the same plot of land, the cycle of poverty and dangerous forest burning can be broken. Some of our research in Ecuador has found that Inga trees protect cacao from pod rot which is threatening the crop that makes chocolate. We need funds to continue our research, to save the Rainforest and also to save chocolate!

Maize growing in an Inga alley – the trees are re-growing after pruning.

Atanga running schools workshops (March 2023)