Endemic Seeds Bank to empower women and girls

My experience in planting trees is very pretty. I have always wanted to see my town full of trees. I have seen my family and other people cut the trees, they see it as a business, and I get very sad because of this. My intention is to continue with the trees nursery and collect more variety of seeds and motivate the children and their families to grow trees, plant them and protect them. I had no previous knowledge, nor experience in this. Thanks to Na Bolom’s project I am learning. Na Bolom’s team shared with me their knowledge and I am learning about the process and every stage of the tree's production and growth. In Yo’onik we learn with the children, they already know how to collect the seeds and protect them and grow trees and plant them, they know about the different kinds of trees and the soil every tree needs.

The children are learning the importance of the trees, they are part of the activities, they love to participate, and they are conscious kids who like to take care of and keep the trees alive. If they see someone damage a tree they defend it, the children take the trees we produce in Yo’onik to their houses to plant them there, they know that they have the responsibility of keeping them alive and seeing them grow.

 “Mi experiencia en plantar arbolitos ha sido muy bonito, de mi parte siempre he querido ver a mi pueblo con muchos árboles.

Ya que he visto a familiares y personas que solo se dedican a cortarlo, lo ven como un negocio y me da tristeza ver eso, tengo la intención de poder seguir con el vivero y tener más variedades de árboles y así motivar a los niños y familiares a plantar árboles, ver nacer a un nuevo arbolito es lo más bonito que he visto, no tenía conocimientos suficientes de como recolectar y seleccionar las semillas, gracias a los conocedores y a los que se dedican a sembrar árboles he aprendido un poco, y con los de Na Bolom han sido los que me comparten los procesos de como se tiene que realizar cada etapa de crecimiento de los arbolitos. Y en Yo'onik junto con los niños vamos aprendiendo, ya son conocedores de como se siembra un arbolito, como se deben de cuidar y qué tipos de tierra necesita un arbolito.

Los niños saben la importancia de los arbolitos, se integran en las actividades, les gusta participar son niños muy conscientes en cuidar y mantener vivos los árboles y lo defienden si ven a alguien maltratar a un árbol, los niños se llevan los árboles para sembrarlo en sus casas y saben que es una responsabilidad de ellos mantenerlo vivo y cuidarlo mientras crece el arbolito.” Vikky

Vikky has participated in different projects; the endemic seeds bank is one of her favourites. She works accompanying children in another nonprofit organization in her community, Zinacantan, where they help children complete their education by teaching them the things that they don’t learn at school. Yo’onik teamed up with Na Bolom before the pandemic to start the trees nurseries project. As it was closed and the children started collecting seeds before the lockdown, Vikky made it her own project to take care of the seeds while the children were gone. Today Yo’onik has a tree's nursery and a seeds bank. The kids are collecting seeds from the surroundings and producing trees to reforest their community.

Help Vikky continue with her dream of seeing her community full of trees.

You can continue donating to the project through GlobalGiving and become a monthly donor.

Did you know that GlobalGiving gives extra donations to organizations with monthly donors?

Just follow the instructions in GlobalGiving's webpage. 

Links:

• https://www.facebook.com/na.bolom

We have been very lucky to receive other people's help. The Endemic seeds Bank to empoyer women and girls is getting other person's attention. For us, receiving volunteers or social service students helps us to teach people from other cities what we do and how we do it.

Mariana has been doing her social service with us. She is at the university and is very concerned about climate change. 

Mariana tells us her experience:

Hello, my name is Mariana, I am a student, and I recently had the opportunity to work in Na Bolom as a volunteer, specifically on the Climate Change Program. The work they do has the goal of reforesting the state of Chiapas, a goal that has magnified since the time of Gertrude Duby (original founder of the Na Bolom house). Her legacy translates into a great love for trees, animals, and overall, the beautiful ecosystems that dwell in the state and the region of Altos de Chiapas. The problem this state (and the country in general) is facing regarding deforestation, land-use change, and climate change in general, is serious and has a lot of risks for the present and the future. This problem is exactly what the work of the Climate Change Program in Na Bolom aims to address. My experience working there allowed me to testify to the importance of said program, that consists of reforesting as much land as possible, considering all the limitations.

The work starts with recollecting seeds, all of which must be endemic and native of the ecosystem; because to reforest an area properly, the trees need to be in their optimal conditions. For this part, the project of Endemic Seed Bank is relevant, because a seed bank allows a continuous stock of seeds that will make more efficient the rest of the work, which I will be describing next. Once the seeds are gathered, they need to be germinated in little compartments that let them grow as they need to. For this, it is extremely important to have good soil, which can be obtained from local forest areas, and compost. Once the seed is germinated and the plant begins to grow, they must be transplanted into bigger containers. In Na Bolom, we use recycled milk cartons, following the idea of using as little material as possible and recycling to reduce solid waste. In the milk cartons the plants get to grow naturally, just having their daily requirements of water and sun. This is the work that must be done on a regular basis, because once the rain season starts, all the plants in the milk cartons are ready to be transplanted into forest areas, completing then the goal of reforesting the territory.

As you can see, the amount of work done in the Climate Change Program regarding reforestations is equally as important as it is hard, needing of a lot of resources for it to be efficient. This work model has the goal of being replicated as much as possible to have a bigger outreach, to get more people involved; considering the importance of reforesting the state and the grave dangers we face if not done. This is the idea behind other projects, like the linkage with communities and high schools, with the purpose of teaching them everything described previously so they can replicate it in their own territories and benefit from the great conditions that a reforested land produces.

The importance of these projects enlightens the effects that climate change has on ecosystems as well as the communities that depend directly on them, not to mention the rest of the population that also gets affected, in a more indirect way. Therefore, to keep up the good work that this program in Na Bolom does, and to extend it so it can have a bigger impact, your donations are important.

Please consider becoming a monthly donor!