Endemic Seeds Bank to empower women and girls

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!