Climate Action El Salvador Project #51571

This machete grows trees!

by Paso Pacifico

Project Report | Jul 14, 2021
Empowering local farmers

By Sarah Otterstrom | Executive Director

Farmers are proud to put their machete to good use

Dear Friend,

Thank you so much for supporting our campaign to develop a learning curriculum that will support farmers in planting trees. Here are some updates on our progress over the past few months:

We completed our ethnographic study of farmers across three regions in El Salvador and Nicaragua. There, we learned that farmers are proud of their ability to utilize their machetes, and have deep knowledge about how to use their machetes to prune trees, stimulate new growth and replant trees. As a result of this study, we are now putting together an illustrated training manual to help reach 1 million farmers in the area. Our manual will empower farmers and their communities, while also ensuring that our fight against climate change is stronger than ever.

Our reforestation project has also led us to become finalists in a global innovation competition! Thanks to you and your support, our project has led us to gain more exposure which, in turn, will lead to more trees being planted to save our planet.

We have begun reviewing illustrations and searching for Latinx artists who could help us to draw culturally relevant images of farmers using machetes to stimulate different types of tree sprouting.

Rainy season is underway in Central America and we are working with landowners in eastern El Salvador to identify new sites to plant trees.

This project is a key element of a platform being under design by Paso Pacifico, with support from the Ashoka ASPIRe program and Societal Platform of the Ekstep Foundation. The platform will connect youth with farmers to promote tree-growing using traditional tools like machetes, and by mapping them for climate change. We are grateful for your contributions to this program and look forward to sharing more in the coming months.

With gratitude,

Sarah

The machete represents an important life skill

Local farmer in Nicaragua

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