RRI goes to Sweden

Six innovative students from Sweden, involved in a high school business project, have chosen to support our work by selling rainforest trees to their customers.

The young adults have been given the challenge of learning how to run a business, by setting up a new company, Greenify UF, and developing a product to market. Having decided they wanted to make their business socially responsible, they decided to support our Rainforest Corridor restoration project in Sri Lanka. Carl Svensson from Greenify UF says "Our business idea is to run a small company without profits connected to environmental awareness".

The company is offering their customers the chance to plant a rainforest tree with us, and in return they will receive a certificate commemorating their purchase. Gift certificates are also available for people looking for Christmas, birthday or anniversary presents too.

Our supporters from around the world make a huge different to our work, and this inventive partnership with Greenify UF is raising awareness of the threats to Sri Lanka's rainforest as well as helping to restore vital habitat.

If you would like to find out more about this project, please contact info@rainforestrescueinternational.org or if you would like to buy a tree, please visit our website.

Fresh thinking volunteer website

RRI have been lucky enough to work with some great volunteers, and we are now looking to expand our volunteer programme with the help of a new UK based volunteering website.

Job Splitters has been set up by Michael Chapman, a Lancaster University student, to help students find conservation and volunteering projects from affordable grassroots organisations. His aim is to stop people being put off volunteering by the high prices that some companies charge when organising placements.

The website is a great way for us to be able to reach an international base of talent, and through our volunteer programme, bring new skills and expertise into the organisation. In exchange volunteers get:

• A full induction into the organisation
• Structured programme placement
• Opportunity to learn about different working practices and how to adapt working styles to different cultures
• Chance to learn about environmental and agricultural issues from a Sri Lankan perspective
• A unique chance to immerse themselves in Sri Lankan life and share cultural traditions

> Find out more about our current placements on the Job Splitters website

New school joins ranger programme

We are happy to welcome a new school to the ranger programme, the Boosa Mahavidyala primary school. The environmental club is due to have its first workshop on 10th September and is supported by the Ayesha Foundation from the Netherlands.

Students got a taste for the programme when they joined in our World Environment Day clean up of Kottowa Forest on June 5th 2009, where 5 schools from the Galle District joined together to learn about Climate Change and the important role rainforests play in the fight against global warming.

The school is located on the South Coast of Sri Lanka, between Galle and Hikkaduwa. It's playing field is only a stone's throw from the beach, and the children have already got started on a regular beach cleaning programme to help preserve their stretch of coastline. Many of the students come from families who have a long-held connection with the sea - with generations involved in coastal livelihoods such as fishing.

The Ranger programme will build on the experiences of students by exploring threats to marine and coastal ecosystems and conservation actions (such as sustainable fishing practices) that can be taken to protect them.

The school, which has a strong commitment to environmental protection, is also looking to set up a Rainwater harvesting system. This is a great opportunity for the Rangers to explore the importance of fresh water and its conservation locally and globally - making the important link between the basic needs of humans and animals everywhere.

We are planning to end our year the way we started, with a look at our tropical forests and what special plant and animals are hiding in the jungle.

Photos and a blog from our first workshop will soon be up, so come back to find out how our first day goes!

2009 World Environment Day Event - Kottowa Rainforest clean-up

“Unite to combat climate change” is the 2009 World Environment Day theme – a day which asks local communities to join together to create a global response to climate change.

But how can we, in Sri Lanka, create a meaningful and positive response to this challenge? As a world biodiversity hot-spot, it is only right we look to our diverse natural heritage to help us create a carbon neutral future. We have over 140 rainforest fragment patches which play a vital role in combating climate change.

It is in this spirit we organised a climate change education programme and wide-scale clean-up of Kottowa Forest, one of the closest rainforest fragments to Galle. Nearly 250 people came together to conserve and raise awareness of the importance of this forest area.

According to research conducted by Dr. Simon L. Lewis, a Royal Society Research Fellow at the Leeds University Earth & Biosphere Institute, “Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change”. So by protecting our remaining rainforest, we're not only saving habitat, but also preserving important carbon sinks.

With the support and participation of six schools, Education Department, Forest Department, Tea Research Institute, Yakkalamulla Police, Pradesha Saba, and local businesses including the Amangalla Hotel, Commercial Bank, Wadood, Sahana Bakery and LGJ Supercentre, the Galle community really was united in its efforts to conserve this important carbon sink and help combat climate change.

RRI donate trees to Galle Cooperatives for a green New Year

Rainforest Rescue International (RRI) are proud to partner with the Honourable Minister Mr UGD Ariyathilaka, Minister of Food Co-operative, Provincial Roads, Electricity, Alternative Energy and Trade, Southern Provincial Council, to help 7,000 families in the Galle District get the New Year off to a green start.

RRI have donated one plant to each household to be planted at the auspicious time for the first transaction of the year – Ganudenu. People believe by completing their first work at the appointed time, their labour will undoubtedly yield fruits. What better way to celebrate this custom, and Sri Lankan’s traditional connection to agriculture, by nurturing a native Sri Lankan plant and seeing flourish through the year and into the future.

The donated plants, worth 10.5 lakhs, include traditional fruits such as Mango, Jambu and Diul and native, endemic Sri Lankan timber trees such as Na, the Sri Lankan national tree, and the versatile Mi, whose bark can be made into a tonic, oil can be used for cooking, flowers can be eaten and whose hard wood can be used for heavy construction such as boat building. Each plant has been chosen for its special properties, whether medicinal, nutritional or income generating. And importantly they all help to create biodiverse habitats for Sri Lanka’s endemic and endangered animals – helping to conserve and protect our natural heritage as well as support family livelihoods in the future.

Mr Charith Senanayake, Managing Director of RRI, says “We are delighted to be able to support the Honourable Minister Mr UGD Ariyathilaka in this programme. These traditional plants are an important part of Sri Lanka’s agricultural and biodiversity legacy, and by starting the New Year with a commitment to nurturing 6,000 new saplings, we are celebrating our traditions while nurturing the future.” The four cooperatives involved in the programme are the Badco Co-op Family, the Gangabada Pattuwa Tea Co-op, the Akmeemana Multipurpose Co-operative and the Galle Co-op Family.

Each family will plant their gift at the auspicious time for Ganudenu, getting Aluth Avurudu off to a green start. As the plants grow, flower and fruit, they carry with them the hope of it being a bountiful and generous year.

First harvest

As the New Year comes close, the flowers bloom, trees fruit, and the harvest starts - including in our office garden.

Sri Lanka is a fertile country, and in the south-west wet zone the soil is rich and the rain keeps the plants lush. In only a month our first garden crop was ready for harvesting - the green leaf Kangkung.

It can be made ground and used for Thai cooking, or fried into a Sri Lankan Curry with garlic, onion, chilli, tomato, turmeric, curry powder, curry leaves and coconut milk.

The rest of the garden is growing well and the next crop of radish is expected soon.

The Village Garden – new community sales point opens near Hikkaduwa

Just north of Hikkaduwa we pull off the road next to a small plot of land being transformed into a community outlet. I step through the gate into a space framed by a traditional wooden house and two greenhouses. The Village Garden in Akurala was developed as a sale centre and service outlet for the Coastal Community Restoration Project (CCRP).

The Village Garden has been established to enable communities to market their produce, contributing towards supporting CCRP beneficiaries in maintaining a sustainable income. It is a nature centre, selling native home garden, medicinal and ornamental plants, organic compost, pots, and value-added products such as juices and straw products. This is a unique outlet on the coastline of Sri Lanka as other community centres focus on predominantly on handicraft sales.

Amitha, the centre manager, explains each community nursery will provide plants and other products to sell at the outlet. They will include native Sri Lankan trees such as Kaluwera, a high value timber and ornamental plants such as orchids and anthurum. For home gardens, visitors can purchase vegetable plants and herbs such as mint, chilli, lemongrass and basil.

Traditional medicinal plants are also available, not only providing an income, but also keeping alive generations of knowledge on the medicinal properties of native species. For example, I discovered that Gal Demata (Impatiens repens) can be combined with other herbs and placed on the skin to help heal broken bones and sprains.

We sat on the spacious house terrace which overhangs a small wetland. I can see egrets and herons wading through the reeds and the occasional jumping fish. As part of the CCRP’s commitment to ecosystem restoration the centre staff are protecting and maintaining this area to encourage wetland habitat for birds, fish and insects. The house itself has been designed on stilts to protect it from flooding. Amitha explains she plans serve refreshments to visitors in this calm space, including the traditional health-giving Kirala juice.

A cool breeze passes through as RRI staff describe how the centre is managed by the Cooperation of Organic Producers and Environmental Restoration Societies (COPERS). Each community CBO voted two representatives each onto the board, who have agreed a number of guiding principles for the centre operation to support the business sustainability.

I can see the The Village Garden offers communities to get their products to market, and develop future opportunities such as using the site for a training venue and eco tourism focal point. So next time you are on the Galle road, look out for The Village Garden and stop by to browse the plants and garden products, or revive yourself with a health-giving refreshment, in the calm spot of a restored wetland.

Office garden

RRI staff rolled up their sleeves, hitched up their sari's and divided into teams to turn the back yard of the office into a fertile vegetable garden. In only a few hours each group had marked out the beds, dug over the soil, added compost and come up with a variety of inventive ways to irrigate and shade the beds.

All the construction materials used were recycled from waste that has been taking up space behind the office. A broken wheelbarrow was turned into a raised bed, old tyres were transformed into plant pots, broken bricks defined the bed edges and coir netting was strung up to provide shade.

The beds are being watered in even more creative ways. On one bed, bamboo was laid across the centre with strategic holes cut into the side. The water can be poured into the centre and then drains out the holes to evenly spread through the bed. Other irrigation methods include making holes in the bottom of old clay pots and plastic bottles. When filled with water they slowly release moisture through the bottom where the holes are. And one bed just had a pot of water with string trailing out across the earth. The rope draws the water from the pot and releases it into the soil bit by bit.

We planted kangkung, radish, bitter gourd, tomatoes, chillies, okra, cabbage and spinach.

Pests are controlled organically by spraying the plants with a mixture of Neem oil, water and soap.

Now we need to water, weed, add compost every two weeks and wait for our first crop.