Make a resolution to help SHI address the global issues of poverty and deforestation in 2005. Slash-and-burn farming is quickly destroying the world's tropical forests and the lives of small rural farmers. SHI offers Central American families training to implement sustainable alternatives to this destruction. With the support of SHI's trained local staff, farmers are able to grow more food for their families without destroying the rainforest. SHI's projects are run by the people who need them most. SHI has found that by hiring local people to offer communities long-term assistance, families are making great strides forward in adopting sustainable land-use practices such as reforestation, agro-forestry and organic farming.

The above photo shows the Nuñez family and SHI's Panamanian extension worker, Eric Hernández, with pipes for a small irrigation system. Esteban Nuñez, his wife and eight children have been working with the SHI Panama program for four years and have seen both their health and income improve. They are now growing their staple crops using organic sustainable techniques instead of slash-and-burn practices and are growing nutritious vegetables to eat and sell at the local market place. Mr. Nuñez says, "Now we are growing produce to eat ourselves and to sell…The SHI program has offered us support by giving us seeds, training and shown us how to improve our crops. We have acquired much knowledge to improve our crops and our land. We send our thanks to the SHI program which, through its local staff, has given us these opportunities to improve our standard of living and succeed."

Sustainable Harvest International  •  81 Newbury Neck Rd. Surry, ME 04684  •  207.374.2002 (phone)  •  207.374.2093 (fax)  •  www.sustainableharvest.org