Sustainable Harvest International's Fall Newsletter

SHI Honduras continues to reach new heights in its outreach and development work with rural agricultural communities. In the past three months, over 1,600 visits have been made to the families that work with us in order to provide advice and assistance in planting and harvesting of crops. Over forty small businesses have been established through the auspices of SHI Honduras, greatly improving the quality of life for impoverished communities. Nine workshops were held, including a biodiesel workshop attended by SHI staff from Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua. In addition, the Honduras program will soon reach the mark of over a million trees planted. Despite these and many other accomplishments, our country director Yovany Munguia thinks that drought hampered many of the results he hoped for, and he expects better conditions and more success in the coming months as rain comes to the region.

SHI Nicaragua plans to add a new extensionist and reach out to even more communities and families in the isolated rural areas where they work. The past few months have presented even greater challenges for the program due to an extended drought, but results are still quite high in efforts at reforestation and improved agricultural lands, all making use of organic techniques. Nicaragua has almost ten times greater results in this area than was planned for the year. Country director Marvin Gonzales says they have also stepped up the number of trainings for community members at the request of local farmers, and this has met a great need in addition to raising SHI's profile. Four seed dryers were also constructed, and will serve as an example of these much-needed items for the communities.

The SHI program in Panama is making progress with the hiring of a new extensionist to work in the Anton region of the country, Ariel Moreno, and a new lead extensionist, Vicente Saldaña. These two will join our long-time Lake Alajuela extensionist Erick Hernandez in expanding the number of communities and families with whom Sustainable Harvest works, and strengthening the work in the communities SHI is already assisting. Country director Ximena Moncada says that during the past months SHI Panama has been especially focused on helping families to develop small projects, such as family gardens and stoves that burn less wood and produce less smoke in the home. For the past three months, the results for these types of projects are four times as much as the goals that were set. The Smaller World program also visited Panama in May, and worked with local communities and families to build rice paddies, which is another type of work that Panama is expanding by leaps and bounds.

The Belize program has had particular success recently in production of trees and in reforestation efforts, especially working with cocoa trees. Families that began working with SHI this year are also now beginning to harvest vegetables from the organic gardens established with SHI Belize assistance, which is greatly improving their health and standard of living. A workshop on how to make liquid fertilizers was also a huge success, and similar workshops are planned for the coming months. Lead extensionist Candido Chun believes with the coming of the rainy season, even better results for agriculture and reforestation are ahead for Belize.


Field Update • Sustainability in the Jungle • Sustainable Technology • Secure Earnings • Kids • Trips • Donate
Field Program Update Honduras SHI Honduras continues to reach new heights in its outreach and development work with rural agricultural communities. In the past three months, over 1,600 visits have been made to the families that work with us in order to provide advice and assistance in planting and harvesting of crops. Over forty small businesses have been established through the auspices of SHI Honduras, greatly improving the quality of life for impoverished communities. Nine workshops were held, including a biodiesel workshop attended by SHI staff from Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua. In addition, the Honduras program will soon reach the mark of over a million trees planted. Despite these and many other accomplishments, our country director Yovany Munguia thinks that drought hampered many of the results he hoped for, and he expects better conditions and more success in the coming months as rain comes to the region. Nicaragua SHI Nicaragua plans to add a new extensionist and reach out to even more communities and families in the isolated rural areas where they work. The past few months have presented even greater challenges for the program due to an extended drought, but results are still quite high in efforts at reforestation and improved agricultural lands, all making use of organic techniques. Nicaragua has almost ten times greater results in this area than was planned for the year. Country director Marvin Gonzales says they have also stepped up the number of trainings for community members at the request of local farmers, and this has met a great need in addition to raising SHI's profile. Four seed dryers were also constructed, and will serve as an example of these much-needed items for the communities. Panama The SHI program in Panama is making progress with the hiring of a new extensionist to work in the Anton region of the country, Ariel Moreno, and a new lead extensionist, Vicente Saldaña. These two will join our long-time Lake Alajuela extensionist Erick Hernandez in expanding the number of communities and families with whom Sustainable Harvest works, and strengthening the work in the communities SHI is already assisting. Country director Ximena Moncada says that during the past months SHI Panama has been especially focused on helping families to develop small projects, such as family gardens and stoves that burn less wood and produce less smoke in the home. For the past three months, the results for these types of projects are four times as much as the goals that were set. The Smaller World program also visited Panama in May, and worked with local communities and families to build rice paddies, which is another type of work that Panama is expanding by leaps and bounds. Belize The Belize program has had particular success recently in production of trees and in reforestation efforts, especially working with cocoa trees. Families that began working with SHI this year are also now beginning to harvest vegetables from the organic gardens established with SHI Belize assistance, which is greatly improving their health and standard of living. A workshop on how to make liquid fertilizers was also a huge success, and similar workshops are planned for the coming months. Lead extensionist Candido Chun believes with the coming of the rainy season, even better results for agriculture and reforestation are ahead for Belize.	Sustainable Agriculture in the Heart of the Jungle Program Director Greg Bowles A journey into the region where Sustainable Harvest Nicaragua works has a heart of darkness aspect. The goal, however, is to bring forth a certain sort of light in the form of teaching about sustainable agriculture and promoting reforestation in an area hard hit by rampant slash-and-burn practices. Just to reach the work area takes the better part of a day, first by boat leaving from the Atlantic Coast city of Bluefields onto open ocean before a right turn into the mouth of the Kukra River. At that point, the jungle overgrowth becomes a long hallway that the boat navigates inland, the sun occasionally blotted out when a canopy of leaves closes out the sky. My wife, Mercedes, an I were accompanying the SHI staff on a trip to understand both the work SHI does and the conditions of that work. Click here to read the rest of the article.
	Sustainable Technology: Biodiesel Development Assistant Jessica Osgood Why dig up dino-diesel when you can grow your own fuel in your back yard? One of Sustainable Harvest Honduras' newest innovations will be the production, use and promotion of biodiesel. The fuel will be made using mostly plants cultivated by families participating in SHI's programs and supplemented with waste oil from local restaurants. In many cases, this used oil would be thrown out into the watersheds or buried in the soil contaminating the natural resources and causing larger problems. Biodiesel in simple terms is fuel made of vegetable oil. Local crops high in oil content such as oil palm, sunflower, coconut and peanuts (canola and soybean in more temperate climates) can be harvested, pressed, and made into an efficient, low cost, and sustainable alternative to petroleum based fuels. Animal fats and even used cooking oil from restaurant fryers can be recycled into fuel. Click here to read the rest of the article.
	Sustainable Production Brings Secure Earnings Sustainable Harvest Honduras Excutive Director, Yovany Munguia Juan Alberto Pérez, a 44 year-old farmer, lives with his wife, Berta Alicia, their three sons and one daughter in the community of El Pinabete, Honduras. El Pinabete is an agricultural village located in a mountainous region where forty-five families work mainly in farming basic grains and coffee, as a means of sustaining themselves as well as generating income. Their tracts of land are small and almost infertile due to their location in forested areas, but out of necessity, the families, like Juan's, have had to work and farm this land in order to live. Click here to read the rest of the article.
The Kids Corner Click here to download your own copy of the La Cosecha Kids Corner! Learn how to make seed tape for your garden and have fun coloring!	Click here to learn about upcoming Smaller World Service Tours! Volunteer in Central America with Sustainable Harvest International.	Click below to make a tax-deductable donation.
Sustainable Harvest International • 81 Newbury Neck Rd. Surry, ME 04684 • 207.669.8254 (phone) • 1.866.683.6594 (toll free) • 207.669.8255 (fax) • shi@sustainableharvest.org • www.sustainableharvest.org

Field Program Update

Sustainable Agriculture in the Heart of the Jungle

Sustainable Technology: Biodiesel

Sustainable Production Brings Secure Earnings

The Kids Corner

Click here to download your own copy of the La Cosecha Kids Corner!

Click here to learn about upcoming Smaller World Service Tours!