Don Julion Sarmiento has a property in the community of Monte de la Virgen, in an area called Aguacate, in the department of Lempira, Honduras. The property is sloped, rocky, and contains two springs which are major sources of water for the lower reaches of the local creek and for surrounding communities. In the past this property was used as a cow pasture and corn field. In 2007, Don Julio approached the Peace Corps volunteer in the community about finding a use for this terrain which would protect the water sources and provide an economic benefit for his family, without adding to his workload of cultivating coffee in the higher regions of the community. Don Julio is a respected coffee farmer in the region who has long maintained diverse shade in his coffee plantations, but his employees are from communities in the lower elevations where they use different agricultural practices, such as burning all of their fields to plant basic grains for short term harvests. He was concerned about his employees' reaction to tree planting and was concerned that they would remove the trees.

The Solution

Trees for the Future provided seeds of fast growing timber species such as Acrocarpus fraxinifolious, Swietenia macrophylla and Cedrela odorata. PCV Cathie Bukowski (our current Training Program Coordinator) provided technical advice on nursery management and transplanting seedlings. She also worked with Don Julio to develop a cultivation system known as "talagua," which is similar to indigenous systems used in the area in the past. This system provides several harvests of beans and corn from the land before the alley cropped timber species close their canopy. In return, Don Julio offered his house for an all-day general agroforestry workshop for 40 community members. In addition, he talked often with the community members surrounding his elds to explain that he would be protecting their water source with the change in cultivation.

Trees for the Future provided seeds in the spring of 2008, and seedlings were planted out in June with the first rains, at the same time corn was planted. The area planted to pure Acrocarpus had closed 70% of the canopy by August of 2009, but due to the dappled shade, the land still received enough sunlight to be planted to corn. Due to the tree cover, the springs had not run dry the previous dry season and the local community members were pleasantly surprised and interested in planting their own sloping fields to timber species now that they understood the transition did not need to be immediate.

Looking Forward
Due to acceptance of the fast growing timber species there are more people in the community interested in planting timber species. Don Julio is trying to organize a group of local producers to plant trees in the sloping pastures and fields to protect water sources and as a long term investment.

The goals of the local project:

• Plant more seedlings to cover the original parcel, and switch to a shade tolerant crop, such as coffee, under the trees.
• Diversify species to provide for staggered harvest of timber and not depend on prices for one species.
• Plant forage lots on some land to provide high quality fodder for cattle.
• Hold workshops to train local producers in best practices such as pruning of Cedrela odorata.

Benefits

• Protection of water sources.
• Diminished fertilizer and agrochemical runo into local streams.
• Long term planning instead of thinking from one harvest to the next.
• Sequestration of carbon by trees.
• Reduced erosion in areas of tree planting.
• Farmers will understand the benets of planting and protecting trees on their land.