Having given myself a serious scare reviewing the film Revolution (on the planet’s race to extinction through practices such as destroying critical forests), I was happy to read about a positive forestry initiative started in India and expanded to Haiti and Kenya. The pressures are the same in those countries as in Madagascar, which was featured in Revolution, but there is also a recognition that trees are life-giving.
Gregory M. Lamb writes at the Christian Science Monitor, “Aviram Rozin was excited. He had just returned from Haiti where the 80,000 Maya nut trees that volunteers with Sadhana Forest had planted there during the past five years had started to flower. Before long each tree would be producing huge quantities of nuts high in protein and other nutrients. One tree could supply enough yearly protein for a family of five.
“The nonprofit Sadhana Forest, cofounded by Mr. Rozin and his wife, Yorit, follows three simple strategies:
“• Plant indigenous trees in arid regions that once had been forested but have become barren, useless land.
“• With few exceptions, do the work using volunteers, both local and from around the world.
“• Since trees don’t grow overnight, plan on staying around for a long, long time to see the project through.
“The Rozins started Sadhana Forest in 2003, the year after they moved to India from Aviram’s native Israel to live in Auroville, an experimental township in southeast India that emphasizes sustainable living and has attracted immigrants from all over. The couple bought 70 acres of degraded land and set about creating a community dedicated to reforestation. …
“The aim of Sadhana Forest isn’t to buy and reforest massive tracts of public land. Rather, it is to teach local people how to grow trees on their own land. Faced with the dry climate, Rozin has come up with a simple, yet innovative, way to water the trees: wick irrigation. A two-liter plastic bottle filled with water is planted up to its neck next to each sapling or tree. A piece of cotton rope fed through a tiny hole in the bottom of the bottle acts as a wick, slowly moistening the soil. Loosening or tightening the bottle’s cap can control the rate of flow. …
“Each wick bottle becomes ‘a personal watering system for each tree,’ Rozin says, yet the materials are readily available locally and cost almost nothing. …
“Rozin, who studied psychology and later worked in management for an Israeli medical device company, does not have a degree in forestry but says that may have been a blessing in disguise.
“ ‘We found out that, in a way, ignorance is bliss because we’re very open to learning,’ he says. ‘We don’t think we know everything. A lot of innovation comes from listening to people, to being open.’ ”
Photo: Sadhana Forest
Volunteer Nixon Casseus (l.) and Sadhana Forest cofounder Aviram Rozin show off the first flowering Maya nut tree in Haiti.
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