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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Sustainable Land Management Workshop

VEPA has been invited to participate in Tonga's Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Workshop/Training on Strengthened capacity for sustainable agriculture, particularly in drought prone areas. A representative from VEPA will attend these discussions in Neiafu on Dec. 21st and 22nd. The training has been put together by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change through funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Sustainable Land Management project's aim is to "lift barriers to sustainable land management and thus contribute to enhance ecosystem health, stability, functions, and services". You can read more news on the project here.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Back in Koloa


Yesterday Saskia and myself headed back out to Koloa to finish the hand propagation part of the reforestation project. The fence has been installed, and so it was the perfect time for planting, despite the occasional showers.

We hand propagated 33 mangrove seeds, and will be returning every 10 days to monitor their process.

The school kids have about 30 seeds in recycled pots, every day they fill the pots with salt water, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The seeds take about 32 days before the tip starts to open up, once the mangroves are big enough (approx 50-60 days), they will be replanted into the protected area.

-Karen

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Plants and Pots

The kids planted their mangroves! On Thursday, we went to the school in Koloa and made little plastic pots for the kids with holes on the sides to mimic high and low tide...they will fill up their pots with ocean water in the morning for high tide, the water will slowly drain out, and then they will fill up their pots again in the evening. The child who does the best job taking care of his/her mangrove (i.e helps it grow the biggest and healthiest) will be awarded a small prize (TBD).

See below for pictures of the kids filling up their pots with sand and planting mangrove seeds.


making the pots

collecting sand



group photo

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Koloa Update- Fence Building

Last week in Koloa, Saskia, Emily and myself headed out to team up with members of the Koloa village to build the fence area around the mangrove project, the fence area is designed to keep the pigs away as they dig up the mud and disturb the mangrove growing areas.

Here are some of the pictures from our trip, some mangroves were hand planted by community members. The Koloa community has been amazing in the work and implementing of the Mangrove project.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Identified Mangrove Site

Today we visited the GPS in Koloa and gave a presentation on mangroves. Winnie and Karen explained where mangroves grow and why they are important. Then we drew a picture on the blackboard explaining how we will be planting new mangroves in a fenced area. The kids were really eager to learn more and participate by growing their own plants.

After school we all walked down to the beach with some women from Koloa to look if the mangroves were ready to seed. The kids walked arm in arm, and we improvised to the tune from the Wizard of OZ singing "we're off to see the mangroves!"

We decided the mangroves weren't quite ready to be planted, so some of us will return to Koloa to take a look next week....