Collecting Seeds

Don Julio and I spent some time earlier this week collecting seeds of a few common timber species of the region. Don Julio is a Kosñipatino (born and raised here) and spent much of his career in the timber industry. He has a wealth of knowledge about which species are popular for timber, where to find good seed trees, and when these trees are producing seeds or saplings.

Above is an image of seeds from the yanay tree. We had to walk quite a ways off the trail to find this particular tree. The seeds were buried in the leaf litter on the forest floor so finding them was a bit like a treasure hunt, but in the end, we ended up with about 25 viable seeds.

We also collected sapling of two types of laurel - "laurel of the mountain" and "laurel of the beach." The former was much more abundant and we planted close to 40 saplings while we only found about 12 laurels of the beach. All three species were divided into three groups and planted in bags of either pure biochar, pure compost, or a 50/50 mix biochar/compost.

COP20

COP20 is the 20th annual Conference of the Parties. It is an international political response to climate change which sets a framework for establishing action to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions. The group was established in March of 1994 and now has 195 parties. Last year's conference included over 650 members of the media, more than 4000 government officials, and almost as many UN representatives. This year's conference was held in Lima, Peru and also drew a large number of participants.

To learn more about COP20 please visit: http://unfccc.int/meetings/lima_dec_2014/meeting/8141.php

Several reporters from various countries, including Brazil and Egypt, visited Villa Carmen with goals of learning more about sustainable agriculture and biochar. It was great to have the opportunity to talk to reporters about the biochar project here at Villa Carmen. They took photos and video of our biochar projects, kiln, and the quenching process. They even interviewed Yhilbonio and I about our involvement. Check out the pictures below!