Yearly Archives: 2022

La Libertad Dry Forest Project continues to supply improved cookstoves for families in Pacasmayo. The improved cookstoves use less fuelwood than traditional open fires and reduce the need to cut down dry forest trees. The project delivered the kits to households in July and in August ten cookstoves were installed in households from San Demetrio and Pueblo Nuevo.  A local mason installed the cookstoves.

This year the project also gave guinea pigs to beneficiary households to promote micro-livestock breeding. This new initiative hopes to address food security in rural areas. Guinea pigs are not only a source of animal protein but also their manure can fertilize agriculture fields and kitchen gardens. In traditional Peruvian households, the rearing environment for small animals is usually the kitchen, where the heat source protects guinea pigs from sudden temperature changes.

La Libertad Dry Forest Project continues to raise environmental awareness in schools and churches. This year it has expanded its education talks and garden activities to three schools and churches, including Calvary Chapel. The project inspires younger generations to become environmental ambassadors, helping them to reconnect with nature and enhancing conservation knowledge.  Calvary Chapel, led by Pastor Renzo Plasencia Moscoso, is located in Pacasmayo.  Since April, the project has conducted over 22 workshops and activities with adults and children of the Calvary Chapel congregation. Talks have included a variety of topics such as the state of the planet and its biodiversity, responsible consumption and sustainable development of the environment, solid waste, the importance of the dry forest, and ecological gardens.  In July, the church started to create its garden called the El Buen Fruto [The Good Fruit]. Environmental leaders learned practical techniques such as home irrigation, composting, and planting vegetables. They prepared the soil, levelled and cleaned the terrain, and they have begun creating an interpretation centre.

Agroforestry is an approach that combines agriculture with trees on the same piece of land. Planting trees on farms can give farmers healthier soil and higher yields – not to mention creating vital homes for wildlife.  La Libertad Dry Forest Project in Pacasmayo promotes agroforestry with local farmers by helping them combine fruit trees with existing crops. This approach aims to restore degraded agricultural land and reduce soil erosion. Over time, it also helps farmers to enhance crop production and generate alternate income from the sale of the fruit. In June, fruit tree species, such as apple, orange, mango, Japanese plum, and guaba, were produced in the local nursery in San Pedro de Lloc.  In July, the project gave local farmers sixty agroforestry tree seedlings to plant on their land. The project will irrigate and monitor these trees over time.  In addition to these agroforestry practices, the project has been helping farmers to improve crop production in other ways. In July, the La Libertad Dry Forest project held a workshop for rice producers in Santander.  Rice is an important staple crop in the area.   These workshops help to increase farmers’ knowledge of how to improve rice crop production and quality.

El Cañoncillo Natural Forest Private Conservation Area has three lagoons: Gallinazo, Larga and Cañoncillo. Creeping weeds and bushes have been obscuring the view of visitors to one of the lagoons, Gallinazo.  As a result, La Libertad Dry Forest project conducted a harvesting campaign of the lagoon in May this year with the Agricultural Cooperative of Tecapa (CAU) and the Cañoncillo Forest Craftswomen Association.  The harvesting campaign was to provide the artisan women’s group hand harvested natural resources to make their handicrafts but the right materials were not found.   The project team acquired wool, and different local grasses such as viruli and reeds for the craftswomen to use.  These resources helped motivate the craftswomen to meet and make their handicrafts.   In addition, the women were trained to improve their products in Artisan workshops and explore new alternatives for their development. Selling non-timber products contributes to sustainable, forest-friendly livelihoods that help preserve the dry forest and sustain livelihoods.

One of our most important activities for the year is the production of native seedlings for our reforestation campaigns.  This activity commenced In March this year.  The team searched for native seeds of dry forest species such as Algarrobo and Hawthorn.  We coordinated with the local farmers to enter their stockyards and extract the seeds from cattle manure. The manure was sifted and cleaned to extract the seeds.  About 1 kg of Algarrobo seeds and 1.5 kg of Hawthorn seeds were obtained. The seeds were delivered to the local municipal nursery in San Pedro de Lloc and seedlings were planted and bagged. 235 native Algarrobo seedlings and 40 hawthorn seedlings germinated at the nursery.  This seedling production was used in our first reforestation campaign of the year in July where they were planted in a 3-hectare area located in La Laguna El Muerto Forest with the collaboration of Mr. Luis Castañeda.  Thank you for all those involved!