All posts by : Filipa Brasch

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!