STARTING A TREE NURSERY IN MAMBO
VILLAGE IN THE USAMBARA MOUNTAINS, TANZANIA
by Sally Christensen, friend of Mambo
March, 2013
Aim
One of the ideas form the projects
in Mambo is to have a tree nursery. Tourists who are coming to Mambo can buy
one or more trees to compensate there CO2 use. The trees will be planted with
the 10 primary schools in and around Mambo to make the villages more green.
In January 2013 our returning
volunteer Sally Christensen who had some experience working on a tree project in Bagamoyo, came with her
green hands to start the project.
Read below about her experiences:
Background
During 2012 Ndgege, the Manager of Mambo View Point,
had managed to negotiate with
the Chief and elders the use of a piece
of land just outside Mambo Village which could be cleared and then planted as a Tree Nursery for the village.
The elevation of the land is approx
1900m. Many trees around Mambo village had been cut down over the years but in other
valleys there were ago carpus and grevillea, old pear and plum trees (planted
years ago by Germans now in great need
of pruning), a few avocadoes, guava and loquat. Eucalyptus had also been planted by Germans. There were acres of cultivated pine forests
and much land has been taken over by wattle which gives nothing back to the
soil and soil erosion is visible everywhere.
I arrived on Friday, January 4 and over that weekend visited the 1
acre plot of land which was very over grown indeed. At a first meeting it was agreed that we
would try and find volunteers to help clear the land. Also, it was agreed that sending out saplings to farmers in the area
was not practical as it would be extremely difficult and time consuming to
monitor the care and growth of these trees.
It was therefore decided that I
would do a study of the 10 primary schools in Sunga Ward to ascertain
the sustainability of planting fruit and shade trees in the grounds and to
instigate the idea of parents and teachers getting together rotas for watering
and nurturing the trees. The schools were very interested, two sadly had no
access to water, but it should be feasible over the next 5 years to provide 8
schools with 10 trees each. Mr. Hoza, from the fertile and productive
valley of Nkukai, was invited to help me with translation and to impart his local knowledge of existing trees, making
terraces, seed beds etc. He would take over when I left and finish the planting
of the stock orchard and then the
distribution and monitoring of the trees for the primary schools.
Clearing
the Land
Under the expert and enthusiastic
guidance of Juma, the head gardener at Mambo View Point, and his equally
enthusiastic and hard working ladies,
the clearing of the land was started. It
was discovered that there had been a nursery there before and very quickly four
of the old tumbled down terraces were built up
again. There were about 25 mature trees
there already creating shade and the Lusina trees kept the banks solid
and were putting nitrogen back into the earth.
The soil was excellent. The lads from the Dogo Dogo Stars football
team (average age 17) were also invited
to help with the heavy cutting down of shrubs. In return they would get a new
football. When they turned up they were terrific. They loved to slash but were less keen on
removing the debris. Paths had to be made to carry the debris away to a pile.
Two lads were hacking their way
through from different directions and then saw each . I cried out “Dr Livingstone, I presume” but sadly no one understood the reference. A young
Dutch anthropologist, Mark, who played in the football
team was a great help over these days particularly
when no one turned up and he would say “this is really interesting.. there must
be a reason.” And I would be champing at
the bit and not find it interesting at all that no one had turned up. We discovered from the neighbour (always good
to be friendly with the neighbours) that there used to be a well so a new one
was dug by him and now we had water on
the property. (photo) Volunteering is not a concept that known or
loved by Tanzanians so it was terrific having all these people
come .(see photos)
Seed Beds
Together with Mr Hoza we visited a few small nurseries in the area
all run by ladies. Sadly, they only grew
pine seedlings but it is hoped that this year they will be encouraged to become
more adventurous and grow other trees.
The Jipe Moyo (Give Heart) ladies were
invited to the nursery and they showed
our volunteers how to mix up forest leaves, manure and sand into a wonderful
compost, and then to create the seed
beds and make covers of small timbers
laying bracken on top to protect the
seeds from birds, neighbours chickens ( now banned) and hot sun. (see photo)
Stock
Orchard
Together with Ndege I went twice to
an excellent nursery in the town of Lushoto (3 hours away on a bumpy road) and
bought 2, 3 and 4 year old fruit trees such as avocadoes, plums, apples, pears,
macademia, guava, fig and loquat. We discovered that avocadoes can be grown directly
from the stones (young lads were employed to pick them up after the Mambo
market) and then in a few years grafting
can occur. Other fruit trees are propagated through grafting. The manager,
Johnny, is an expert on this and has
been invited up to MVP to give a seminar and demonstration so that the ladies can then use these skills both at Mambo
nursery and in their own shambas
(small holdings). Seeds for shade trees such as mshai and casuarinas were purchased and will
be planted right away. They will be
repotted in ecyclable banana
Leaf pots made by the Jipe Moyo and
Youth Club and can be brought on or sold.
A neighbour (the one who owns the
chickens) has been employed to water and to be a security guard.
Mr Hoza and I visited several old fruit orchards close to Mambo and took
cuttings of many fruit trees and Juma at MVP is looking after them
carefully. At the end of March or early
April, just before the rains, the
saplings and cuttings will all be
moved down to the new nursery and planted according to the plan that Sally has
made. In a few years this stock orchard
will be producing cuttings for planting and grafting.
Involving
the Youth Club
A gorgeous Dutch
couple had set up a Youth Club so I invited the children to design a sign for
the nursery to be placed on the road and entrance to the land.
Capacity
Building and Sustainability
Growing fruit and shade trees by
seed, by cuttings and grafting in Mambo
Village Nursery is a challenge and it is hard to predict, over the next say 10
years, how many trees will be propagated
and how many will survive both in the Mambo nursery and in the primary
schools. In my humble opinion , the
sheer fact that people from Mambo and the surrounding areas will learn how to make seed beds, to take cuttings and to graft and later to
prune; that the existing small nurseries
will be bold and grow different seedlings like fruit trees and find a market for them; that teachers,
children and parents in the schools will learn how to nurture and grow young
trees and hopefully, in the not too distant
future, will enjoy the produce, is worth this challenge.
Funding the
ongoing project
I had raised some funds which
covered the initial costs of young trees, seeds, timber, tools, pots, small
salaries. These are now spent. A
donation of $15 will buy 2 trees and will on-going costs of nurturing and
looking after the orchard, salaries of Mr Hoza and security guard, transport of trees to schools and much
more.
To keep this project going guests at Mambo
View Point will be given literature about the project and invited to visit the
nursery. They can choose the trees and
if it is for a family member or in memory of a friend or family member for another $10 they can have a memorial
plaque made. Planting trees helps your
carbon footprint. (Herman please put a
sentence or two in here on your
statistics.
We also hope that you who read this
blog might donate
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