Planting one million trees for life in PeruIncan descendants clean up Mother EarthBy Rick Kearns, Today correspondent
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Photo courtesy Yachay Wasi Volunteers with Yachay Wasi work to clean up the shorelines in Peru as part of the ongoing project to preserve Mother Earth. |
This requires sensitization, information and mobilization to achieve the
objectives for conservation and it has to involve local authorities and
civil society in general to manage these natural resources.
ICT: How have the indigenous people of the area responded
to the lakes and tree projects?
Hurtado: The sensitization of the indigenous residents to
environmental issues has come about through organized talks with students,
farmers, mothers’ groups, and folks in general to teach them the
importance of conservation, how it benefits them and future generations.
We’ve done this through video presentations as well as posters and other
gatherings. Yachay Wasi hopes to achieve a desired effect through the
environmental education within the context of the familiar setting of the
residents and that each of them is trained and aware of their ways of
living. … and that each resident is charged with the care of the natural
resources in their area.
ICT: What were some of the environmental protection
methods you taught to community members?
Hurtado: We did get some good results, but it should be
noted that changing habits and customs does not happen overnight. But it
is happening with the support of workshops. … and a team of professionals,
the project leader, a foreman and two biologists.
We have had the communities doing almost all of the planting, but some of
the related activities include cleaning and recovery of trash from
lagoons, streams; drying out plastic items to be taken for recycling;
teaching people to not clean their clothes in the rivers and lagoons with
detergents; and again with the biologists we take folks on tours of the
rivers and countryside to better explain the need for care of the
environment.
ICT: Why did you choose those particular species of
native trees for planting?
Hurtado: These trees were part of the natural environment
of our Inca ancestors and that, in time, these forests will be conserved.
… they are Polylepis Incana, known as qeñua or yagual; Escallonia Resinosa,
known as chachacomo or orko chachacomo; Buddleja Coriacea, known as qolle
or kishuara.
These species can be planted in poor soil, they tolerate the high
elevations, and don’t need much water and can develop in very dry terrain.
They also have diverse uses for construction due to their strength; as
homes for beehives; their bark can be used as medicine for tonsillitis;
they have properties for use in dyes or as firewood, charcoal and their
foliage makes for good fertilizer; and some of the leaves also are used in
medicines for cleaning wounds and for treating kidney ailments, among
other things.
ICT: What else is needed to complete the Trees for Life
project?
Hurtado: We need human, professional, biological,
economic and solidarity help to achieve the reality of one million trees
for life, then we can be grateful again to the trees for our lives. They
have evolved over an imponderable 370 million years and helped us create
the same air we breathe today and make us understand we must save Mother
Earth, Pachamama. We need everyone’s help.
ICT: Have you received any help from the Peruvian
government?
Hurtado: We have never received any support from the
Peruvian government.
But the fundamental importance of planting a tree is that it has a
natural, universal force for every man, woman and child. Today we plant,
and tomorrow we plant another tree for the new generations.
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