Reforesting
The darkness is still total when the first howler monkeys start to call through the hot, humid forest; my Makushi friend’s morning alarm. The air is still but fragrant. I can hear the occasional drips off the nearby palm fronds, still weighed down with droplets from the overnight downpour. As I clamber out of my hammock and somehow disentangle myself from the mosquito net, the subtle light from the coming day starts to silhouette the surrounding tree-clad hills. The mists become visible. The red and green macaws squawk their affirmations as they fly overhead in their couples, reminding me that it’s good to be awake. The riotous insect sounds die down as more light fills the sky. As I warm the coffee pot on the fire, I’m greeted by my camp sentinels, the surrounding grove of dipterocarp trees; buttressed giants that, if my mind was just a little bit greener, would flood me with meaning. I feel them. Not a presence or communication I can really grasp. I exist in a completely different time frame. But it’s there. Their being, their foundation, their support. My life entirely depends on them, as does everyone else’s. I’m grateful and I try to hold that thanksgiving in my small mind as the coffee warms my hands, my eyes adjust to the growing light, and the greens of the endless rainforest start to decorate another day…
Humans ARE nature. Nature isn’t something separate from us. We are part of this great global ecosystem and our actions impact all our fellows; animal, vegetable and mineral. From our pretty radically destructive influence, it’s a certainty that the World’s biome will rebalance again once we humans are consigned to the fossil record. But in order to prolong our stay a little longer, some of our citizens are doing their best to conserve, restore and revive the beautiful natural landscapes and wild populations that sustain us. Some care about nature because it functionally supports us. Some care about nature because of how it makes us feel. Some care about nature just because it… is. Everyone is right. And whether we’re primarily interested in the continued thriving of humanity or otherwise focused on the inherent value of a majestic giant sequoia, we have collective responsibility to lessen our destruction of the more-than-human world and start contributing to the healing of our natural ecosystems.
There are many ways to do this. We at Pata Trails, having spent large parts of our lives working to conserve distant landscapes, have decided to focus more on forest restoration these days. We want to see forests once again spring up from the degraded agricultural and post-industrial landscapes, to help revive living systems which model communication, mutual support, kindness and long term thinking. We want to see more trees. We need to see more trees.
So, we actively participate in REFORESTING.
What we’re doing
Tjeerd is collaborating with the Trees For All Foundation in the Netherlands, working towards the goal of planting a billion trees. It’s a big number, but together, there’s no reason why we can’t see this happen, at home and abroad. He’s particularly involved in the Dutch and Indonesian stuff at Trees For All and fits this in around other climate resilience work.
Benny works part of the time running Techo Verde Coffee with his friend Conrad. They bring coffee from Northern Peru to England, from a remote community of subsistence farmers to the hipster roasteries of London and Oxford. One more coffee farmer in the community is one less cattle farmer, and as cattle need 10x the land area, coffee farming leads to significantly less deforestation. It’s proper ‘relational’ coffee grown by their pals. You won’t find anything with better credentials. Read more at TechoVerde.co.uk
