In order to get arable land, farmers worldwide on the slash-and-burn. This releases large quantities of CO2. Farmers in Belize now use the forest, for example, cocoa plant.
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Belize: Grow instead of burning
The objective of the project: small farmers learn new agricultural methods, such as cocoa cultivation in the forest. This protects the environment and climate and improves the living conditions of the people.
Project implementation: NGOs train farmers in climate-friendly agriculture and will show you how, for example, agro-forestry works. There are Workshops and on-site training.
Project partners: the project operates in the non-governmental organization, Ya’axché Conservation Trust, among other things, with the following organisations: Fundación Hondurena de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA), Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD) and the Inga Foundation.
Scope of the project: The NGO Ya’axché works in the South of Belize, in the Toledo District, with 80 small farmers. The project area includes almost 300,000 acres of Land in the Region of the Maya Golden Landscape, a forest area is threatened by vegetation fires.
The traditional agriculture uses slash and burn to make soil more fertile – not only in Belize, but also worldwide. Trees and bushes are felled and then burned, thus nutrient is full of soil. Initially, the resulting arable areas are very productive, but after a few years, the soils are leached. Then the small farmers have to clear re-brand. An estimated 200 to 500 million small-scale farmers use this technology in the world. Up to 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide go into the atmosphere each year.
A Film by Katja Döhne