Our evangelical voice in Copenhagen post #3
December 16, 2009
One in a series of updates from Rev. Jim Ball of EEN from Copenhagen where he is attending the international climage change talks. This one was sent Wednesday, December 16, 2009.
Update from Copenhagen:
Yesterday morning (Tue) those of us with organizations that are a part of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE) were able to facilitate a meeting of religious leaders from India, Honduras, and Ghana with a senior staff person from the US State Department. I worked with Tearfund, a British evangelical relief and development organization, to have Osvaldo Munguia attend. Osvaldo is co-founder and Executive Director of MOPAWI (read more here), a Honduran Christian organization that works with the indigenous peoples in the Mosquito Coast region to achieve sustainable economic progress through conservation practices. Osvaldo told this senior State official about one of their projects that addresses the two parts of the climate change challenge: mitigation and adaptation. (With global warming we must deal both with the causes and the consequences. Mitigation, or pollution reduction, addresses the causes. Adaptation seeks to enhance resilience and reduce vulnerability to the impacts or consequences.)
This effort replaces slash and burn agricultural practices – which destroys rainforest and depletes the soils within a few years, forcing poor farmers to repeat the cycle – with what is called an “alley cropping” approach using the Inga tree. Alley cropping involves planting crops between rows of trees (in this instance corn and beans). The Inga tree, native to Central America, is utilized for several reasons. First, it replenishes the soil’s productive capacity because it helps to fix both nitrogen and phosphorus back into the soil. Second, it grows quickly, creating a canopy in two years whose shade helps to kill weeds. Third, the trees can be carefully pruned year after year, with the larger branches used for firewood and the smaller ones left with the leaves to create mulch that retains moisture and feeds the crops.
Other representatives at the meeting described the impacts that were happening in India and Africa.
This was an excellent opportunity to lift up these voices on the front lines of climate change, and to highlight positive responses to this challenge.
Rev. Jim Ball
from Copenhagen
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