tropical coastal restoration through permaculture and Willie Smits

Paul came out with this new video today:



It piqued my interest I had to find out more about the project! I found Willie Smit's webpage about the Temboan project here.

The area has experienced long term non-sustainable land management followed by recurring fires and as a result, there are now vast areas of Imperata cylindrica grass. These grasslands are prone to more future frequent fires, thereby every time expanding the grassland area when more trees on the edges die.

Masarang intends to make this area into a permanent conservation zone.

Not only will they be restoring and conserving the beach and coral reef ecosystems for sea turtles and coral, they will also be creating a permaculture agroforestry area. Here's some information from their list of objectives

Engage the local community by offering small-scale and zero-waste employment opportunities such as small-scale agroforestry, work in reforestation, providing palm juice to a mini sugar factory, construction and operation of an eco-lodge and as rangers.

Plant a new biodiverse food forest on the more than 100 hectares of grasslands to stop fires and erosion to protect the corals, to produce food for animals at the site and in Tasikoki, to create a new habitat for wildlife releases and support local jobs.

Make the project self-sufficient from the ecolodge income, the tapping of palm trees, production of surplus fruit, provision of volunteer opportunities and production of non-timber forest products such as rattan, resins, aromatic oils, etc.

It's exciting to see permaculture used to do such awesome things around the world!