Greenbelt 2008

Fri 22- Mon 25 Aug 2008 (link to longer picture report)

I had never been to Greenbelt.
I have never been to ANY festival - (three folkmusic festivals, but they are different.)

Christian Ecology Link has had a stall at Greenbelt for quite a few years and people had asked me if I was going. Brendan Bowles of A Rocha Climate Stewards who had promised to send me new information on A Rocha Ghana asked if I was going.

I looked at my calendar and thought "I could go"
I looked at the Weather forecast and thought "I could go"
I read a self-help book advocating doing exciting things even if outside your normal comfort zone - so that you don't regret not doing them later. "I could go"

I phoned JB a contact who lives two miles away to see if he had floor space. - He had relatives staying. "You can borrow our tent" he said. "Uhh," I thought.
I looked at the damp wet ground at Settle. "Uhh," I thought.
I looked at the price of a cheap tent in Settle - "Uhh - it will just be "stuff" in my house afterwards." I thought.

Fortunately - thank you J.B. - the relatives would not be coming till later, and he offered a bed.

So off I went.
Settle to Cheltenham by train is about 170 miles (340 miles return) and this would produce 80kg of CO2. Some websites say we should only produce 2000kg CO2 each per year to be fair to everyone else in the world. That's 6kg a day - Hmmm.

But once there mine host lent me his bike.

I had a great time at Greenbelt and have written about it with pictures here

What has this got to do with habitats, species and forests?
Well, I spent a very happy Sunday moring up on Cleeve Hill, away from the Festival, finding wild flowers including the stemless thistle (below) and harebells with the festival in the distance(left). - If everyone valued wild flowers perhaps we could protect them better.

I put a few leaflets out on our CEL stall and hung up one of my instant folders. We collected signatures of people who would like to receive CEL news emails. - I would be able to tell them about the rainforest project later.

I heard little bits of two A Rocha Talks. David Bookless stresses important things about protecting species. People said his talks were good. Some children did a play about Creation. I am not sure if that had anything to do with the environment.

A girl from the USPG stall came to our stall and took the CEL email address - she has contacts in Brazil.

The Wild Life Trusts with a stall. They were doing a good job getting people to join their local Wildlife Trust.

I went to a workshop by Generous and have since been in contact with a girl who ran it. She has a blog

There were lots of items for sale on stalls from third world countries. I bought a mini-music instrument- talking drum and wonder if hardwood was used to make it...

I attended many worthy workshops and talks.

I met Brendan. He had emailed me the list of items that would be useful to fundraise for for the A Rocha Ghana Project - So I would read these when I got home.. see next blog entry.

A Rocha Ghana - what projects could we support?

19 March

What is A Rocha Ghana doing, that we may be able to, and interested to help with?

Recently (19 March) I had a useful talk over the phone with Jenny Bowles. She visited the A Rocha Ghana Project in 2006, under the auspices of the “Climate Stewards Project” of A Rocha. Her trip included a visit to the project with people near the Mole National Park.

She told me about

1. The tree nurseries
2. The bee keeping projects
3. The two schools workers – one in the north, one in the south.
4. The story/parable of the disappearing wildlife.


1. The tree nurseries (See picture of girls carrying seedlings above)

The tree nurseries are run by local people. In the south they are attached to schools or universities. there are 11 sites. The nurseries are planted with 90% native trees that can eventually be used for timber – e.g. mahogany, kapok. Then there are 10% fruit or nut trees and the people chose which ones they want. It is important that the nurseries are designed and manged by the locals so they “own it”

As soon as the people see the benefit of the ownership of the nursery they get on board, and the attitude extends beyond looking after the nursery, to looking after the forest..
The people at the Mole reserve live in a remote place, and they are keen to be part of a bigger project..

In remote areas people do not have the resources to improve degraded land. “We used to have trees” they say.

2. The bee keeping projects

Bees need trees. So if people get involved in the production or honey they see the need for trees.

3. The two schools workers – one in the north, one in the south.

Jenny told me how exciting and thrilling it was to see the caliber and quality of the two schools workers, Emmanuel Akom in the south and Daryl Bosu in the north.
In a primary school classroom – tin roof, mud walls and no decorations on the walls and eager children packed behind the desks, the worker asks

“What happens when the last tree dies?”

“The last man dies” the children chant back.

Daryl was able to arrange for one school group to go for a day field trip to the National Park.

I wonder if we could sponsor another such trip?

Or I wonder if we could sponsor some plant identification books. I remember when I was in West Africa (long ago) how useful I found a book called "A Handbook of West African" flowers by Harold Saunders. We are spoilt for choice in the UK for wild flowers books and other natural history books.

I have written to A Rocha to see what they most need.

And the story of the disappearing wildlife? - That will have to wait for the next blog entry.

Charities we are supporting

So, I wrote something for the coming Sunday's Church Newsheet:

The St John’s Methodist Church (Settle) Rainforest Fund Project:

We will be supporting mainly two charities: World Land Trust and A Rocha Ghana

World Land Trust

says: “You can do incredible things: For just £25 you can buy Half an Acre of critically endangered habitat that will save some of the rarest animals and plants on earth. Working with local. people we create reserves to save precious habitats and species. Already we have rescued over 350,000 acres of wilderness in Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Patagonia and the Philippines. David Attenborough is one of WLT's patrons.”

A Rocha Ghana

This is a Christian organisation which is why I have chosen it as one of our lead charities. The Ghana project (formerly called the Eden Conservation Society) works with sustainable projects with two communities who live next to Mole National Park in northern Ghana.

Make a note in your diary of two meetings for the project: (More details of these next week)

Tue 5^th Feb: 10am-12. Coffee Morning Richard Pike invites you to Flat 7, Dawsons Court, Settle

Fri 8^th Feb: 7.30pm. Rainforest Fund Presentation at St John’s Methodist Church Hall