Inga Foundation's Land for Life Program

The Tropical Rain Forest is the planet's most productive ecosystem, but it achieves that productivity on some of Earth's poorest soils.  Until the late 1980s, science could not fully explain the catastrophic loss of fertility that occurs soon after a slash-and-burn operation.  Without deeper insights, no alternative strategy could be developed to protect either remaining forest or the well-being of subsistence farming families.  A pilot study in Cambridge and CA indicated a solution and was followed by the four Cambridge Alley-cropping Projects.  Only alley-cropping (a-c) with Inga trees, supplemented by rock-phosphate, emerged from 7-years' trial as sustainable.  Inga Foundation (IF) developed and is implementing the Guama Model, with Inga a-c at its heart, as a sustainable alternative to slash-and-burn.  Over 250 families are today implementing the 4-component model in northern Honduras.  It is transforming lives and livelihoods, whilst protecting the forest and their own environment.  Hundreds more want the system.

Slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture has fed millions of families over past centuries; today it maintains some 250-300 million descendant families in poverty; and its widespread failure is an underlying cause of rural-urban migration in the tropics.  The consumptive process by which forest cover is converted to invasive grassland, over vast swathes of former tropical forest, is estimated to be contributing between 1 and 2 billion tonnes of carbon (C) annually to the atmosphere.  Neither this process, nor the families' attempts to feed themselves, are sustainable today.  Climatic violence is adding an additional dimension of insecurity into their lives.

The majority of families with whom IF are working own inherited land which has been degraded by decades, or more, of repeated slash-and-burn. Many describe their soil as "sterile".  

Following a few years' exposure, the soil formed over millennia under a rain forest will have lost over 50% of its organic matter (SOM) as inputs from the forest cease and as oxidation occurs. More importantly, it will have lost the soil microbiota which feed on that SOM and recycle essential nutrients.  The Cambridge projects found evidence of massive losses of soil phosphorus, the key nutrient, but also of essential base-cations.

The key findings of the Cambridge Projects (1986-2002) were that the only system tested showing any promise of sustainability was Inga alley-cropping (Inga a-c) supplemented by rock-phosphate.  In extending this to the target families, we discovered that, in a soil degraded by many decades of repeated slash-and-burn, the trees also need cation supplements to achieve site-capture and start restoring soil conditions.  The effects of adding Dolomitic Lime and K-Mag to the rock-P were dramatic.  This combination of N-fixing trees and mineral supplements is now restoring soil fertility and yielding food-security in basic grains to families living in extreme poverty.  Once a family has food-security it no longer needs to slash-and-burn.  Land previously held in reserve for further slash-burn can now be used for productive agroforestry systems. They can plant and manage Inga a-c for cash-crops (e.g. Pepper); fruit trees (e.g. Cacao), in combination with Inga as their only source of Nitrogen, give the family a steady income.  Inga/Timber combinations will yield valuable timber in 25-30 years.  Soil moisture is retained by these systems and farmers report that stream-flow is maintained in droughts.  The stems and branches pruned annually from the Inga yield a favorite domestic firewood sufficient for the year.

Families living in extreme poverty attempting to subsist on degraded land in the Cangrejal and Cuero river valleys in northern Honduras.  These valleys form the E-W boundaries of the Pico Bonito National Park; one of few remaining blocks of rain forest.

The four agroforestry systems outlined above comprise the "Guama" model rural livelihood.  IF began extending this to 40 families pa. in 2012 intending to cease at 200 and then to extend the remaining Model components. 

The Guama model is not a "quick fix"; establishing it requires effort and faith from the families and persistence from IF. In May 2020, we have >250 families and hundreds more asking for the system. 3-4 million trees have been planted since 2012, including >300,000 grafted Cacao.  

Many such farmers testify that their livelihoods have been transformed from insecure "Peon" (manual labourer) to the status of Producer in their own right.  Most families are now seeking to plant multiple Inga-a-c plots for two annual crops; and the Cacao has started to produce.  The steady income from it, together with basic grains, is giving autonomy and a high degree of freedom-from-worry.  Many young men state that having the Model obviated their need to migrate.

With tropical land-use change estimated as firing 1.7 billion.t. of CO2 into the atmosphere annually; and perhaps 250-300 million families held in poverty and food-insecurity as the process increasingly fails, a sustainable solution is an obvious need.  

The Inga a-c system is doing more than "improve" yields; in this context, it is the difference between a crop and no crop.  Grains grown in the system have a higher nutrient content than those grown conventionally.  Crops have been produced during the worst of recent droughts.  

From 2012-2019, IF's Program avoided/sequestered 284,000 tonnes of atmospheric CO2; rising to >1,255,000 by 2026.

Slash-and-burn is not an agricultural system; it is a process of conversion. Like all processes it has an actual or theoretical end-point; in this case, the complete deforestation of the humid zone of Honduras.

Unlike most other subsistence agricultures, slash-and-burn (s-b) cannot be intensified per se, as were others in the course of the Green Revolution from the 1960s onward. 

1986-88

The Cambridge pilot studies of the mid 1980s concentrated on the ecology of slash-and-burn in rain forests and reviewed the relevant literature to date; but sought more widely for models of sustainability in this context.  Excluding major transformation of the environment (e.g. Padi-rice), scant few adaptations within indigenous agricultures served as indicators.  There only remained the Tropical Rain Forest (TRF) itself.  The most biologically productive ecosystem on the planet provided the only useful model of sustainability; particularly in its nutrient ecology, root characteristics and symbioses.  

The literature indicated that the availability of Phosphorus (P) might be a key factor in the nutrient ecology of TRF, especially on the highly-weathered, leached and acid soils that dominate these environments.  The task was to resolve the confusions and contradictions that prevailed about soil-P.  Two breakthroughs in a Cambridge laboratory achieved this.

1988-1995

Later field projects showed that Inga a-c, supplemented by rock-phosphate, uniquely simulates the physical and biological conditions of the forest and sustains the production of basic grains.

Conceptually, the innovation required a "step backwards" from agro-chemical agriculture into the forest; and thenceforth, steps towards biologically-driven agriculture.

Inga alley-cropping is a system of deep mulching using pruned green leaves from the trees which are contour-planted in hedgerows.  In Honduras, the trees are pruned annually and left to recover their canopy following crop-maturity. It has proved itself in achieving food-security in basic-grains for the family, upon a permanent plot.  The system produces a favorite firewood for the kitchen and virtually eliminates the need for weed-control.  Additional plots enable the whole family to be involved in their own cash-crop economy; located, perhaps for the first time, on their own doorstep.  Weed-control is achieved, firstly, by shading under the dense Inga canopy and, secondly, by smothering under the resistant mulch. >60 man-days' labor are saved.

Inga is a genus of Nitrogen-fixing legume trees originating in the Amazon Basin and containing over 300 species.  The species favored by IF are tolerant of acid soils and are very efficient at recycling essential plant nutrients as well as the Nitrogen fixed in their root nodules.  They produce foliage that decomposes slowly, thus giving lasting and vital physical protection to the essential surface soil layers from the erosive power of heavy rain and from overheating by solar radiation.

The system develops within about 2 years and can be maintained permanently thereafter.  Small quantities of rock-phosphate are needed to replace the P removed in the grain; and, in very degraded soils, the trees need supplementary Ca, K and Mg minerals to start the process of site-capture from the invasive grasses that typically dominate such sites.

Inga alley-cropping and the Guama Model

25 years' deployment in CA and the system's replication in 15 other countries.  

IF’s Guama Model cited in the World Conservation Congress  Resolution:  WCC-2012-Res-104-EN:  Food Security, Ecosystem Restoration and Climate Change.  WCC-Jeju South Korea.  September 2012*.   

IF, Mike Hands and the Cambridge Projects recognized by the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) in February 2016.  Guatemala City:  Resolución AP/3-CCLXXV-2016*.  

IF wins SOLVER status.  March 2017.  UN Headquarters.  New York.      

solve.mit.edu  

MRH awarded the 3rd Organic Farming Innovation Award (OFIA) at the World Organic Congress.  Nov. 10th 2017.  New Delhi.

     https://www.ifoam.bio/sites/de...  

The Guama Model highly rated in IUCN Publ'n:  Análisis Económico de Acciones para la Restauración de Paisajes Productivos en Honduras. IUCN. Oficina Regionál para México, América Centrál y el Caribe.  Nello, T. et al.  2019: https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/48381    

Resilience to Climate Change

That Inga alley plots withstand the worst effects of climatic violence was demonstrated during the 2015-16 El Niño events; and during the prolonged drought of 2019.  The mulch proved itself resilient to both heavy rain and direct solar radiation.  Evaporation from the vital surface soil is avoided beneath the deep cover.  We have seen examples of basic grains planted in the alleys after the last rains in early February 2019 growing to maturity during April or May without a single drop of rain having fallen.  They have matured on residual soil moisture retained by the soil's enhanced organic matter and protected by the mulch.**  

* pdf available on-request 

** video/photo evidence Pablo Pinto

Land for Life Program  

Long-term, or Global, goals.

• To end the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture in the World's rain forests.
• To provide the means of achieving food-security and a reliable cash income for farming families formerly subsisting by slash-and-burn in rain forest zones.
• Thus to address the root cause of the original deforestation.
• To restore deforested former rain forest landscapes, degraded by decades, or centuries, of slash-and-burn, by promoting their recovery under forest or agro-forest vegetation. 
• Thus to restore habitat and water catchment protection in former rain forest landscapes.
• Thus to avoid further emissions of CO2 from the burning of biomass and to sequester atmospheric CO2 into the developing forest and agro-forest soil and vegetation.

_________________________________________________________________________________  

Baseline in 2012

Assets inherited from the Cambridge Projects:

• Neglected demonstration facilities on the CURLA campus:  2ha. Inga a-c and 2ha. of biological corridor;
• A few existing Inga a-c plots on farms in the Cuero and Cangrejal valleys.
• Two aged 4 x 4 vehicles
• Hundreds of families in those valleys still subsisting by slash-and-burn. 

Interventions:  2012-20

• Land purchased at Las Flores for a demo-farm and nursery.
• Inga a-c plots planted at Las Flores and restored at CURLA.
• Community meetings held in the Cuero and Cangrejal valleys.  Family representatives invited to visit demonstration plots.
• Families wishing to plant Inga a-c given soil bags and Inga seed.
• Families assisted to set out and plant Inga a-c
• Families given mineral supplements and Technical Assistance in managing Inga a-c.
• Families given fruit and timber saplings.
• Global NGO nominees trained in Guama techniques.

Outcomes:  2012-20

• Over 250 families cease slash-and-burn and have Inga a-c for basic grains developing or in-use.
• 130 families with Inga a-c for cash-crops
• 262 families with Inga associated with fruit trees
• 120 families with Inga/timber tree plots.
• Hundreds of families seeking out IF asking for the system.
• The Inga system being adopted more widely in the region.
• 3-4 million trees planted since 2012.
• Guama Carbon Model estimates 284,000 t. CO2 avoided/sequestered to the end of 2019.

The limit of this Program's Impact will be two landscape-scale examples of the Global Goals listed above.

In the two target river catchments in Honduras, approximately 250 families have some, or all, of the Guama Model components in development and/or use. All have Inga a-c for basic grains.  This implies an impact on about 750 people or, with extended families, at least 1,000.  A few communities elsewhere along the north coast also acquired Inga a-c since the Cambridge Project days, but the numbers are not known.  Inga a-c is being replicated in 15 other tropical countries following visits to the demo-facilities or contact for Technical Assistance.  In many, the system is in development, but in a few countries in Central and South America, the system has been in-use for some years.  These could number a few hundred.

IF's strategic aim has always been to concentrate effort and resources in the two target areas; to establish the systems with as many families as wish to have them until the system replicates itself spontaneously.  To take an analogy from nuclear physics, we do not know what this "critical mass" might be. 

The present demand for the system is so great that we might conclude that we have passed that point some time ago.  

In one year, we expect numbers to exceed 320.  

In five years we would expect to have recruited at least 500  families within the Cangrejal and Cuero catchments and, assuming a boost in funding, would have established the nuclei (Demo-plots, etc.) of replication in the two neighbouring catchments of the Papaloteca and San Juan rivers.

To continue on our present trajectory which is proving highly successful. 

Inga Foundation is now widely-known and widely-trusted in the two valleys and we are being approached by representatives of entire communities for the Model.  An example is that of Betania located high up in the Cuero catchment; almost at the watershed.  We were approached, in 2019, by two of the community's leading figures.  The result is that, with all 31 families, we have established a tree nursery up there for about 150,000 trees.  The area is heavily deforested and the families are experiencing acute food-insecurity.

This is important because it is this section of the Cordillera that would rejoin the two isolated forest blocks of Pico Bonito and Texiguat to the West.  Agro-forest such as Inga/Cacao or Inga/timber rapidly comes to appear to birds and animals as forest habitat.  We are already seeing this on our own demo-farm at Las Flores; and the biological corridor at CURLA is always full of wildlife.

If we can achieve this with Betania and others, we shall have achieved the first example of re-connection between isolated forest units in Central America; in that nebulous concept "The Meso-American Biological Corridor" (CBM).  MiAmbiente and IUCN invited us to submit a paper in March 2019 on this subject; and we were invited to present at a recent workshop (Recover Honduras). If the project is funded, IF is in-line to take on this challenge along the Cordillera Nombre de Dios; and can claim already to have started.

The only potential barrier is limited funding.  We have brought the Program from 2012 to the present without knowing from one year to the next exactly how the funding situation for the following year will be.  Funding hitherto has been from charitable donations and grants from various charitable bodies.  

We have strong and expressed support from the following Government bodies:

Instituto de Conservación Forestál (ICF)

Secretaria de Energia, Recursos Naturales y Ambiente (SERNA; MiAmbiente).

Oficina Presidencial de Economia Verde (OPEV)

Unidad Técnica de Seguridad Alimentaria Nacional (UTSAN).

Dirección Nacionál de Cambio Climático (DNCC)  

NGO international bodies

IUCN (Honduras)

IUCN (Mexico, América Centrál y el Caribe)  

This does not imply financial support.  However, if the Recover Honduras initiative takes place (MiAmbiente, IUCN, FAO, UNDP), we can expect serious support.  

Several funding proposals to large international bodies are pending.  If the largest is successful, we shall be able to plan and execute a 5-year expansion of the Program.

Persistence in the present strategy.

Not applicable

Full time

14

Part-time or casual

4-8

I (Mike Hands) carried out the original pilot project in Cambridge and Costa Rica (1986-87) and directed all four of the ensuing Cambridge Alley-cropping Projects (1988-2002).  Inga alley-cropping was developed and trialed during this time.

Inga Foundation was founded in 2007, as a UK-registered Charitable Trust, by colleagues in those projects to implement their findings.

Inga Foundation developed, and is pioneering the implementation of, the Guama Model, whilst sharing the technology with other organizations around the world.

We manage the oldest and largest plantings of Inga a-c in the world and have more experience that any other organization.  The day-to-day operations are informed by current research being carried out on the old Inga a-c plots of the Cam projects.  These are located on the CURLA campus.

We have the most experienced team of field workers and professionals in the world.

We are well-known and well-trusted both in the project areas and more widely.  This is very important when introducing and extending a system that is seen as revolutionary in the eyes of the recipient families.  We reached the point some years ago when we ceased to need to contact communities to present the Guama Model.  Communities and individuals are approaching us in their hundreds asking for help.  Extending the model to the next 100 families will be very much easier than it was for the first 100.

Centro Universitario Regionál del Litorál Atlántico (CURLA) Universidad Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH).  Strong collaboration over 25 years.  Soils research and Teaching CURLA students (Forestry and Agronomy)

Royal Botanic Gardens.  Kew.  UK.  Collaborations in the Republic of Congo and Madagascar.

Mosquitia Pawisa (MOPAWI).  Strong collaboration over 25 years.  Technical Assistance (TA) and Teaching.

MiAmbiente.  Government of Honduras.  Training of field technicians.

Rory's Well (Sierra Leone).  Training of technicians and TA.

Fundación del Rio.  Nicaragua. Training and TA.

Cool Earth.  UK and Peru.  Training and TA.

Eden Project.  UK.  Collaboration in CA and UK.

EcoLogic.  Guatemala.  Training and TA.

Ya'axche.  Belize.  Training and TA.

Co-operativa Las Cañadas.  Vera Cruz.  Mexico.  TA.

... among others

Inga Foundation (IF) is a Charitable Trust relying on grants and donations to achieve its objectives in Central America.  We do not have a formal "Business Model"; we have a strategy to make the best use of limited funds whilst achieving the most that is possible on the ground with the target families in the target areas.

Inga Foundation USA was founded in 2016 as a 501(c)(3) US-registered Charity in support of the operations in Honduras.

Fund-raising is carried out in both the UK and USA and all UK and US staff are volunteers. 

Administration costs are minimal, needing only to cover statutory Audit and accounting.

Strategy of IF's Land for Life Program

In essence, this is Proof-of-Concept at landscape scale.  The Inga a-c technique gained scientific credibility in the Cambridge Projects. During the last of these, it was field-tested in Honduras, in small plots, with families selected by partner NGOs.  The system emerged highly successfully from these pilot studies.

The present project has three broad objectives: 

It is worthwhile in its own right; working with some of the poorest families in Central America. 

Located in the buffer zone of the Pico Bonito National Park (PNPB), it also has a conservation dimension.

Its role as Proof-of-Concept at landscape scale is intended to convince big decision-makers and institutions that it could transform both the physical and economic landscape of the humid zone of, not just Honduras, but also of Central America.

Our inclusion in the RECOVER HONDURAS initiative is a case-in-point.

Good experience with the previous SOLVE initiative re.  Carbon.

The hope that the SOLVE team can connect Inga Foundation with potential funders for this revolutionary low-input, green technology.

When the Research and Development of this technology began, it is probably true to say that many professionals familiar with the environments and problems of the world's humid tropics would have doubted its chances of success.

As outlined above, the whole strategy has followed a path of proof-of-concept at increasing scale: 

1)         Scientific proof in intensively monitored field trials in the Cambridge (Cam) Projects.

2)         Trial and proof at small farm scale (Cam).

3)         Proof of acceptability to both farming families and the local agencies who might extend the technology in the future (Cam).

4)         Proof-of-concept at landscape scale  (this Program).

MIT SOLVE provides exactly the kind of global forum in which to convince the makers of big decisions that this approach is working at every level.

Inga Foundation does not have anyone dedicated to social media and the means of achieving much wider awareness of our work.
 

Based on the account given above, Inga Foundation would welcome suggested partnerships coming from the SOLVE team.  You are better-placed than we are to see the potential connections.

Any links with the UN GEF and GCF agencies would be top priority for us.  We have forged the necessary links with the Honduran Government and with Regional bodies.

For example, both MiAmbiente and IUCN are designated Contact Points for both these UN Programs.

The Guama Model is based on many years of sound science conducted during the Cambridge Alley-cropping Projects.  Published evidence can be supplied on request.

Perhaps more importantly, the technology is now field-proven as viable for the poorest and least secure subsistence farmers of Central America.  It works at every level, addressing positively 11 of the 17 SDGs without negative impacts on the remaining 6.  This is only possible because it is essentially remedial of past damage and regenerative in nature. 

It enables natural biological processes to satisfy the needs of people, nature and environment.  It is transforming lives, livelihoods and landscapes.