We have decided to extend the scope of our reforestation campaign to 500 hectares in view of the spectacular progress made by our team in the field over the last 2 months.
After convincing 180 families to join our project in January and February, i.e. 20 families more than expected, and as there were only 70 families left to convince in March and April, we quickly made the choice to gather 100 new families, i.e. 100 additional hectares. 100 hectares is a very important number of trees: about 50’000 new trees. From a financial point of view, this means increasing the annual budget by about CHF 20,000, which our resources easily allow.
These 500 hectares will be planted with 2’500’000 seed pellets from 250 different trees. A greater number of trees planted means a greater contribution to the fight against global warming, since a tropical forest of one hectare absorbs each year the equivalent of the CO2 emissions of a Swiss family.
Do you remember the arboRise game ? On 8th February in Paris, we tested a playful approach to understanding decision-making processes in a village community. One month later, Léa Ackerer, commissioned by ETH’s ForDev, tests the game in the field, in the small village of Diaradouni and then in Manakoro, in the south of the Linko sub-prefecture.
The arboRise game is very simple: the four players receive cards representing their fields, with different degrees of fertility. They can then play their cards (cultivate their fields) in several zones, representing the types of crops: food crops (cassava, fonio, etc.), cashew nut plantations for cash, or agroforests with arboRise. Each type of crop involves specific costs and income, as in real life. And as in real life, one can choose to spread out one’s activities or “bet” everything on a single crop.
What did this experience bring out? In addition to the smiles of the players, it seems that our game is a very good awareness-raising tool, to show the impact of the choice of crops (groundnuts, cassava, cashew nuts or reforestation by arboRise) on the prosperity of the community.
A key lesson seems to be ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket‘: resist the lure of immediate gains and continue to grow food crops even if they are less profitable.
We also observed that women play more conservatively, while men take more risks. We had also expected more collective strategies to emerge, but the players chose to focus on their own interests. This is an important lesson: in our fieldwork we will make sure that we create the conditions to strengthen the cooperation between the families involved in our project.
Playing a role-playing game implies that a few simple rules are set and that it is then the players who invent new rules as the game progresses. Such an evolution implies that the game master invites the players to seize this space of freedom. This is of course what was done on the spot, but it is possible that our interpreter got caught up in the game and did not translate Lea’s instructions as faithfully as he should have. Such are the vagaries of fieldwork.
We will obviously continue to develop and use this game as a real awareness-raising tool. For more information on the use of serious games in development: https://www.commod.org/
Do you remember “anything is possible“? The new arboRise tree sowing adventure in Switzerland, by bringing together “seed families” and “land families”?
Well, preparations are well underway, with a first visit in situ and the choice of tree species to be sown. First of all, it is necessary to understand the nature of the land: type of soil, sunshine, altitude (and therefore average temperature), slope… What is the history of the plot, what could be its future?
After answering, even partially, these questions, comes the creative moment: what does the owner wish to see growing there? Tree sowing, yes, but what? stately trees or rather fruit trees? formal garden aligned with the line or rather English garden? forest garden, tasty forest? should there be a small path to reach the trees? and now which species of trees?
Then comes the distribution of species according to the location of the participants: “do you have chestnut trees in your region? will you be able to collect the seeds? The forests in Romandie are full of different species, let’s take use that!
Thanks to Catherine and Yannick for their generous welcome and to Rémy, Dany, Christine and Laurie for the enthusiasm and all the good ideas 😊 tree sowing with you will be gorgious!
