Neighbourwoods Winter Tree Talk – Review

Neighbourwoods Winter Tree Talk:
MCC: Reforesting for Hope and Change in Haiti

On January
21st, about 40 enthusiastic community members gathered to hear Fred Redekop
give a fascinating overview of a long-running project by the Mennonite
Central Committee to reforest the hardest-hit areas in Haiti, to provide
local people with affordable food, cooking fuel, and building materials, as
well as income from fruit and lumber sales. In addition, the reforestation
project improves soil and reduces erosion from wind and water, reducing
vulnerability to, and allowing quicker recovery from, natural disasters like
hurricanes and droughts.

Fred’s talk included some
background on some of the reasons that led to Haiti’s becoming so
drastically deforested, including extreme weather but also political and
economic pressures both internal and external to Haiti. This generated
comments and questions among the listeners, and we were fortunate to have
relevant insights shared by participants with first-hand experience in Haiti.
A strong point of the presentation was that MCC works directly with local
people and partners, to ensure the aid provided is appropriate to the
people’s needs, and is sustainable by them over the long term. MCC has
established local tree nurseries, and provides education, training, and
support on sustainable farming practices. The trees are selected
specifically for the climate and conditions, and are fast-growing. The
project has been underway since 1983; in the past five years alone, over 2
million trees have been planted, of which approximately 400,000 are fruit
trees.

The presentation gave us much food for thought, and
provided a clear example of how forest conservation is critical to the
well-being of people and environments.

Fred Redekop was a
pastor in the Mennonite Church for 30 years.  At present he is the
Church and Community Associate for Mennonite Central Committee; he is also a
councillor for the Township of Woolwich. We were delighted that he was able
to join us for this special evening.

Neighbourwoods thanks
our 2018-19 Tree Talk Sponsor, the Elora-Salem Horticultural Society, for
their support.