Last dispatch from Kenya….

posted at 5:03pm, 30 Nov 09 by Cafédirect HQ [ 0 comments ]

The final installment from Jacquie ….

Its the last day of the AdapCC trip and its a mixture of sadness and excitement. Sadness as the end is near and excitement as today is the AdapCC workshop with our East African grower partners and other experts in climate change and the tea industry. This morning we have been delighted to see old friends from Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Having seen the adaptation methods on the ground, it really brings the presentations to life that we are hearing this morning. Michimikuru has made some incredible advances in the time that it has been involved in the AdapCC project. They have established nurseries of drought-resilient trees and crops and are planting 100,000 new trees being per year to replace those being cut as firewood.

However a key project demonstrated that it was not just about reforestation (as opposed to deforestation), a reduction in consumption of firewood is also key.

One of the projects we visited was a woman’s group which had been trained in installing energy saving stoves. One of these women, Grace, told us that previously the women would collect 3 bundles of firewood a day. This meant that they were carrying crippling loads on their backs and needing to make 3 separate trips. Now, with the energy saving stoves, consumption is down to 30 – 70% and require just 3 pieces of wood a day, as opposed to the 3 bundles.

The great news is that 2000 farmers have adopted the technology so far.

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