Carbon/Charcoal Finale

[Me_again]

"One of the emerging techniques is called Alley Cropping. Rows of trees grown for branches used for fuel/charcoal with food crops in between. Inga and Leucaena are . . . "

Fascinating. Thanks for posting this. Further explained here:

http://www.rainforestsaver.org/what-inga-alley-cropping

wbr

 

[ExDR]

Always use it in my soil... works well.

Funny Steve, very good.
Wish I thought of it..... hahaha

I took a bit of a whipping when I suggested making carbon in a previous thread.....
breaking laws, etc.

It shows to go you how far of the road we sometimes are here in RD when we try to guage the Dominican psyche.
Whodathunk I was pleasing the locals by doing such an outrageous thing ??

Actually, I had a clue..... hence, I proceeded.

And yes, carbon is a necessity in many, many communities.
The law is aimed at commercial fabrication, not those trying to survive day to day.....IMO

The law is to protect the public forest. If not, the country will end up like Haiti. Look on Google Earth, no greenery anywhere. The razed every single tree for carbon and cooking. I remember my dad going to the forest and building a carbon pyramid. We would go back in a few days and dig out the carbon. DR's would cut down every tree if allowed.

 

[sanpedrogringo]

The law is to protect the public forest. If not, the country will end up like Haiti. Look on Google Earth, no greenery anywhere. The razed every single tree for carbon and cooking. I remember my dad going to the forest and building a carbon pyramid. We would go back in a few days and dig out the carbon. DR's would cut down every tree if allowed.

Google Earth does show an amazing contrast, but put the heels on the path or rather, the fanny on a moto. Take a trip from San Juan de la Maguana, specifically Las Matas de Farfan to Elias Pena....or Las Matas to La Rancha or El Cercado. Amazing vistas of rock formations, granted, but how much nicer were they with trees. Now add in how the local communities have been suffering through the trickle down results of deforestation.

 

[william webster]

ExDR
you may have missed my original comments. We were cleaning up felled trees.
We cut not one tree.... all 'maintenance' work, as it were.

Explaining why the vecinario was pleased to be cleaned up and provided with cooking fuel, at no cost to the environment, IMO.

 

[ExDR]

ExDR
you may have missed my original comments. We were cleaning up felled trees.
We cut not one tree.... all 'maintenance' work, as it were.

Explaining why the vecinario was pleased to be cleaned up and provided with cooking fuel, at no cost to the environment, IMO.

WW I was not directing my reply to you, I got the reason why you cut the trees and repurposed the wood for something good. I was explaining the mindset of the majority of economically disadvantaged person in the world. They will kill animals to provide to their family even if it means that you they will go extinct, or cut every tree down. They do not have the resources nor the knowledge to plan for the future. A good example is Asians, China, Japan, Korea, etc. fish the ocean to the point of completely emaciating the waters. They then go out and trespass on other territorial waters. When all they had to do was manage the renewable resources.

 

[william webster]

Understood, sorry if I overreacted.....

 

[PeterInBrat]

The wood shortage has become so bad in Haiti that they mine tree roots in many areas. Many Peace Corps projects trying to reforest areas end up having every tree cut down and stolen. A friend of mine was there a few months ago and they started some briquette companies using sugar cane bagasse as a feedstock.

 

[PeterInBrat]

The law is to protect the public forest. If not, the country will end up like Haiti. Look on Google Earth, no greenery anywhere. The razed every single tree for carbon and cooking. I remember my dad going to the forest and building a carbon pyramid. We would go back in a few days and dig out the carbon. DR's would cut down every tree if allowed.

The irony is the strict laws in the DR has made exporting black matket charcoal to the DR an ongoing industry. They will put the military on charcoal production in some regions here. The book Collapse has a section on the DR vs Haiti's forestry practices.

 

[william webster]

been bad for years, hasn't it Peter?

critically bad as I understand it.

 

[wuarhat]

I built a nice little cooker and have had some fun with this in the past.

http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php/135947-DO-you-dare-to-put-a-pic-up-of-yourself/page69

 

[bob saunders]

The wood shortage has become so bad in Haiti that they mine tree roots in many areas. Many Peace Corps projects trying to reforest areas end up having every tree cut down and stolen. A friend of mine was there a few months ago and they started some briquette companies using sugar cane bagasse as a feedstock.

This is mainly the result of the previous American embargo on gas, so Haitians had to find an alternate fuel for cooking.