Community Based Seedling Production

Posted date

2012-03-26 19:02

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Final preparation of a purpose built, shaded nursery is overseen by Trees4Trees staff prior to seedling production.

Two years ago, when first proposed, no one in Patemon believed that they could manage a seedling nursery.

In 2009 Trees4Trees™ established a Farmer Group at Patemon, a small village near Purbalingga in Central Java. They named their group `Berkah Lestari' (Sustainable Blessing) and since then have built on that modest beginning to become truly sustainable. In the first year, members of the group planted seedlings supplied by Trees4Trees™, and saw that they could enhance their livelihoods considerably with the trees planted on their fallow lands. Next, with support and training from Trees4Trees, the group decided to take on the bigger project of starting their own nursery, from which they could supply their own needs and also supply high quality seedlings to Trees4Trees™ to get other farmer groups started.3 months on, the progress is clear to be seen, with the young saplings obviously flourishing in their shady, ideal environment.

In the first season, the group produced 46,000 seedlings, which they planted on their own lands and sold back to Trees4Trees™. In their second year they have produced 60,000 seedlings of which the majority are going to Trees4Trees™ to help start other farmer groups plant trees. The benefit to the local community has been substantial. They have gained the skills needed to run a successful community business. They are producing seedlings for their own forest based livelihoods, and they have returned over $14,000 in economic value to the community through the nursery alone.Preparing soil in the nursery

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