Community action project – Day 1

Hello GG community, we are Eli Stone and Lawson Ren, student leaders of the day (Lider del Dia).

Today we started our CAP (community action project). For this year’s project, we were going to plant trees in deeply deforested areas on the Azuero Peninsula. Some context: only 8% of the native forests remain on the Azuero Peninsula, as a result of the deep cattle herding culture present in this area, where trees were cut down to make room to raise cattles. This deeply affects many species of animals native to this region, including the spider monkeys, but also the people that live there. Our goal was to resist the new reality of climate change by planting trees to replace what used to be there and help revitalize the land bridge for animals to travel more freely. By expanding the environment for these animals, we hope to see these spider monkey replenish their endangered population.

On our first day, we woke up bright and early at 4:30am to get to the site by 7:00am. We hiked around 20 minutes, then got instructions from Cesar, one of the directors of Pro Eco Azuero, who showed us how to plant the trees using a knife to cut the plastic bags surrounding the saplings, then showed us how to put the soil around it. Erin was really helpful providing us with tips on how to walk around the area without slipping and Wyatt was very thoughtful in supporting some of our adults safely ascend to our location. After that, we started planting in holes pre-dug by the Pro Eco Azuero staff. The holes were laid out in rows, along the slants of various hills. The environment was relatively pleasant for this task, being mostly cloudy except for a spot of heavy rain. There were also bugs constantly swarming each of us, which bug spray did not help. After the hard and muddy work we went through, we got lunch by the beachside. The scenery was beautiful, and we all were excited for our fun day in the near future.

We learned a lot about the difficulties in this field of work, and what it takes to make an impact in a problem so complex that future generations can thrive with as climate change continues to become more prominent in so many communites and environments. Tomorrow we will be returning to continue our work and it is definitely helpful that we have a better understanding of how it all works.