Guillaume de Vaulx, Atif al-Mays, Colin Gibson and Damien Boustani

How God provided in Lebanon (once again!)

When it came time for Colin and Audrey Gibson to retire from their posts at A Rocha Lebanon, they launched the search for a new national director. Guillaume de Vaulx and Damien Kasper both received a message from a common friend encouraging them to go for the role. One position, two friends. Was this a case of letting the best man win? Or was there another way? They decided to apply as joint directors, two heads in one body. The Gibsons and the Board agreed to this creative plan, and the good Hydra of Lebanon was born!

Even for two, the tasks were many and at the Nature Park project in the Bekaa Valley, there was pressure from the local mayor to open the site as soon as possible. Damien and Guillaume immediately set out to ensure the ongoing building works were completed and to make much needed improvements to the irrigation system as, already, some of the recently planted trees and shrubs were dying. A board member – an architect by profession – had volunteered to supervise the building works, but what to do about the irrigation system? In the face of a collapsing economy and the regular delays of life in Lebanon, the situation felt hopeless…

That is, until the surprising and wonderful arrival of Noha.

At 5pm, Guillaume received a text from an Egyptian phone number: ‘Hi Guillaume, I am Noha. I was your student in the philosophy class in 2013. I’ve heard you are doing something connected to the land in Lebanon. It sounds exciting. I am in Beirut now – can we meet?’ They met at 10pm the same day and it turned out Noha was now working on environmental policy and water issues. She asked a friend in London to produce some maps and she and Guillaume got to work.

Noha and Ibrahim (our Syrian volunteer) digging out the old irrigation network

By 6am the next day, Guillaume and Noha were on their way to Mekse with a presentation to explain the solution to the municipal authorities. And now the reservoir is full and the roses are blooming! Two other new volunteers, Philip and Sylvie, plan to make an inventory of the wild flowers present in the park and use the data to update the WildLebanon site. Give thanks with us for these arrivals and please continue to pray for A Rocha Lebanon in this exciting new chapter.

Pictured: Guillaume de Vaulx, present joint-director of A Rocha Lebanon; Atif al-Mays, chief of Mekse municipality; Colin Gibson, the previous director of A Rocha Lebanon; Damien Kasper, present joint-director of A Rocha Lebanon

Photo 2 – Noha and Ibrahim (our Syrian volunteer) digging out the old irrigation network

A black weed bag of composted weeds, garden sieve for grading compost, and a bag of potting mix

Innovation in Auckland: growing healthy, biodiverse plants and keeping playgrounds out of landfill

Nicholas Mayne is an A Rocha Auckland volunteer and one of two people who run the Community Nurseries niche in the Upper Waitemata Ecology Network. Innovations abound: keeping plants healthy with recycled softfall playground mats, turning plant waste into potting soil, and championing the collection of biodiverse eco-sourced seeds.

The Unsworth Reserve community nursery on the North Shore in Auckland is a hive of activity. Nicholas can be found potting native trees or sifting through composted plants by hand to grade the mixture and remove any remaining stems. The process creates rich potting soil, and often offers up the hidden treasure of native seeds, which Nicholas carefully collects.

The provenance and genetics of a seed are crucial. ‘Eco-sourcing’ is the philosophy of growing native plants from the same ecological district as where they will be planted. Nicholas follows this principle but notes its limitations – commercially, seed is often collected from the easiest source of harvest, which can mean a reduction in genetic diversity. If a plant is already locally rare or extinct, going further afield to restore populations may be necessary. What Nicholas sees as most important is to collect seeds from multiple sources in a local area in a bid to gain as much genetic diversity as possible to increase adaptability to changes in climate. Nicholas and his colleague, Jan Diprose, train volunteers to collect biodiverse eco-sourced seeds to distribute to local nurseries.

Keeping your plants healthy is another focus: pathogens are wily! Some can even swim through wet soil from one plant to another. Nicholas saw a pile of used softfall playground mats in his dad’s workshop and had an idea. An arrangement with the local Council now reroutes mats from landfill to the nursery where they offer easily liftable, free-draining support under potted plants through which water and soil can travel, significantly reducing the likelihood of any one diseased plant infecting the rest of the nursery.

Nicholas and Jan were finalists in the Innovation category for their work at the Community Nurseries Project in the Auckland Mayoral Conservation Awards 2021. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Photos: Nicholas Mayne

Shea butter workers - A Rocha Ghana

Greening businesses in Ghana

In Ghana, as in many places around the world, consumers are demanding greener, cleaner products and services, even if it means paying more. That’s why A Rocha Ghana, working in collaboration with IUCN Ghana, is engaging with companies across the country to help them respond.

Businesses in Environmental Stewardship Network (BESNet) provides a platform for businesses across Ghana to contribute to environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation. Through training workshops and webinars, companies are being equipped and informed on how best they can value nature through their practices and decision-making processes.

Currently, the network includes close to 30 companies: from multinationals like Guinness Ghana, to small-scale businesses like Werlan Farm.

‘BESNet introduced us to the need to value natural capital in our business,’ says Ruth Kaweh Allan, the owner of Werlan Farm. ‘Through it we learned that protecting the land, the insects, the trees, and all living organisms on it would contribute to sustainability. We intensified our organic farming practices. Instead of pesticides we are using homemade concoctions with neem oil, pepper, onion and some spices to control pests and diseases. We also use farmyard manure to provide nutrition across the farm.’

The Green Corporate Star Award offers special recognition to businesses that demonstrate a particular commitment to environmental sustainability through their operations or by supporting environmental projects.

In time, the BESNet team hopes to develop more resources and tools that businesses can use to ensure their practices are environmentally friendly, as well as support them to develop environmental sustainability policies.

Through BESNet, A Rocha Ghana is demonstrating that it is possible to do business and protect the environment.

20210826Ibrahim-IMG-0560-cropped

Nine years as a refugee in Lebanon

Ibrahim Saffieh arrived in Lebanon with his family in 2012 as refugees fleeing the war in Syria. Initially he managed to find employment slaughtering chickens. Then in 2015, A Rocha Lebanon offered him work, first at our nature park in Qab Elias and more recently at Mekse, helping with practical conservation and site maintenance.

Ibrahim loves the outdoors and is a loyal worker. He can turn his hand to anything that needs to be done on site – from tree planting and pruning to pond maintenance and irrigation. When extra labour is needed, he arranges work for other refugees, paid on a daily basis thanks to Gifts with a Difference, and the generous individuals whose purchases have supported nature-based livelihoods for Syrian refugees.

Ibrahim also grows food for his family on currently unused land and sells any surplus produce for income. His wife, Fatimah, makes wonderful manousheh, a traditional Lebanese flatbread and their youngest son, Mohammad, hopes to follow in her culinary footsteps by learning catering. At 13 years old, he has already left school and works 12-hour days at a nearby sandwich restaurant. Their eldest son, Ahmed, is 20, and is a carpenter living and working in Beirut, while his daughter, Bathoul, is in her final year at school and dreams of going to university.

Gifts with a Difference has made a real and positive impact for refugee families like Ibrahim’s. Thank you for making a difference!