By Robin Van Loon | Executive Director
Dear Friends,
A few months ago, I was hired by a group of investors to offer a consultation on organic agriculture in our region of the Peruvian Amazon, Madre de Dios. These bankers and businessmen were interested in contributing meaningfully to the improvement of agriculture in our region. And, they were committed to making their contribution count by investing in organic, sustainable agriculture. Thank goodness!
Part of my report was an overview of the current reality of agriculture in Madre de Dios: slash-and-burn as the norm, rapidly declining biodiversity on farm and off, increased use of agro-chemicals and non-native technologies. It was a sad, scary list.
But the longest section in the report was a lot more inspiring and positive. It was a rundown on all the amazing, powerful organic technologies and strategies that exist to make agriculture truly sustainable in the tropics. And one of the cornerstones of my review was, of course, bio-char.
The exciting outcome of this consultation job is that the investors have listened. And they've expressed their interest in creating the region's first bio-char production facilities in the years to come. While its too soon to know if these good intentions will be acted on, it's a very exciting step to see bio-char appearing in the field of vision of change makers and green investors.
Let's hope that soon, we at Camino Verde won't be the only ones making bio-char a reality in our region.
Warm regards from Tambopata!
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