During the last month, we here at Sadhana Forest have established a bond with a local environmental group, GPLA (Gwoupman popile pou Lavni Anasapit). Shown above is one of our first encounters where 50 people from their group
attended a meeting at Sadhana Forest on how to plant trees. GPLA is extremely  interested on how we plant and our amazing success rate in growing the trees. Sadhana Forest does Mound Planting, where we dig a round trench that is 1 meter in circumference and then take that soil to make a mound inside the circle we dug. If planting on an angel we may create bunds on the outside of the trench to make sure that water will collect inside of it. We then cover the planting area with mulch to aid in the reduce water evaporation. In the photo above, 2 GPLA members have planted the tree and are mulching around the perimeter.

Our connection with GPLA has been beneficial to both groups. GPLA has brought us out into the mountains of Haiti into Bonan and Boni to demonstrate our tree planting and we have shared our knowledge on alternative methods for cooking (solar cookers and rocket stoves). We attend their weekly meetings (where the majority of their 200 members show up each week and pay dues!), and they stop by the forest to continue their education on different aspects of environment. They latest news update from GPLA is that they are trying to start up a garbage collection in Anse-a-Pitre and that they are making their own VermiCompost!

Tags: GPLA, Tree Planting