| Annual budget: $149,000
Major
donors:
- Fundación
Redistribuir, Germany.
- Alemania/Germany,
gobierno/government.
- Critical
Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), United States.
- Evangelischer
Entwicklungsdienst (Servicio de las iglesias Evangélicas
en Alemania para el Desarrollo / Church
Development Service - An Association of the Protestant Churches
in Germany) (EED),
Alemania/Germany.
- European
Union.
- Staatssekretariat
für Wirtschaft (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs)
(SECO), Switzerland/Suiza.
- VOLENS-Itinerans,
Bélgica/Belgium.
- Fraternidad
Menonita, Alemania/Germany.
Objectives:
- Recover the biodiversity of southeastern
Nicaragua.
- Get local families involved in organic
production.
- Improve soil conditions by using
sustainable practices.
- Promote diversified agro-forestry.
- Grow products of sufficient quantity
and superior quality.
- Obtain ecological certification.
- Sell products for export in environmentally-friendly
and fair-trade markets.
- Promote local markets by offering
healthy and fresh produce directly from the producers to
the consumers.
Description
of the area where organization works:
Our
work is carried out in the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve,
the Punta Gorda and Cerro Silva protected areas, and the buffer
zones in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) in southeastern
Nicaragua. This humid tropical region, declared a Biosphere
Reserve by UNESCO in 2003, is important for Nicaragua, Central
America, and the world, because it forms part of the Mesoamerican
Biological Corridor and has a high level of biodiversity.
RAAS
is comprised of twelve municipalities, of which the largest
are Bluefields, Nueva Guinea, and Rama. Living in the region
are 25,000 families that depend on agriculture.
Memberships: Membership
in Sano y Salvo is open to sustainable farmers of the region.
Benefits
of membership: “Produce
ecologically and live better.”
Number
of members: 140 as of June, 2004
Projects:
-
Preventing
Agricultural Expansion in the Indio-Maíz Biological
Reserve and the Cerro Silva Natural Reserve by Ecological
Agro-Forestry in the Buffer Zone
Summary:
The members of the organization are steering away from
activities that have a negative impact on the environment,
such as traditional farming of grains and tubers, deforestation,
and converting forests to pastures. Sustainable agriculture
adapted to the humid tropics is now being practiced. Native
flora are used to mimic the forests of Bluefields, Nueva
Guinea, and El Rama in the Southern Atlantic Autonomous
Region (RAAS) of Nicaragua.
Introducing agro-forestry methods and
making the farms more profitable will halt the expansion
of agricultural lands in the Indio-Maíz Biological
Reserve and the Cerro Silva Natural Reserve, the last natural
lands that exist in this region of Nicaragua.
Principal
accomplishments:
- Helped
the farmers set goals for sustainable agricultural production
and improve the quality of their lives. Raised interest
in the population as a whole.
- Educator
Elba Rivera successfully used the ‘'farmer to farmer'' and
“hands-on” methods that are part of the ideas and concepts
of Paulo Freire.
- Planted
approximately 28 acres (70 hectares); one part with cacao
mixed with leguminous plants and other crops, and the other
part with agro-forestry crops that are closely linked with
native flora.
- Developed
an internal monitoring system as the first step towards
ecological certification.
- Sano
y Salvo belongs to the Federación Internacional de
Movimientos de Agricultura Orgánica (International
Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements). This affiliation
includes groups of farmers and cattle ranchers within the
Federation, and the Latin American and Caribbean group.
Its affiliations also include: Red Internacional de Finqueros
Autosuficientes (International Self-Sufficient Farmers Network);
Organización de Productores y Productoras Orgánicas
de Nicaragua (Organization of Nicaraguan Organic Producers);
Coalición de Organizaciones para la Conservación
de la Biósfera del Sureste de Nicaragua (Coalition
of Organizations for the Conservation of the Southeastern
Biosphere of Nicaragua); and Sociedad Civil Organizada de
Nueva Guinea (Civil Society Organization of Nueva Guinea).
- Have
carried out the following actions to date:
Volunteers:
Work
can be arranged for volunteers who speak Spanish, pay their
own expenses, and show respect for the culture and local customs.
Lodging can only be offered for pre-arranged long-term commitments
as in the case of theses or post-graduate work.
Volunteers
have come from:
- Austria
and Germany with an interest in sustainable agriculture
in the humid tropics.
- A
volunteer from the U.S. Peace Corps helped with business
and accounting.
- Tropical
agriculture students from France came to do theses research
that was very helpful for Sano y Salvo.
Related
links:
-
www.pixum.de/members/sanoysalvo/
Sano y Salvo photo gallery. The site that hosts this photo album is in German, but the images can be seen by following the arrows.
-
www.ifoam.org
Web site
of the Federación Internacional de Movimientos de
Agricultura Orgánica/International Federation of
Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM).
Publications:
-
Job description. At the end of 2006, Sano y Salvo will begin working on alternative farming techniques such as the fermentation of cacao, extraction of lemon grass, vanilla processing, and drying more than 20 organic products. Someone to train and supervise the farming families will be needed. In English.
- Producción Agropecuaria Ecológica newsletter from the Fundación La Esperanzita, Escuela Campesina de Agricultura Ecológica en el Trópico Húmedo. 2 pages. In Spanish.
- Report for Sano y Salvo, April 2006. In German.
- Carta Circular – Newsletter - Rundbrief: Sano y Salvo • Safe and Sound • Heil und Gesund. News bulletin published regularly in Spanish, English, or German. Available by email request.
-
Open-pit mining: The Ministry of Promotion, Industry, and Trade administers mining concessions country-wide. Under the administration of President Bolaños, this matter affects southeastern Nicaragua in the same region that UNESCO declared a Biosphere Reserve in 2003, a key region or "hotspot" for biodiversity. In addition to other problems, local residents now must confront full concessions for open-pit mining exploration and extraction. The government wants to provoke a “gold rush” fever by deceiving the rural people, hiding the fact that the mining areas in Nicaragua are among the poorest and least healthy in the nation. There is a lot of information about this topic on the Web; some related documents in Spanish include:
English | Español
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