trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

financed, organized and integrated with existing professional, community and family responsibilities?None of this was easy or quick. What kept us coherent, were the conversations we had individually orcollectively whenever circumstances brought us together.A Business Idea, Not a CharitySince 2006, both as sites and as a collective, we have been almost completely self-financed. This isconsistent with an early agreement that the Barbets Duet is a business idea, not a charity. As a result,each learning site has raised its own investments and produced its own income. The only exception hasbeen the financing of the two Conventions. In addition to modest donations from two London donors,wealthier partners in the Barbets Duet have contributed to the travel costs of others.Self-reliance has several advantages. First, we did not need to wait for finance to begin ourexperiments; we simply started with what we could afford. Second, we had the liberty to develop ourown thinking about key principles and concepts. Third, we could move at the pace appropriate to ourcircumstances and our means. Fourth, anyone who wanted to participate in the Barbets Duet needed tobe willing to give something in order to gain something.3. ResultsThe work of the Barbets Duet between 2006 and 2011 has had a number of results. 1Barbet Sites establishedFirst, there is the establishment of Barbet Learning Sites in East Africa, the UK and USA. Only the sitein Rufiji, Tanzania has been delayed, largely because of government directives.Practical experiments in land managementSecond, each site has been experimenting with new ways to use, manage and earn a living from the land.In Tanzania, Msi Choke have been learning how to produce seaweed soap and shampoo, to diversifytheir income. Both Kenyan sites, at Lukenya and Seme, have built dams to harvest and store water foruse in the dry seasons. Several sites have created tree nurseries and tested the viability of different trees,including medicinal and indigenous species.Fuel crops are also being tested for their viability at different sites – coppice wood and oil seed treesare being planted in both Uganda and Kenya. All sites have encouraged multi-cropping andintercropping. Some traditional crops, such as sorghum and millet, have replaced maize, increasingboth diversity and resilience. In Molo, Uganda, two fish ponds have been dug and one has been stocked.At Woodland Valley Farm, two pastures have been replanted with permanent herbs and grasses,1All quotations in this section are taken from the confidential notes of the Barbet Partners Meeting held at Nkoroi,Kenya, in August 2010. A summary of that meeting is available at www.barbetsduet.com Events Conventions.[Accessed 12 May 2011].101