“Food Forests” are the majority of our agroforestry types in Guatemala (and in the USA and Honduras as well). combine fruit trees, legume trees and annuals planted together along contour rows. They replace the existing practice of chemical, slash and burn corn monocultures….. transitioning these lands into permanent, organic agroforestry systems.
The Impacts of these projects span the economic-environmental-social trifeca:
(1) Agroforestry systems provide more biodiversity, habitat, carbon sequestration, water infiltration and soil building than the previous corn land use.
(2) They provide more income in terms of produce sales, food security, and potential for agro/eco-tourism and value-added processing.
(3) They improve health, offer educational opportunities and restore sovereignty and cultural pride.
To date Contour Lines has planted 10,039 Food Forests across 335 villages, totaling:
- 2,180,588 trees planted, on
- 6,294,291 feet (1,918.5km) of erosion-control Contour Lines!
- 3,757 hectares (9.284 acres) transitioned, from slash and burn corn to agroforestry, and
- 25,180 locals trained in Contour Lines regenerative methods.
<See our full 2019-2022 statistics>
Learn more about these agroforestry systems:
- What are Contour Lines?
- Our Methods – How we conserve and restore soil.
- Our Plants – What species we plant to do the job.
To Support these projects, help us expand into 50 more villages over the next planting season (June 2023), donate to our paypal, and leave a note earmarking for “Food Forest Expansion.”