In support of Self-sufficiency
January 23, 2023
The Local Knowledge; Global Goals project prioritizes local Indigenous knowledge and gender equality to build conservation capacity in order to improve the sustainable management of the BOSAWAS forest. One of the three project pillars is Self-Sufficiency.
Self-Sufficiency Goal: Apply local knowledge interventions to encourage adaptation, strengthen resilience, and improve self-sufficiency.
Milestones to date (Nature-Based solutions):
- 14 healers and traditional medicine practitioners have participated in community consultation, knowledge sharing, and planning;
- The first medicinal plant garden was established in October on the grounds of the local Health Centre.
- 20 families served and 2,800 pounds of rice processed with the rice threshing maching installed last fall.
Healers and traditional medicine practitioners created an initial inventory of plant species with medicinal and curative properties, including their locations, modes of usage, and properties, and will be uploaded to MAPEO and on RACHELs. The new pilot medicinal plant garden will promote the use of medicinal plants as complementary to the Western medical services provided at the Health Centre. The garden currently has nine of the most commonly used local plant species most-used for medicinal purposes.
The rice processing machine was purchased, delivered and installed in San Andres in October, 2022. The most significant benefit so far has been the reduction of the domestic workload of women and girls, as they are customarily responsible for hand-pounding the rice to remove the outer sheath.
What’s Next
More mini-greenhouses and patio gardens will be constructed in the local healers’ houses in the other communities in the next few months. Local sales of processed rice are expected to begin in the next few months as a strategy to build food sustainability and sovereignty.
Bosawas Central America and the Caribbean Climate Change Education Health In The Field Indigenous Peoples Nicaragua