December 16, 2019

Dear Friend,
I recently returned from a two week visit to Honduras. Joni and I
lived there a couple of times in the 1980's. Together with some
friends we started a program called Tierra Nueva in the areas of
San Luis and Minas de Oro, Comayagua (our friends in Minas
and we in San Luis). The focus of our work has been sustainable
agriculture and preventative health. We trained farmers to use soil
and water conservation practices for steep hillside farming,
organized groups of women to learn about health and nutrition,
worked with communities to organize to seek assistance for community water and sanitation projects. We
trained some of our best farmers to be farmer trainers which we call agricultural and health promotors. The
group in San Luis has continued to work together visiting villages and other farmers for over 30 years, and as
long as they continue to meet and present to me projects they think would meet a felt need in the
communities they visit, and I agree that it meets some of the goals of the work of Tierra Nueva, I help them
find financing. There have been many projects over the years, and their latest has been to diversify the shade
systems of coffee farms in the area with tall growing timber species and fruit trees. I had not visited the
program for almost 7 years, so I was delighted to see what an
enormous success it has been.

As a result of the work of the Tierra

Nueva promoters, farmers have
planted over a hundred thousand
trees in their coffee farms such as
this recently planted mahogany
tree in between the rows of coffee.

At their farms each of the

promoters started the trees in
small nurseries like Tobias’s.
The trees were shared with or
sold at a very low cost (a few
cents each) to other farmers
and transplanted in the
coffee fields. This is Tobias
showing second year’s
growth of a mahogany tree.

After several years, you can see

the trees up above the coffee.
With Tierra Nueva, coffee farmers in the area have planted over 100,000 timber species trees (different varieties of
mahoganies). I was very impressed. Talking to the farmers and the promoters, I got a sense that this is just the
beginning. I met several farmers who are now starting their own tree nurseries and transplanting other local timber
varieties into their coffee farms.

So far we have planted 14 different species of trees. During my visit with the promoters we made a list of about a
dozen other varieties to focus on in the future and add even more diversity to benefit wildlife.
 Coffee plants without shade.
There are still a lot of coffee
farms without shade which can
make them more vulnerable to
disease.

Certification

One very important aspect to the project

is the certification of these plantings with
the Honduran Department of Forestry.
We hope to get most of the farms
certified in the coming months. In
Honduras it has been illegal to cut down
timber species trees even if the trees are
on private land and the owner has
planted them. With certification, the
areas where the trees have been planted
with the Tierra Nueva program can be
harvested with permission under a
sustainable management program.
Requirements are to not harvest near
streams or springs and for the farmer to
demonstrate continued planting to assure
regeneration.

Fruit Trees

In addition to planting forestry species, Tierra

Nueva has planted several thousand grafted fruit
trees – mostly avocado and citrus.
On my visit I noted how proud the promoters were of their work. They were eager for me to get out and see
as many sites as I could, however in two weeks I was only able to see a small fraction of the areas planted. In
some areas I was able to look across from one mountain to another where I could see our trees reaching out
above the coffee farms.
The promoters intend to continue as long as there is financing. It costs time and money to plant and maintain
the tree nurseries, and there is still a lot of demand for the trees. We have plans to build three small
greenhouses to help control diseases in the fruit tree nurseries, and to plant additional varieties of forestry
species.
Some spirited discussions with farmers, me with promoters Carlos and Manuel and lunchtime.

There was a lot of damage to the pine

forest by pine beetles in Honduras with
the Tierra Nueva area being one of the
hardest hit. Many attribute this to
climate change. A few of the areas
where Tierra Nueva has planted trees
are areas damaged by the beetles.

There is little doubt that climate disruption is making life more difficult for the Honduran farmers. I visited
many farms that completely lost their corn crops this year to drought. The rains that have always come in
May or June did not come until September and only lasted a few weeks rather than several months.
Coffee farmers are in a constant struggle against coffee leaf rust and warmer temperatures -- coffee only
does well in cooler mountain temperatures. I’ve read that one of the most effective strategies for helping
farmers to cope with these problems is what Tierra Nueva has been doing. By creating the higher canopy of
shade from the tall growing timber species trees, we can help create micro-climates to lower temperatures
and increase the covering of leaf litter over the soil to retain soil moisture. The additional leaves aid in the
trapping of the spores of the fungal coffee leaf rust disease to help to prevent its spread.
Reconnecting
In addition to touring the work Tierra Nueva has been doing, I was able to reconnect with a lot of old friends .
Aguinaldo and his family

When we lived in Honduras, we paid Aguinaldo to

come live with us and help us with our farm and with
starting the program. Aguinaldo is now battling cancer
that has metastasized into his bones. Faced with the
possibility of selling the farm that is the livelihood of
two of his sons to be able to pay for the cost of
treatment, he has chosen to treat it with herbal
remedies. Because of the corruption in the present
government, the public health system has been
almost impossible to utilize.

Diversity, Cover crops and fish

I also saw some things that made me

happy. This is Raul in a field of a
green manure/cover crop that he
had planted with his corn to improve
his soil fertility. He was about to
chop it down with his machete to
plant a second crop of corn in the
cover crop mulch.

D
 This is Marlon with another type of green
manure/cover crop in his corn that he too
is about to chop to plant corn again.

Maribel is one of our very active

promoters. I told her she gets the
prize for being the most diversified
farmer. In addition to her fish pond
where she now has a couple hundred
two pound tilapia ready to harvest
and sell, she has chickens for eggs
and meat to sell, turkeys, pigs, a
vegetable garden, a tree nursery,
fruit trees, a bread baking business, a
sewing business and a coffee farm.

Honduras is a beautiful country with wonderful, welcoming and hospitable people, but it continues to
struggle with poverty, corruption and violence. Unfortunately, the programs most desperately needed
that are effectively addressing the corruption and violence have recently lost their funding from the
current administration in the US. These are the very programs needed to curb the migration of Hondurans
seeking safety and jobs. A lot of Hondurans have successfully migrated to the US and sending remittance
money back to Honduras to help their families, and I found that many are sending money to build homes
to return to after they have saved enough money to start a business back in Honduras which is where
they really want to be.

Tierra Nueva now has six active promoters: Raul, Carlos, Maribel, Apolinario, Manuel, and Tobias. The
work they are doing has been entirely funded by myself and small contributions from my family and
friends. All of us who’ve worked hard on this small project are very grateful for the support we’ve
received.

If you want to help, send a check made out to Larry Sell/Tierra Nueva to 23471 W. Petite Lake Rd., Lake
Villa, IL 60046.

God’s blessing to you,

Larry Sell