The tsunami gardeners

Contributed by our ADG partner CSIRO:

A simple organic gardening and ecosystem restoration program is building new self-sufficiency in Sri Lankan communities striving to overcome tsunami damage and effects from the ongoing civil war.

More than three years after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami hit, killing more than 30 000 people, disaster relief efforts in Sri Lanka have moved well beyond the relief phase into the recovery and consolidation modes.

On top of the wave's deep social impact, escalating civil war is hampering aid efforts and strangling the economy, increasing life's pressures for the many Sri Lankans trying to re-establish basic comfort. A related challenge, rampant inflation, has contributed to price rises in fuel, basic commodities and food of 120 per cent in the past two years, forcing most folk, living on just a few dollars each day, to new poverty levels. Jobs are scarce, and in the picturesque southern coastal districts which rely on an annual tourist bounty, the visitor numbers are the lowest in 30 years because of the wave's impact and the civil strife.

Under these conditions self-sufficiency becomes imperative. The tsunami, however, wiped out hundreds of thousands of village food gardens and significantly damaged the coastal vegetation which people relied on for basic nutrition and supplies. And so it is now, particularly, that the efforts of both international and local humanitarian aid organisations are crucial in continuing to support the traditional agrarian and fishing communities set inland from Sri Lanka's warm, opal sea.

Rebuilding basic livelihoods
Solidar's Coastal Community Rehabilitation Project (CCRP) is one such initiative contributing to reduced household expenses, food provision and income generation capacity in the southern coastal districts of Galle and Matara. Sustainable community based organisations (CBOs), established in seven key towns as part of the project, run nursery-cum-training centres that grow and distribute a variety of food, medicinal, ornamental and utility plants for home gardens and ecosystem repair.

The program aims to engage community members to rehabilitate the vital south-west coastal zone, which suffered considerable tsunami damage. The mangroves, wetlands and coral reefs of the area once provided protection from most coastal storms and mitigated flooding. They are also vital fish breeding grounds, and produce edible plants, firewood and building materials.

New biodiversity via home gardens
Like many women, Chandra Pathmini Mullegamage lost her husband to the tsunami, and with him, her family's main income provider. But after being selected for the CCRP's home gardens program she now has a thriving garden that just one year after planting provides her with food, self-sufficiency and a renewed sense of purpose.

'This program has been very happy luck for us,' she explains. 'Now we are getting a lot of vegetables and spices, and next year I should be able to sell some at the market.'

Specific plants for special roles
Food plants form the majority of community nursery production, but other non-food local species, medicinal plants and flowering and mangrove plants are also grown. The CCRP is the only project to be growing mangroves in the country so there is high demand for the plant which not only provides new protection against oceans and weather, but also improves vital breeding ground for fish, Sri Lanka's staple protein source.

At full capacity, 300 000 plants are grown each year. 75% of those are available for distribution or sale within three to six months and are being readily taken up by other organisations and locals.

Re-greening the coast
Ultimately the 3 year project aims to recreate a green belt along the coast which will restore the soil cover, improve biodiversity, and provide a wind barrier and shade that will allow home gardening activities to take place only metres from the coast.

Key implementing partner, Rainforest Rescue International's Managing Director, Charith Senanayake, explains that 'These are some of the last high endemic biodiversity areas left and the pressures on them grow. We want to make Galle the rainforest city in the south and raise the importance of working to preserve these habitat areas,' he emphasises.

By James Porteous
Managing Editor
ECOS: Australia's magazine on sustainability

Edited and reproduced with permission from ECOS magazine. Click here for the full article.

Photos courtesy of Ecos Magazine.

• Added to ADG on: 17 April 2008 , contributed by: CSIRO ECOS magazine
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