How Our Projects Address Climate Change

“We need to use biodiversity in a sustainable way, so that we can better respond to rising climate change challenges and produce food in a way that doesn’t harm our environment.  Governments have focused on climate change far more than they have focused on loss of biodiversity or land degradation.  All three are equally important to human wellbeing.”   –  IPBES chairman Sir Bob Watson.

On the 6th of May this year, a comprehensive report was released by the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), a body of 132 global governments, stating the devastating impact of humans on nature and the fact that the health of ecosystems is deteriorating more rapidly than ever.
Changing climate patterns and a history of unsustainable farming practices have exhausted soil and left land un-farmable.

With an ever-increasing focus on Climate Change and nature, we at Haller are proud of the fact that so many elements in our projects have such a strong environmental and sustainable approach and have done for many years.  Nature and sustainability are at the core of everything we do.

LAND:

We leverage the abundance of free, natural resources and give our communities the knowledge and tools to work with nature, productively, helping protect the soil for future generations.

We implement tree planting in all our communities and teach them climate smart planting and the importance of planting indigenous trees and crops, which together enhances the land and soil around them.  Soil has a huge impact on climate change; there is three times more carbon stored in soil than there is in the atmosphere and due to it being rich in nutrients and bacteria, healthy soil is the foundation of all life.  Only 3% of the planet’s surface is suitable for arable production, and 75 billion tonnes of fertile soil is lost to land degradation every year.  This degradation of soils and subsequent soil microbes, compromises food production and the availability of clean water.

Our Youth Farming Project enables school children to learn the importance of looking after the land and how it can be used to provide food for their families.

We have a British Airways funded forest and have planted over 2 million trees.

We recycle – for compost – to make soldier flies which are food for poultry and fish.

WATER:

We have rain fed dams to capture the seasonal rains for irrigation and fish farming.

Install wells for clean drinking water.

We recycle plastic water bottles for drip irrigation.

RENEWABLE ENERGY:

Our clinic, education centre, library and IT classes at Nguuni, are all solar powered, as is our fish farming research and aquaponics system.

Our training farm at Mtopanga is solar operated and has a windmill.

We have biogas and solar kiosks in a couple of communities.

Our app training works from solar resources.

We have distributed 1200 gravity lights, which makes use of kinetic energy, so that families avoid using kerosene lamps.