On Wednesday April 25, 2012, Chairman of the FCT, Mrs Vivian-Anne Gittens, Administrative Director, Ms Nicole Garofano, and Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Kammie Holder, met with Dr The Honourable Denis Lowe at the offices of the Ministry of Environment with several of his colleagues.

We are happy to provide this snapshot of the the two and half hours of discussions including a presentation by Nicole on behalf of the FCT which included some of the great work we have been achieving over these past few years – and we say we, because without the help of our volunteers, our funders and you, who take the time to support us and read of our work, we could not have achieved such important work.

We include here the comments as recorded by Nicole Garofano from the meeting: Minutes of meeting with Dr Denis Lowe Minister of Environment and Drainage

Show here is the presentation offered to the Minister by the FCT: Meeting with Minister Denis Lowe April 25 2012

And finally, the Submission document of Public Sentiment gathered from the comments of those who chose to attend the Earth Day Morning Gully Walk event: Review of Earth Day Comments which was handed over to the Minister along with several copies of Bri and Luk – Book 1 as seen here with Mrs Gayle Francis-Vaughan, PS of Environment and Drainage:

Thank you Minister Lowe and your team for your appreciation of our work and your commitment to develop a formal agreement with the FCT for mutually beneficial relationships in the future. We look forward to working with you and we look forward to keeping our readers updated on the progress of the development of a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and consideration of subvention for the continued work of the FCT.

Share on Facebook

Thank you to those 50 people who chose to get out of their beds on a Sunday morning to come and take a walk through Welchman Hall Gully and listen to some great presentations soon after to celebrate Earth Day 2012! This coupled with the 75 or 80 people who came out in the evening time to see the movie One Day On Earth at Southern Palms Beach Club and Resort Hotel made Earth Day 2012 a great day to celebrate and appreciate this great planet!

Some of the pics of the morning event:

Some wonderful thank yous:

For the Morning Event:

The US Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and Ms Rebecca Ross – their Public Affairs Officer for their funding of the morning’s event

Debra Brancker of Welchman Hall Gully who provided the use of the gully free of charge to the participants in the mornings activities

Dr Adrian Cashman for his contribution of a very interesting and educational presentation on the importance of water and gullies in Barbados

Ms Lorraine Ciarallo for her presentation on permaculture principles

Ms Lani Edghill for preparing a great presentation on Green Building and for her assistance in organising the day

Ms Cecilia Stallard for assisting with the registrations for the mornings event.

To the contributors of our Public Sentiment Document which was delivered to Dr The Honourable Denis Lowe – Minister of Environment And Drainage on April 25 2012!

And for the evening time:

Corrie Scott for highlighting the global release of the film One Day on Earth and that Barbados needed to be part of it!

Ms Britta Pollard and Jenni Wilson of the Southern Palms Beach Club and Hotel Resort for the kind use of their Conference Room free of charge for the event

And of course for both events, all of you who participated and chose to appreciate Earth Day 2012! It would have been nothing without you!

Thanks lastly to Heather-lynn Evanson for her stories in the Nation following the Monday article shown here. Heather-lynns coverage appeared in The Nation on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thank you Heather-lynn for your continued support of the FCT!

Share on Facebook

*STOP PRESS*

We have reached our maximum limit of registrations for this event on Sunday night. Please get in touch with us if you would like to be kept updated on any other showings in the coming weeks. Thank you for your interest and support! There are still places left for the Welchman Hall Gully walk at 10am on Saturday.

We are working with local Barbadian artist Corrie Scott to present the One Day on Earth video which will have its global launch on Sunday April 22 to coincide with Earth Day! Thanks to Southern Palms Beach Club and Resort Hotel, we will be able to present this to you in the Conference Room of this well known South Coast Hotel where drinks and refreshments will be available for purchase at the hotel bar at the conclusion of the event. Plan to arrive for 6pm for a 6:15pm start. For more information on the video, please see this link: http://www.onedayonearth.org/screening Again, this is a limited space event, so get there early!

Thanks to Corrie Scott for her involvement in this project and for alerting us to this great opportunity!

Share on Facebook

Check this article for one of April’s contributions to the Green Business Page on businessbarbados.com by Lani Edghill.

This article launches the Green Business Barbados Programme at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry!http://businessbarbados.com/green-business/barbados-chamber-commerce-industry-green-green-business-barbados/

Welcome the Chamber for their achievement of the minimum standards set by the Green Business Barbados Programme!

Share on Facebook

The Future Centre Trust has teamed up with the US Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean to provide the public with an Earth Day event focused on the importance of our gullies and our water supplies.

We invite the public to join us at Welchman Hall Gully on Sunday April 22 at 10am at the Northern Gate  (see link here: googlemaps reference for entrance location) for an interpretive walk through the gully followed by a number of related and interesting presentations.

The presenters for the event are:

• Dr Adrian Cashman, Lecturer in Water Resources Management at CERMES at the University of the West Indies who will share the benefits of the gully system in Barbados to our water supply in particular;
• Ms Lorraine Ciarallo, Permaculture Designer and educator will explain the benefits to health of land and people of using the principles of permaculture; and
• Ms Lani Edghill, Environmental Planner will provide a short presentation on Green infrastructure planning.

We ask that you register for this event by contacting the Future Centre Trust on 625 2020 or by emailing Volunteer Coordinator for the FCT, Mrs Cecilia Stallard, at volunteer@futurecentretrust.org

We thank the US Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean for their support to this educational initiative.

Share on Facebook

By Lani Edghill

The FCT’s Little Edgehill site, is receiving a garden transformation and it started on April 7, 2012 with the help of a great bunch of volunteers! But the work has just begun!

Recently, the FCT, has had the pleasure of working with Ms. Lorraine Ciarallo of Canada. Lorraine, is a Permaculture Designer, Consultant & Educator and obtained her Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) in 2009 and in December 2011, completed the Permaculture Internship Program at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. www.permaculture.org.au

This intensive program followed Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture A Designers’ Manual” which covered Concept Themes in Design, Trees and Their Energy Transactions, Water, Soils, The Humid Tropics and has trained Lorraine, to build garden design systems that are full proof.

Lorraine, will be volunteering her time at the Hudson Permaculture Garden for the next month and sharing permaculture knowledge with us. As we said, we began on April 7th with a truly inspiring morning. Lorraine, explained the garden design and how to improve it, provided productive tips on how to improve the ecological soil biology in a garden, and explained how to grow highly dense nutritious food for you and your family in a short presentation after the work was done.

Permaculture, was founded by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the early 1970’s. Geoff Lawton, Lorraine’s teacher, is the founder and managing director of PRI Australia and a direct student of Mr. Mollison. In the video link below, Geoff, demonstrates his teaching expertise by implementing the use of permaculture ethics and principals on the most arid land of Jordan. “Greening The Desert” Parts 1 and 2 can be viewed here http://permaculture.org.au/2007/03/01/greening-the-desert-now-on-youtube/

The Research Institute has thousands of qualified members www.globalpermaculture.org and they are encouraged to venture out globally and set up PRI demonstration sites so that people of all nations have an example of how to design for success no matter the land size and no matter the climatic condition. Permaculture ethics and principals provide a means and an opportunity to learn about simple and proven techniques that rejuvenate the land. Yes, it’s about growing nutritious food, but it’s also, about growing soil too! Once a system is put into place, little input is required, yet maximum output is provided.

We will be calling for more volunteers to help with this great project so please let us know if you have an ongoing interest in this initiative so we can keep you updated! We were to have a day on April 21 but we are also celebrating Earth Day on the Sunday where Lorraine will provide a presentation to all present to you can register your interest for the next morning in the garden there.

We need your help to get the FCT garden back up and running and your help to create a demonstration site for local Barbadians to experience and learn from. For more information please contact Lani at 836-6189.

Share on Facebook