With thanks to the Green Business Barbados ‘Green Business of the Year 2011′ KPMG, and the recently assessed first Tier 2 recipient of the programme, Harris Paints, Green Business Barbados is off to the 6th Caribbean Environmental Forum and Exhibition and its parallel event the 16th Wider Caribbean Waste Management Conference in St Kitts from May 21-25! For more information on the event, please visit this link: http://www.cehi.org.lc/cef/index.htm

At the invitation of the organisers for the event, Green Business Barbados (GBB) will feature in a panel discussion and plenary session during the conference, with Green Business Barbados Programme Coordinator, Ms Lani Edghill, representing her work with GBB and providing two case studies. Lani will provide an insight into the process of the development of this FCT implemented programme and share some of the great work achieved by KPMG and Harris Paints in their respective businesses.

GBB has been in place officially since April 2010 and now has some 14 businesses involved in the programme. For more information on the programme, please visit this page and download our web appropriate booklet and a printable brochure: http://futurecentretrust.org/main/resource-centre. You can also visit this link at businessbarbados.com to read more of the GBB approved businesses: http://businessbarbados.com/tag/green-business-barbados/.

Thank you to KPMG and Harris Paints for recognising the benefit of being included in this excellent Caribbean wide promotional opportunity where your hard work and team contributions to improving the environment of Barbados can be shared regionally!

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Saturday May 12, 2012, provided another opportunity for the garden lovers in the group to come out and help with the last of the ‘de-weeding’, mapping of contour lines and moving of mulch in the Hudson Permaculture Garden.

Lorraine Ciarallo once again shared her knowledge of Permaculture Principles with the small but successful group.

Thanks to Lorraine, Lani, Robert, Nicole, Beverley, Sarah and Kris for their efforts on the day. Today there was a contribution of some 15.5 hours of volunteer time! Thanks everyone!

There will be one more garden day in early June before Lorraine leaves at the end of June, with the details posted here and on our Facebook page. Please keep an eye out!

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A note from Lani Edghill – Coordinator of the Hudson Community Garden

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening to all Friends of the FCT,

The FCT’s Little Edgehill site has been receiving a garden transformation to become a Permaculture demonstration site and we need your help this weekend.

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. Lorraine, along with Ms. Lani Edghill, have been developing the garden at the FCT with Permaculture principles and we need your assistance this Saturday.

Come join us on Saturday the 12th of May in the Little Edgehill Permaculture garden from 7:30 am to 11:00 am. We will be working to develop the swales along the contour lines of the site and develop hot compost piles to kill the weeds we have removed and placed in heaps. Please bring picks, hoes and mattocks (very important), water, snack, hat, sunblock and friends to share the work load.

For more information and to advise your ability to attend, please contact Lani at 836-6189 or by email at lani@futurecentretrust.org by copying and pasting this email address.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the garden to build and develop sustainable agriculture right here at home.

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The recently public launch of the book Preserving Paradise, edited by Professor Sean Carrington and contributed to by some of the great experts of environmental knowledge of this country provided the opportunity for a copy to be received for the FCT’s library from the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.

At a presentation chaired by Director of the Museum, Ms Alissandra Cummins, (who kindly invited the FCT to be present at the book which is dedicated to the life of the late Dr Colin Hudson, founder of the FCT) the Honourable Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, remarked that today, even moreso, the environment and its care is critical to our survival.

We are pleased and very grateful for the invitation to the event and even moreso to be fortunate to have such a great resource now available for borrowing from our library. We wish the museum the very best of luck in the sales of this wonderful contribution to the environmental education of Barbados.

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For those who have been keeping up with our Permaculture transformation in the Hudson Community Garden, you will be pleased to note there is another morning in the garden to learn more of the principles!

Recently, the FCT, has had the pleasure of working with Lorraine Ciarallo from Canada, who 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.

Lorraine, has been volunteering her time at the Hudson Permaculture Garden for over a month and sharing her knowledge with us. We have been clearing the garden of bush while building mulch boomerangs for the trees to retain moisture in the soil, spreading coconut mulch, growing heirloom seedlings and surveying the land to determine contours for placement of swales and beds.

Join us on Saturday the 5th of May in the Little Edgehill garden from 7:30 am to 12:00 noon. Lorraine shows us how to determine contours to capture maximum moisture and develop swales and beds along the contour lines. Please bring picks, hoes and mattocks, water, snack, hat, sunblock and friends to share the work load.

For more information please contact Lani at 836-6189.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the garden to build and develop sustainable agriculture right here at home.

For those who are not sure what Permaculture is, try this great resource:http://www.permaculture.org.au/

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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.

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