Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 5th October 2016

"THE RANGE"  Vol. 58 No.7
WEDNESDAY 5TH OCTOBER 2016

THIS WEEK'S MEETING
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Mike Norman on the Light Horse Museum.

APOLOGIES
Apologies to Bernice before noon on Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTERS                    
                               5th Oct          19th Oct           2nd Nov                  
Duty Officer            David F          Andy S             CL C                     
Assist DO               Angela G       Roly N               Alan W                       
Registration            Rick V           Malcolm B         Bernice McL
Fellowship              Chris B          Keith R             John McL     
        
SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
8th October
Phillip Stark (Leader)  John Whan  Ric Townsend

22nd October
Mike & Sherryl Gregory (Leader)  Andy Shouteten

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
President Jeff opened the meeting by welcoming members and Guest Speaker John Wightman.  Reports included:

- Bernice said that a bus was available for those attending the RF Centenary Dinner.

- Lionel requested assistance in taking down the calendar photographs in Maple 3.

- Chris B reported that the parking done at Witta Fest had been appreciated.

- Chris R-S recommended the production of "Groucho" to members.

Our Guest Speaker John Wightman's topic was: “How to help lemurs to survive despite everything that is happening in Madagascar and the World”

Madagascar is a large island 500 km, at the nearest point, from the coast of Tanzania. It is approximately 1600 km N-S and a maximum of 600 km E-W . Most of the interior is about 500 m asl with a high point of 1400 m. Madagascar separated from mainland Africa 160 million years ago, so its plant and animal life has developed very much in its own way. Links with African species are tenuous except where human intervention has introduced exotic species by accident or for trade and sustenance. Even the Malagasy people are special. The first colonists came from SE Asia, probably Indonesia, and brought rice, to be followed by colonists from eastern Africa, who brought cattle.  The Malagasy people are thus a unique blend two races that has developed in isolation.  It was a real pleasure and privilege to live among these long-suffering, gentle and soulful (? just listen to their music) people for a couple of weeks.

Madagascar is, therefore, home to many kinds of animals that are not found anywhere else (except in zoos). The best known are the lemurs . They are mainly tree dwellers. Some have a restricted habitat – perhaps small clumps of one species of bamboo, others roam widely through the rainforest feeding on a diversity of food materials. There are about 100 species known to exist: unknown species may still be lurking in the forests awaiting discovery. Once, there may have been twice that number of species. The downward spiral is caused by the intervention of humans: either their environment has been destroyed to make way for agricultural activities, or they have been eaten as bush tucker.
The reasons for this are many, but the root cause is simple. The human population of Madagascar is doubling every 20 years and the agricultural sector, though large, cannot keep pace with the food requirements of the population – some indicators are in the end note .  Young people in the country side cannot find jobs even though this is where they are needed, so they drift to urban centres and become additional unemployed burdens on the food chain.

John and Waltraud Wightman were asked by WILMA to spend time at the The Centre ValBio  which is just across the river from the Ranomafana National Park, a 41,601 ha protected area in Madagascar's south-eastern rainforest. This rain forest reserve was established in 1991 and was declared a World Heritage Site in July 2007. Our mission was to evaluate the feasibility of diversifying the food production processes by replacing monocrops growing on hillsides with agroforestry (farm forestry) systems of crops, oil seed trees and replanted rain forest trees. Such systems boost crop production by 40%, produce an organic substitute for diesel fuel (biodiesel) and obviously restore lemur habitat.

In short, such a process is eminently feasible. The staff at the Centre ValBio caught onto the idea immediately as it was just one step further than the concepts that they are already promoting. The leaders of the local farmer cooperatives that we met were at the least interested.  The idea was to assume that the boundaries of the park were unviolated and to start restoring the land that had been cleared around its periphery – and then work outward from there. However, what we found on the farms around the national park was somewhat depressing.

The land form was a series of small hillocks, rising 100-200 m from the valley bottoms. Rice was growing in the valleys and on terraces up the hillsides. The upper slopes and ridges, many of which had recently been burned to clear land, were planted with maize and cassava, and some peanuts and beans. Cassava was predominant in many areas. The tubers of this crop weigh 3-5 kg and are pure carbohydrate. They remove a lot of the nutrients from the soil in the 6 month growing season. Re-fertilizing the land is not a local custom. We found many plants were infected with cassava mosaic virus, a crippling disease that had recently found its way from Africa.  All cultivation was with what they call a ‘hoe’. It is a digging stick with a long handle and a steel blade measuring about 120 x 70 mm. There was no mechanization. This limits family farm size to <1 ha, unless additional income brought in enough money to employ labourers.

No mechanization? 1 days work brings in USD 1.00. 1 L of diesel fuel cost (then) USD 2.20. This indicates that the Malagasy economy is completely out of step with the rest of the world. A loan to buy a small tractor? – interest rates were 30-50% pa. We saw one tractor in 14 days. It was a wreck, rusting away outside some Government offices.

Rice yields were low – <3 tonnes/ha. Small adjustments to the cultivation practice could have increased yields by x3 to x5 but the better off farmers would not in the additional labour to benefit from the advanced technology – that was actually developed in Madagascar.  And then there were the Ancestors. These are the spirits of the deceased family members who live among the trees on the tops of hills where they were buried. Village elders consult the elders when it comes to making decisions about how where and when to grow crops and, no doubt, other matters. Invariably the advice is to burn more trees each November – so that is what happens. Perhaps it is the Indonesian ancestry – the Indonesians are great burners of forests.

Sadly, these burning operations resulted in slips. The land is denuded by the burning and then along come tropical cyclones and the soil is washed off the bedrock and into the paddy fields below. This is clearly a compounding problem made worse by the increasing frequency of the cyclones. So, in addition, we have climate change issues to deal with. So if we wanted to work with the locals to help them improve food production, and farm income (by selling biofuel), and to recreate lemur habitat, the Ancestors have to persuaded that this is the way to go and we would need to find a better way of digging the soil – just for a start.

A project involving the development of tree nurseries and planting demonstration agroforestry plantations would go a long way towards the influencing the minds of the ‘ancestors. It is simply a matter of showing that it is possible to radically increase the productivity of the land and grow trees at the same time. If the Maleny Rotary Club has linkages that can help the people of Ranomafana help themselves (and the lemurs) by securing their food supply we shall be please to pitch in.

Chris R-S gave an eloquent vote of thanks.

Thanks to the other Chris for this link to a lemur site - https://www.facebook.com/Distractify/videos/644326675724825/

FUTURE MEETINGS & EVENTS
12th October
Board Meeting at the Masonic Hall.

19th October
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Michael Gilles with an MCSR update.

26th October
Masonic Hall at 5:50 for 6:00pm for Club Assembly with nibbles.

1st November
Maleny Rotary Club Melbourne Cup lunch at Maleny Manor.

2nd November
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Wendy Rosenfeldt on TM & Ayurvedic Health.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY FOR OCTOBER
26th Rick and Cilla

BIRTHDAYS FOR OCTOBER
12th Gloria Rogers  14th Keith Rogers  16th Kerry Neiper  28th Bernice McLennan  30th Andy Schouteten 

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT
A NEW DEFINITION FOR S.O.S
THERE IS A MORAL HERE

A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F- 16 flashed by.

The jet jockey decided to show off.

The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, 'watch this!' and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb.

He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier.

The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?

The C-130 pilot said, 'That was impressive, but watch this!'

The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said:
'What did you think of that?'

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, 'What the heck did you do?'

The C-130 pilot chuckled.

'I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, took a leak, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll.'

When you are young & foolish - speed & flash may seem a good thing!

When you get older & smarter - comfort & dull is not such a bad thing!

Us older folks understand this one, it's called S.O.S.

SLOWER, OLDER, AND SMARTER!