From a research prospective, the real take-home message is the project model, with the outcome a secondary benefit. As you probably learned, and in contrast to your PC experience in the high Andes, folks in frontier coastal Manabi were very unwilling and disinterested in community-based projects. By working with their wild-west individualistic behaviors, rather than trying to change people to get along as a community, we were able to design, culture and outplant more than 100 family viveros, resulting in more than 20,000 trees (of over 30 species of fruit, fodder, and timber).

It was part of a larger vision --> by implementing Agroforestry at the family level in hopes to makethese family forests and farms sustainable, as well as creating biological corridors by connecting remnant primary forest fragments between the Cerro Pata de Pajaro and Reserva Ecologica Mache-Chindul, conservation and sustainable development objectives were achieved.

Andrew B. Perleberg, Washington State University, Cooperative Extension, 306 South First Street, Mount Vernon, WA, USA, Phone: 360-428-4270, Fax: 360-428-4263, Email: andyp@wsu.edu

Andy Perleberg and his wife Krista were volunteers in Pedernales, Manabi. They were hosted by an NGO called Fundacion Ecologica Tercer Mundo. The forests of most concern were Cerro Pata de Pajaro and Reserva Ecologica Mache-Chindul.

This was done primarily by leadership of a volunteer, Carlos Robles, with me in the shadows. The volunteer group Fundacion Ecologica Tercer Mundo also helped when they could. The entire project cost less than $5,000, which included all materials, travel, a one-year salary for a full time extensionist, an annual picture calendar, and a suite of environmental education programs that accompanied the practices.

So the model: Contact forest families and discuss the project; discuss landowners desires --> return in near future to help collect soils, construct viveros, collect and share seeds; discuss stewardship of viveros --> return to observe performance; discuss silvicultural characteristics of trees and planting design --> Outplant; discuss protection and stewardship of seedlings --> Return to monitor performance; Award recognition and take photos for conservation calendar.

Several projects accompanied and followed up this project, including youth and school demonstrations, neighbor tree farm and vivero twilight tours, avian monitoring, etc.

Ownership was part of the recipe from the start -- The entire family shared in the cost of the work (time, space, and materials) and received the benefits from the work (food, fodder, live fencing, soil stabilization, shade, amenity and aesthetic benefits, and sense of accomplishment and contribution).