NEWS AND VIEWS
MICAIA visit to Market Umbrella, New Orleans
20 October 2008
Market Umbrella (www.marketumbrella.org ) is a wonderful organization based in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. We met Richard McCarthy on a previous visit to New Orleans and wanted to learn more about Market Umbrella’s work to boost public markets and local food producers. Richard invited Milagre and Andrew to spend a few days with Market Umbrella’s team, learn about their various programmes, and explore how our two organizations might collaborate in future.
We spent four days in New Orleans, visiting public markets and gaining a deeper understanding of how Market Umbrella help local food producers access markets and consumers, as well as develop new food products for those markets.
As a result of the visit we agreed that MICAIA and Market Umbrella will develop a concept of how we can practically collaborate in Mozambique.
Photo caption: Milagre was invited to open the Crescent City Market – traditionally done by ringing a bell.
MICAIA Foundation secures Mozambique Government approval
14 October 2008
MICAIA Foundation today received news that the Council of Ministers of Mozambique has approved the formal registration of the Foundation.
Although the Foundation was established in November 2007, it has not been able to formally begin operations. Instead, we have been operating through Eco-MICAIA with support from MICAIA in UK. This welcome news from the Council of Ministers means that MICAIA Foundation can now take the lead role in MICAIA’s work in Mozambique.
Kenyans from Africa Biodiversity Network visit Moribane Forest
8 September 2008
For a few days in September, the elders of Mpunga Regulado (traditional area) in Moribane Forest, Manica Province, hosted Mburu Gathuru and Tetu from Kenya.
In January of this year, three members of MICAIA’s team (Eduardo, Mariamu and Daglasse) spent two weeks in Kenya training and learning about how some communities around Mt Kenya have been helped to link traditional forms of ecological governance with modern laws and conventions, and in so doing have been successful in reversing years of increasing damage to their forest. The Kenyan hosts were all members of the Africa Biodiversity Network, and included Mburu from Institute for Culture and Ecology, and Tetu from Porini, another Kenyan NGO. Mburu and Tetu are pioneers in the field of community ecological governance, and their work in Kenya with elders has had dramatic results. With their support, MICAIA has been exploring how best to integrate traditional governance in the management of Moribane Forest.
Mburu and Tetu lived with the Moribane elders for three days, sleeping in the forest, sharing local traditional food (including indigenous plants and roots), and learning about the myths, sacred sites and traditional lore of the community. In addition to sharing their experience in Kenya, Mburu andMICAIA forms partnership with new economics foundation (nef) in UK
20 March 2008
UK-based ‘think and do tank’, new economics foundation, is one of the UK’s most innovative and influential NGOs working on strengthening local economies. There is a natural fit with MICAIA and a meeting at nef’s London office yielded the prospect of a long-term partnership. MICAIA will explore how to deploy and adapt some of nef’s approaches to community enterprise development, and in turn will help expand nef’s international programme and learning network.
MICAIA participates in Africa Biodiversity Network meetings
8-22 February 2008
MICAIA was invited by Africa Biodiversity Network to participate in a series of meetings including thematic discussions on topics such as agrofuels, genetic modification of seeds, and community ecological governance. The meetings that took place in Somerset East, and the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Park in South Africa, gave Andrew and Milagre a great opportunity to meet colleagues from many parts of Africa working on issues similar to those being addressed by MICAIA. We made exciting new links with groups in Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya, and we’re looking forward to continuing our connection with this important network.
MICAIA’s team return from Kenya training
3 February 2008
With support from our good friends at the Gaia Foundation, UK, MICAIA was able to send three young people from Mozambique for two weeks of training in Kenya. The training started with a week learning about community ecological governance – the integration of traditional knowledge and practice with modern laws and conventions as a more effective way of managing community ecological assets. The Mozambican team of Eduardo (22), Mariamo (19) and Daglasse (27), spent several days living and walking in the forest near Mount Kenya, hosted by the elders of the community, and learning how the revival of traditional practices have helped protect the forest. In the second week, the MICAIA team visited communities in the Coast of Kenya that are facing a variety of threats from unscrupulous investors, and learnt about how community groups and citizens are taking action to fight for their rights.
Now that the team is back in Mozambique, Eduardo, Mariamo and Daglasse will start work applying some of their learning in their work with communities in Manica Province.
