We in the Agricultural Resources Department thought you would like to know about two new Technical Notes regarding an important reforestation strategy.

Farmer Managed Agroforestry Farming Systems (589k)

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (920k)

This was pioneered by Tony Rinaudo and others with SIM in West Africa and is now recognized as an important success story in African agriculture.

On Friday, August 21^st, 24 incoming freshman from the Honors Program at Florida Gulf Coast University got a jumpstart on their education and service-learning requirement by completing ECHO’s informative tour and working alongside ECHO staff members in the fields for a three hour shift.  The students, along with FGCU’s Interim Director of Service-Learning, Jessica Rhea, and five Honor’s Mentors, pulled weeds, picked berries, dumped mulch, and removed metal stakes in an effort to assist in ECHO’s mission of reducing global hunger and improving the lives of the poor.   

Honors Program director, Dr. Sean Kelly, organized this visit to ECHO in an effort to help students connect with each other and their community.  All of the honors students came wearing t-shirts with the quote “It is hard work to be excellent.” (– Aristotle)  Well, it was definitely hard work at ECHO, toiling in the sun and rain, but well worth the time and effort.  FGCU thanks you, ECHO, for this valuable experience.

FGCU and ECHO have partnered for many years working together to provide an educational volunteer experience for students. To learn more about volunteering at ECHO clickhere.

When a network only connects at one point it often resembles a wheel with spokes all coming from the center hub. ECHO always works to connect our network members so that interaction and sharing can happen. We want our network to look more like a complex spider web.

To facilitate more connections between network members we have launched multiple discussions on our ECHO Facebook Page. This simple tool allows anyone to view 

Network member discussions and contribute and answer others’ questions.

Have a question for ECHO or other ECHO Network members? Visit ECHO’s Facebook Discussion page here.

You do not have to be on facebook to view discussions,but you must register with facebook if you would like to post a discussion or contribute to someone else’s discussion. We hope you will take advantage of this great resource, the depth of ECHO’s network members. Don't be a spoke!