Guatemala - Contour Lines

Sean Dixon-Sullivan

Organization Name

CONTOUR LINES

Website


Country

Guatemala and United States

Region or area served

Livingston, Antigua, Peten, El Estor, Morales, Puerto Barrios and Alta Verapaz (Guatemala) and southern Appalachia (US) and counting....

Individual Name

Sean Dixon-Sullivan

Date Founded

Jun 2018

Trainers trained in 2021

35

Trainers trained to date

60

Formal Training

Historical Studies, Stockton College of New Jersey, in a past life. Regen Ag and Eco Restoration self-taught.

Specializations

Agroforestry, Regenerative Agriculture, Tree Nursery, Community Organizing, Value-added products and marketing, Ecosystem Restoration (rainforest, mangrove, cloud forest), Soil Conservation

Workshops conducted in 2021

18

Workshop attendees in 2021

180

% of men vs. women participate in project

60/40

Farms that implemented Agroforestry in 2021

400

Farms that implemented Agroforestry to date

700 and counting

Trees planted in 2021

130k

Number of trees planted to date:

210k

Hectares planted in 2021:

75

Hectares planted to date:

150

Percentage of nitrogen fixing trees vs. percentage of edibles:

5:1 legumes

Location of demonstration site OR CENTRE

Livingston, Guatemala

About organization

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Our vision is a landscape of rural communities with the skills, resources, and knowledge to manage their lands in both sustainable and productive manner. That is the most efficient and truthful manner, one that advances both humans and nature. Our goal is to transition land into such uses, mainly agroforestry with mandatory soil conservation practices. We do this through raising funds, then providing participant communities with the fruit trees, tools, and training to establish these agroforestry systems, and through hiring a local team of technicians to organize these communities, train and supervise, while purchasing and value-adding harvests. This support incentivizes these communities to adopt the soil conservation practices, to transition their lands to regenerative agroforestry.

Impacts

Ecological impacts include preventing soil erosion and improving biodiversity, carbon sequestration water infiltration and habitat. Economic benefits include food security as well as income from harvests, value-adding, hosting tours and workshops, selling seed to other projects, and generally a transition away from land use systems that exported only corn and firewood while reducing land's fertility and relied on foreign imports, to biodiverse production systems that improve fertility and build local economies.

Summary

Contour Lines is a soil-conservation nonprofit. We work with rural communities, transitioning their lands to regenerative agroforestry systems. We provide the trees, tools and training, not as "charity to the poor" but as work grants to campesinos, with performance-based agreements that support those most interested in empowering their communities and restoring their lands. We also purchase, process and market the harvests of our food forest projects such as yuca, platano and pina, in our value-added processing facility. This new center in Antigua also serves as a restaurant/café with pizzas and lattes on the menu, a site for hosting events, tours and classes and a plant nursery and demo garden. All are welcome to visit, book a tour or class, and much more.






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Image

Stay in the Know

ARC offers free webinars, hands-on education opportunities, and networking. Please join our growing community by signing up for our newsletter.

Have a question or want to be more involved? Contact us here.
Help keep this work growing by donating today.