Somalia Drylands Ecosystem Restoration Library – and Call to Action!
In October I was invited to give a zoom lecture on water harvesting techniques to the first permaculture design course held in Somalia. I agreed and learned a lot from the experience. I learned that the former Somalia has a number of autonomous zones in the north Puntland and Somaliland (neither recognized internationally). Somaliland was controlled by the English colonial system while most of Somalia was under Italian colonialism. Somalia’s border lines were drawn up by Europeans and there has been no end of trouble since.
The course was held in the Puntland region of Somalia and the course originators want to establish a ecosystem restoration camp, public park and education center in Garoowe, Puntland’s largest city. Their organization is Dry-land Solutions. They would like some help with grant writing for an IFAD grant. Does anyone in the Friends of the Trees network or Global Earth Repair Network have expertise they’d be willing to offer to Dry-land Solutions? Help could include grant-writing advice, funding, collecting books, web content writer and farming equipment.
Here is a recent article about project coordinator: Yasmin Mohamud, https://www.ruskeattytot.fi/healing-in-the-homeland
Please enjoy this video where Michael goes through some awesome books about Somalia and about restoration in this area of the world!
Contact Michael Pilarski if you want to connect with this project at [email protected].
I have been researching the Somalia ecological situation and most of the ecosystems aredegraded and need restoration work. Tree cover is a mere shadow of its former self and this in a county where most is in the arid zone and the rest is semi-arid. I am compiling resource lists for the project. Books on Somalia flora are few. Here are a few books I have obtained so far. I plan on buying more as I find affordable ones. The 4-volume set of Flora of Somalia costs about $400.
Common Trees and Shrubs of Dryland Sudan. Kees Vogt. 1995. 167 pages. “A Field Workers Guide to the Identification, Propagation and Uses”. Many of the trees covered will also be in Somalia. Very useful!
Medicinal Plants of East Africa. John O Kokwaro. 3rd edition, 2009. Univrsity of Nairobi Press. Again, many of the species covered will also be found in Somalia.
Birds of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Socotra. Nigel Redman, Terry Stevenson, John Fanshawe, Revised and expanded edition. 2011. Princeton Univ. Press. 512 pages. Very nice color plates.
I am starting to collect a small library of books for dryland restoration and food production which will be useful in Somalia (such as the above). We will send the books to Yasmin when a trusted courier shows up going from the US to Somalia. If anyone would like to contribute to this effort, let me know.
To get a better idea of the cultural aspect of Somalia I have been collecting and reading other books. Here are a few I would particularly recommend if you are interested in the recent history there.
The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert. Shugri Said Salh. 2021, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 296 pages. (Note: This book was so interesting that I read the whole book in one day and it has given me many insights into Somalia and the trials and tribulations of the past 40 years. It took a lot of bravery to write this book. .Shugri grew up with her nomad family in Somalia, lived in Mogodishu when the war broke and escaped to Kenya and then Canada in 1992. Part of the great Somali diaspora. Available on Amazon and other booksellers.)
Somalia: The Untold Story: The War through the Eyes of Somali Women. Judith Gardner and Judy El Bushra, Editors. 2004, Pluto Press, London. 257 pages.
Clan Cleansing in Somalia. The Ruinous Legacy of 1991. Lidwien Kapteijns. 2013. Univ of Pennsylvania Press. 308 pages.
Understanding Somalia and Somaliland. Joan Lewis. 2008, Oxford Univ Press. 139 pages.
Culture and Customs of Somalia. Mohamed Diriye Abdullah. 2001, Geenwood Press, CT. 198 pages.
To see all the books in the Global Drylands library on LibraryThing, including the ones featured here, go to https://www.librarything.com/catalog/FriendsoftheTrees/drylandsresourceguide.
