New Vraja Dhama Plants Forests for Carbon-Neutral Heating
Devotees at New Vraja Dhama, a sustainable ISKCON farm community in Hungary also known as Krishna Valley, are set to plant 6.5 hectares of trees—an incredible 50,000 Acacias, Oaks, and Willows—on their property at the end of this March.
But the effort is just a fraction of a much bigger project that has been underway since the community’s inception in 1993.
“This will bring the amount of trees we’ve planted since starting our 660-acre farm to 54 hectares—or 133 acres,” says Radha Krishna Dasa, who moved to Krishna Valley nearly six years ago with his wife and mother. “We aim to plant 5 to 10 hectares of trees every year from now on, which will enable us to reach our goal of 100 hectares of permanent forest in 5 to 7 years,” he says.
There are two main reasons for this ambitious project.
The first is to supply New Vraja Dhama’s 150 devotees with one hundred per cent of the wood needed for their heating from their own forests. Currently, about thirty-five per cent comes from their forest while the rest is purchased outside. This is partly because not enough trees have been planted yet, and partly because it takes at least ten years for the two to four-year-old saplings the community plants to grow to the size where they can be cut for firewood.
“Planting our own forests and burning the wood gives us a carbon neutral heating source—in other words, it does not leave a carbon footprint on the planet,” says Radha Krishna Dasa. “Trees take in Carbon dioxide, or CO2, and nourish themselves with it through the process of photosynthesis—and our forests will consume exactly the same amount of CO2 in growing as we will put into the atmosphere by heating our homes.”
The second reason New Vraja Dhama devotees are planting trees is that it will enhance the habitat for animals and increase biodiversity in the area.
“Today, biodiversity around the world is decreasing at an alarming rate,” says Radha Krishna. “We are trying to do our small part to fight against that. When we bought our land, there were twenty-five to thirty different kinds of birds in the area. Now, after years of not using any chemicals, trying to preserve the countryside as it is, and planting trees common to the area, we have about 120 different types of birds.”
The devotees will also integrate the project into their community’s gurukula school education by installing fifty birdhouses in the trees. The school children will regularly check on the birds that visit them, and learn about the different species, how many of each kind there are, whether or not they are reproducing, and what their nesting habits are.
“We are also embarking on a larger project, in which we are researching the hundreds of acres of surrounding forests and finding 60 to 100-year-old abandoned fruit trees,” Radha Krishna says. “As well as taking care of them so that they continue to yield fruit, we are also working with local authorities and getting government funding to do gene-preservation.”
As usual, New Vraja Dhama continues to give an excellent example of the positive results we see when we try to take steps towards a more simple, natural way of life.
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Reader Comments:
Dear Bharat Chandra
Dear Bharat Chandra Prabhu,
_Acacia can be planted and used to make "energy forests". It means that heat capacity of the wood is very high. But the main point is that acacia can grow to be used for heating in as short as 10-12 years, depending on environment, but in 20 years it can grow very big.
_In Hungary acacia was introduced in the 18-19. century for sandy areas to stabilize soil. Since it became the fuel for all. Here it is not considered to be not a real tree rather a weed-tree.
_Acacia is widely used in construction since it is an exceptional hard, strong and durable wood type so it is praised a lot in that area.
_When I was a child we were eating acacia flower since it is very
tasty, fresh and sweet. The only thing was that we had to be careful since it may have bees inside since the bees are also liking the acacia nectar a lot.
_Acacia honey is considered one of the best quality honey and it is a "Hungaricum" a special national product of Hungary. It is a rear golden colored liquid and transparent honey with very fine taste.
_Our oxen eat the bark of acacia happily when they have access, but it can cows not the ox but the tree to die. However the leaves are containing a certain material which is stopping other seeds to grow, so it can easily overpopulate other plants even forests. Very invasive and dangerous in that sense.
_I am not sure that Bharat Chandra prabhu were referring the same type of acacia what we have here, can be other types and those all can have different characteristics.
_But considering our environment and our aim I think you may agree that acacia is not just a good option but the best. Therefore we choose it.
_We also plant a lot of oak trees but they are the slowest in development. Beautiful and native tree but it takes 50-60 years to grow. And even than it is such an expansive wood nobody would burn even a leave of it :)
_Willow we have, it is a water tree. Growing very fast, but it is
somewhat useless. The wood is very wet and has not much calorie in it. It rots faster than it dries. May work better in hot climate when you can dry it, since it will burn like paper. _Certain type of willow along with some types of birch can be used for making energy forest. There some varieties which contains alcohol in it and that heats a lot. But it can be cultivated only by industrial methods. In that case it is very economical.
_Your servant, gsd
*** Radha Krishna Prabhu
*** Radha Krishna Prabhu asked me to post my comment originally posted on "Global Varnasrama Mission conference" for more views and comments by others ***
Excellent effort! But worried that "Acacia" is not a good choice. Infact it is dangerous because it sucks ground water table (to grow faster) and the leaves are poisonous for cows, it's acidic leaves doesn't not allow any foliage underneath the trees, it's flowers are poisonous for honey bees. Govt of India did this for years replacing the forests in the name of afforestation and heavily funded by Australian Govt and world bank...but now people are facing the brunt due to "wrong policy".
I am not sure about willow and Oaks.
** But the purpose is great! and encouraging! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
your servant,
Bharat Chandra Dasa
Hare Krishna Dusyanta
Hare Krishna Dusyanta prabhu,
Thank you for your comment and questions.
It is a good idea of using methane gas for places where they have extra amount of dung available. In our eco-village dung is used for fertilize the arable lands and we have far less from what we could use. We are not planning it therefore. In case of further shortage of heating material for cooking we are planning to use wood in stoves as we are already using in some kitchens and we are using it exclusively for heating the buldings.
There is may be a misunderstanding that you have Dusyanta prabhu about the purpose of Krishna Valley. It is not meant to be a "genuine blue print for the example to follow" for the whole wold, not at all for cities. That can be done and shown by other projects and I am sure there are many initiatives with that aim. Ours is a humble effort by some city people who moved to the country side to create their own spiritual village community and who are just trying to make their life more simple, more natural and more happy.
Regarding your question about the usage of "petrol powered strimmers for cutting grass and also Tractors". We are cultivating some of our arable land by those machines and some by human and ox power. We are happy to learn and implement traditional methods. As time goes the % of traditional methods are gradually increasing. We hope that after many years you can visit as again and you can measure by how many % we developed on those areas since your last visit. I would be also personally interested in your opinion since we here are living with the changes and for us more difficult to notice all the smaller details.
May I address one more point of yours: "We have to remember its quite an easy task for a country community to be self-independent by using vast tracts of land". I have to say it is not at all easy, in the opposite it is very difficult. We payed with our own "blood, sweat and tears" to create Krishna Valley. But since we have a certain goal with our life we took that difficulty to make some humble steps and we are happy to make some more in the future as fast or slow we can towards a Krishna Conscious personal and community life.
After all we are still far from perfect sustainability but we are close to an increasingly happy daily life. For us that what counts :)
Your servant, gsd
Hare Krsna. This is a great
Hare Krsna.
This is a great idea on how to reduce the carbon footprint by growing tress to be used for heating.There is also a great opportunity in Cow protection to produce Methane Gas as a fuel for heating/cooking/lighting and so forth whilst benefitting having a by-product of compost for the earth as well.In fact cow manure is probably the best raw material to use for this process,one that New Braja Dharma could easily facilitate with the number of cows they have.
Also there is the question of Cooking as well as heating.Cooking is something we do daily even in the Summer when heating is no longer required so the wood or methane could be used for this pupose.
But to be a genuine blue print for the example to follow it behooves us to question the ability to apply this to the planet for all people to follow.How do Towns and Cities function in a neutral carbon footprint and how do the towns and cities source their energy in a similar way?
We have to remember its quite an easy task for a country community to be self-independant by using vast tracts of land but how much land per capita can a City person command?The alternative is there so what is it?
And New Braja Dharma employ the use of petrol powered strimmers for cutting grass and also Tractors for the land which obviously is not sustainable nor an ecological blueprint so what are the plans to by-pass these machines? Can this be achieved simultaneously with the tree planting scheme?
your servant dusyanta dasa