Green Prophet’s Karin recently made us aware of a carbon offsetting scheme here in the Middle East, named Libra/Sekem, which converts cash paid for carbon offsets into compost. The project based in the Sharkia region of Egypt, turns coffee grinds, raw food scraps and more (read one of our super-enriched Green Prophet posts on composting here) from the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian Cities into compost, which is fast activated, and used locally to enrich the desert soil.
The project, part of the Sekem group, founded in 1977 by Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish who has won an ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ for his pioneering social justice work, is based on principles of right livelihood, respect for the local ecology, and sustainability.
Sekem has initiated the Egyptian Biodynamic Association (EBDA) which fights the good fight for organic farming in the region. Payments to Libra/Sekem go through an offset provider company in the Netherlands, which converts Western Euros and American Dollars into rich nutrients which greens more of the desert and provides much needed agricultural land – truly greening the desert and holding back desertification!
This intrepid green reporter plans to visit the project in the months ahead and will provide a fuller report. In the meantime, I’m supporting them by offsetting my upcoming flights with them: off to the UK for a while, so in the words of Bernard Kouchner (the French Foreign Minister & founder of Medecin Sans Frontiers) at the recent Palestine Investment Conference in Bethlehem: “See you soon. Be good.”
More carbon offsetting on Green Prophet
Plant A Tree For Me
Carbon Footprints On The Holy Land
::Sekem/Libra information here from Carbon Catalog.
Author: James Murray-White
Growing up in a green village outside Cambridge, UK gave me an eye into the natural world, and years later, after being an actor, dramatist, weary traveller and anthropologist, the environment fires me up the most – and the need to save and nurture it… while we live within it. I now live in the UK, with partner Tania and 2 pesky cats – writing and filming the world (slowly making a documentary about the Bedouin situation) take up my creative time. I do this while growing things organically and composting profusely take up the remainder. James can be reached at james (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Green Prophet is wonderful web site
Bad news folks: I recently tried to offset my recent flights with this initiative, through the English site of the Dutch ‘parent’ company – but the site doesn’t let the transaction go through, nor do they reply to emails ! Hence the need for International Offsetting Regulations, as recently passed by the UK Govt……….. other reputable offsetters I can reccomend are climatecare.org, carbonneutral.com, and worldlandtrust.org.
Happy offsetting…………….