In Copán, Honduras, a small grass-roots agroforestry project is regenerating steep, degraded and soil-deprived mountainsides.

Honduras Weekly reports on the project which aims to reverse the results of decades of destruction of rainforests through slash and burn agriculture. For generations, the Maya people have practiced slash and burn agriculture as their only form of subsistence.

Now, through regeneration efforts, a “New Useful Forest” is being created which includes a staged, multi-level agroforestry system that is in keeping with the culture of the Maya people and their traditional way of preserving useful trees.

A range of trees, vines and root crops are planted along with standard grain crops. The trees provide food, medicines, building materials, fuel and other valuable products.

“The NUF model has proved to be a sustainable economic/subsistence system to promote in the Maya World,” says the article.

Read the full story: The Maya and the “New Useful Forest”