Loretta Fiedtkou planted 176 crabwood seedlings in her farmland a year ago in a bid to encourage the replanting of the dwindling hardwood species that is harvested for logs.
Fiedtkou, 55, a former logger turned conservationist and former toshao of Muritaro Village in the Upper Demerara River, expects her first yield of crabwood seeds in three years, four years from planting.
She is one of five Indigenous Women’s fellows on the Amazon Indigenous Women’s Fellowship Program from which she received a $2 million-grant funding for the reforestation of crabwood trees. The programme is sponsored by Conservation International in collaboration with the National Toshaos Council.
