Mwalimu Fedilia Lema

Mwalimu Fedilia Lema is a native of Machame. She is married with four children and because of her age, she feels she truly can testify to the changing weather she’s experienced during her lifetime. As a young girl, she remembers seeing a lot of trees in the forests and experiencing a lot of rain. The rain was consistent and predictable. For example, people knew that between March and June of every year, there would be a lot of rain in Machame. The rains also used to be quite long -  it could rain for days without stopping. This made the area very green and beautiful throughout the year. The main crops, Fedilia explains, used to be bananas, beans, maize, peas and greens, but coffee was the main revenue generating crop leaving Machame.

 

As the years progressed, people started cutting trees for building houses or developing businesses. As this happened, Fedilia noticed a change in the landscape and climate – it became less green and drier.  These changes affected the coffee production and the crops began to be destroyed by the coffee berry disease (CBD). So, many cut away the coffee plants, replacing them with elephant grass to use as feed for livestock instead. Although other crops continued to grow, they also started to become impacted by the changing weather. For example, some types of banana crops as well as traditional maize seed have been affected by climatic changes. With these changes, Fedilia sees the need to increase awareness of the importance of planting trees, and specifically, traditional trees that are known to help preserve water. The trees that she sees being planted are not always the great for water preservation. Fedilia advocates for strong policies on tree planting and education on climate change and the value of forests.