Monkeys, fruit trees, and biodiversity

Our private wildlife refuge is home to incredible wildlife and amazing diversity. Amongst the many wild animals roaming around in the forest, and all the way to our doorsteps, are white faced monkeys. They feast on the abundant fruits that are high up in the trees all around us – mangoes, oranges, mountain apples, palm fruits, and many more.

Here are a few pictures taken a couple of days ago:

Usually, organic orchards are managed to get the maximum yield with the minimum effort. Trees are planted nice and organized with paths made. If needed fencing is added to protect the orchard from wildlife. Trees are pruned so that they grow wide rather than tall (to make the fruits easier to harvest), etc.

Our approach to growing fruit trees is different. First of all we don’t do any of the conventional orchard maintenance stuff. For example we don’t prune trees that much – by letting trees grow more freely we actively foster bio-diversity. The tallest branches provide lots of food for many bird species. A little lower you’ll find monkeys and other mammals. Everything plays a role. And there’s plenty for us too.

That’s one of the many reasons why we see so much wildlife every day here at RDS, including many rare species which thrive here. For example we often see wild turkeys and even wild pigs (which are extremely rare in the region).

We’re blessed with so many mature fruit trees around us it seems our continuous supply of fresh fruit is endless. And I attribute the trees’ rich production and strong health partly to the lack of conventional “maintenance” and “care”.

This year we planted many new fruit trees, including about a hundred banana trees of different varieties (sweet banana, red banana, plantain, and a bunch more local varieties), mango trees, avocado trees, papaya trees, serinum cherry trees, and more.

When planting fruit trees and planing orchards we take many aspects into consideration such as the overall flow of life at the farm, topography, accessibility, soil properties, sun and water exposure, etc… That’s more or less expected. But what’s unusual is that we accept to “share” the fruits with the wildlife around and even take active steps to promote bio-diversity. We’re not looking for the highest “yield” in the conventional sense.