 So, this is our framework. It has been written in collaboration with various people, mainly someone called Cedric Mason who has done a PhD in Soil Science and has been involved in some USDA data collection. We met at Vera Organica, which is the second camp we ran in Mexico last year, and we were trialling some of these tests at that camp. It's only been used as it was intended to be used, i.e. by people going to camps and collecting the data from it in the last couple of months. So, it's still quite a new endeavour for us to be collecting data at the camps using this framework. We intend for every time a research officer goes to a camp and uses the framework, we want to get thorough feedback from them on how they found it, so that we can constantly be improving this. The challenging thing with collecting data at the camps at the moment is that the camps themselves don't have a lot of money, so we had to design data collection methods that would be low-cost and capable, and everyday people could be capable of collecting this data, because the whole point of our movement is to empower everyday people, so it was designed with those two things in mind. So, that being said, let's run through it. So, yeah, the first section looks at why we need to collect data, what the difference between monitoring evaluation is, and an introduction to how the framework works. So, yeah, we need to collect data because we want to measure our impact, we want to see what isn't working, and we want to be able to share these lessons and impact stories with the world to prove that our model works and to attract more support. And the difference between monitoring and evaluation, monitoring is continuous collection of data over time, and evaluation is looking at the data and drawing conclusions from it. Okay. So, on this page here, you can, page four is the framework itself laid out in a table, and you can see there are three sections. There's a section called soil, one called soul, and one called society. Soil refers to all of the ecological data collection methods. Soul refers to the personal change that happens within the people that go there, so the campers. And campers refer to people that live there and work there every day and people that come in from outside. And then society refers to the wider society around the camp. So people that live in the community surrounding where the camp is. Yeah, so that's how the framework is structured. You can see that there are three sections and three columns across the top. So the outcomes refer to what we want to see happen at the camp, at the camps. So for instance, the first outcome for the soil section, soil referring to all of the ecological changes we want to see, is increased soil carbon. Obviously, it's important for us to know how the soil carbon is increasing because so much potential to sequester carbon into soils to mitigate climate change. And a lot of people are putting a lot of emphasis on this as a natural climate solution. So we want to show that our camps are working towards that. And the indicator means what do we need to see to know that we're achieving the outcome? So for instance, the indicator for the first outcome is the soil organic matter and carbon have increased since the baseline. So the way that we move on to the next column means a verification. How are we going to assess whether the indicator has happened so that we can see whether the outcome has happened? And the loss on ignition lab test is the most common way of measuring soil organic matter. So we need to find a lab basically. There is a way of doing it without a lab, which is essentially just using, it's a more rudimentary way of doing what they do in a lab. So you get a very high temperature flame like a Bunsen burner or a camping stove. And you just burn off the organic matter and then you weigh it. So you're getting a weight. And I have asked someone that I've been working with for a long time on various ERC stuff. He's a sustainability teacher and he knows of a way to measure this without using a lab. But the efficacy of it hasn't really been studied as to how effective this method is in comparison to a lab. But if you don't have a lab, we could consider doing it this way. And it's actually something that I need to do. I need to chase him up because he said he was going to write the protocol for how to do it. And then I'm going to put it into this framework just in case there's no lab available. So yeah, I'm going to write that down as a to-do list because I need to do that. Chase Toby about loss on ignition test without lab or framework. So yeah, one of the things you'll need to do when you get there is to assess, is there a soil testing lab near me? And how much does it cost? And then once you have worked, once you've worked out the organic matter levels, then there's a simple equation you can do to work out what the organic carbon level is. And seeing as you're going into a project that's already been going for a while, rather than doing a baseline at the actual sites that are being restored, you'll have to find some control sites. Do you know what that means? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what if the duration is not happening, right? Yeah, you're looking for sites that have the same conditions as the ones that are being restored that are not that are close by where you can take, you can do the same tests to compare the difference. Okay, so then because, so there's no baseline now. And as you said, I mean, at least a first phase of the project already happened. I think that's the end of last year. So this is how then you would, like that, what you would get at the control site would be, could be used as baseline there in that case? Yes, okay. Exactly. Quite a few camps have already done a fair bit of work without doing any monitoring. So if you don't have a baseline, you just find a site that is, has the same conditions as the one that was being, that's being restored and collect data from there. And then when you're assessing the data, if there are any differences at all, then you need to factor those in or at least mention them. Okay. So I think what would be useful is to go to the, go to the actual explanation of the test, and then flip back to the framework. But another thing that is useful to do when monitoring before we go into the actual means of verification listed here is to take a lot of photographs using the fixed point photography method or a drone depending on which one you have access to. So fixed point photography is really simple. You just find a point on the landscape that is, that sticks out. So for instance, it could be a mountain peak or a tree that you've marked in some way. And then you just take photos from that point. And then you make sure that the point that you've taken the photo from is marked somehow. So you can either use like a metal pole that's been painted some sort of color or something. And then if you create a Google map where and place the points where you've put the markers, if that makes sense. So what I recommend is creating Google map. And then on the sides of the map, you have lists of different points, and you label them according to the tests. So you could have a point on the map. And then on the side of the Google maps where you've listed where you label your points, you say before and after pictures or fixed point photography point one. That makes sense. Yeah, you'll have lots of different points of where you've taken the photographs from. And then the following year, whoever is doing the data collection for that year will take the photos from the same positions. And then over time we'll be able to see changes in the landscape. Cool, clear. Great. Yeah, so on this page here on page five, this section is running through the different elements of the framework where the ecological outcomes are concerned, and basically just explaining why it's important to be measuring these things. So we're measuring an increase in soil carbon, a decrease in soil compaction, a decrease in soil erosion, or an increase in soil accumulation, which is essentially the same thing. Increased water retention capacity of the soil, an increased biodiversity, and increased soil health. So yeah, these sections just explain why it's important to be measuring these things, but I'm sure you already know that, the reasons why. And then the social outcomes we'll come back to in a minute, because I think we should just focus on ecological ones first, otherwise we're going to get a bit skewed. So yeah, then it comes down to explanations of how to do each of the tests. So this one refers to the organic matter content being higher than the baseline level. It explains which tests you're doing. And then it basically explains how you do it. So you're collecting soil samples. It tells you what kind of equipment you need. So I think what's important to do is to go through the framework and make a list of all of the equipment you'll need, and send it to Meno, or send it to whoever your camp coordinator is, seeing as other people be watching this video. And make sure that they are aware in advance of what's needed, because you don't want to get there. And then it takes a month to get all of the equipment. You want to arrive and the equipment be there already. And most of the things are really simple and cheap and easy to get. The only thing that's kind of a bit more challenging to find is you need yellow washing up bowls for the insect test. And the reason you need yellow color is because that attracts insects more, that color, because they see it as pollen. And you might think, oh, finding a yellow washing up bowl is easy, but it's not, because it's not guaranteed you're going to go into the nearest hardware store and they'll just definitely have yellow ones. But we'll get to that in a minute. So yeah, here are all the instructions for how to collect soil samples. I'm not going to read them out because it's pretty self-explanatory. So the first test is collecting the soil samples and finding a lab to send them to. The next test is called the water holding capacity test. And this is a test that measures the water holding capacity of the soil. This is important because we want, especially in drier areas, considering that the earth is getting drier and drier. We want the soil to hold as much water as possible. There is definitely a correlation between the organic matter levels in the soil and how much water it can hold. There's a really cool statistic that I actually have pinned up on my wall that says every 1% of organic matter content in the soil stores 20,000 gallons of water. So the more and more that you're increasing the organic matter level, you're increasing the amount of water that the soil can hold and the more water that soil can hold, the more vegetation the ecosystem can support, the more vegetation there is, the more biomass, the more fauna, the more life, more biodiversity, better. It's just better. That's what we want. So yeah, starting off with assessing how much water the soil can hold is a good way of knowing how well the ecosystem is doing basically. And it's quite simple to do this test. The thing that you really need the most is an oven that can get up to 105 degrees centigrade. That's the most important thing that you'll need for this test. So locating one of those is something I will need to ask Meno about. Yeah, I was thinking exactly about that because the way he explained like once we are on the side is very, so there is a like a small house there where it's very, very, very basic. I don't think they will have an oven. So I will need to ask him whether like it would be possible to have access to an oven somewhere close to there. So then I thought because then he said Coach Habamba is not far, but then I don't know for how long I could take like bring the samples there and until I get access to an oven I don't know how much that would affect the test. So I need to double check with him, but I may need to come back to this one with you. Yeah, that's a good question actually. I can always ask Cedric, the person who wrote this test, to see what he says. Yeah, why don't you ask Meno where he thinks you could get hold of an oven and then we'll go from there. Okay, sure. So this test essentially is picking a number of sites, selecting at least three sites and marking them out and then remove the vegetation from a one by one meter squared patch, but you're picking three sites across the area that you're restoring, the area that's being restored. And you want to try and pick areas that are indicative of different methods of restoration or different elevations. You know, you want three different areas that are exemplary of the site as a whole. Does that make sense? Yep, yeah. So you remove the vegetation and then you create a one meter wide one meter space and you have to soak the soil until the water will no longer be saturated. So you have to completely saturate the soil with water basically. Once you've done that, once the soil can no longer absorb any more water, cover it with a plastic sheet and pin it down and wait for 48 to 72 hours and the sheet will prevent evaporation. So essentially you're just you want the soil to absorb as much water as it physically can. Then you remove the plastic sheet, take a sharp spade, cut the soil sample so that you have a slice of soil and then you mix them together so that you have an average, mix the soil samples together and then you take three to six cups of the mixed sample and put it into a pan and then you weigh the soil with the water in it. Then you have to bake it so that the water's evaporated and then weigh it again. That's as simple as that basically and then that will give you the water holding capacity. So yeah, there were a couple of other people at the camps at the moment who have done this test and they came across a few challenges with it so what I'm thinking actually would be good. When are you planning on going? So at the moment I have a ticket to Colombia because I'm going there first but I think mid-June, I expect to be in Bolivia. June? Yeah, sorry, what am I saying? No, mid-January. Okay, cool. So before you go, maybe in the next month or so, I'm going to organize a call with you and there's another woman called China who wants to go to the Camp in France in January. Okay. And I'd like to organize a call with you two and then the two data collection officers that are doing the data collection at the moment so that you can learn directly from how it went for them. Great, yeah, sounds good. So the next test is about soil erosion. So we want to see that soil erosion is decreased and that you are actually accumulating soil rather than it being eroded and this test is very simple. All you need is some sort of marker that's like a pole that's not going to biodegrade. So what the Camp in Guatemala does is just gets like thick threaded bolts from a hardware store, sort of like big screws. And spray paint and that's it. So you select six spots around your site that best reflect the different management styles you're working on, preferably on contour lines. Do you know how to measure contour lines of a site? So I have a little training video on how to create a contour line map. Okay. But I imagine that the camper that was there last year, Ben, would have already done this. Yeah, I think he did. So find the contour lines on the site and then see if any kind of soil erosion and water collection or catchment earthworks have been put in place, like swales, dams, gabions, anything like ponds, anything like that. And then you're going to put these threaded bolts in places where you imagine that soil is going to accumulate or run off from. Put the poles into the ground and then mark them with the spray paint so that you know where the soil level is. Yep. And then that's it. And then a year later, someone will come and look at them again and either the level of soil level will be lower or will be higher. And that will show whether the soil is accumulating or decreasing. And then you just need to mark the soil level again a year later with spray paint. Okay. Soil compaction. So a lot of soils are compacted, especially if they have had their vegetation removed regularly or they've been plowed or they were regularly walked over. And compaction is a major cause of desertification and decompacting the soil is often a really effective way of getting more water and oxygen into the ground to the plant's roots and to enable more vegetation to survive and thrive. And the easiest way to measure soil compaction is with something called a penetrometer, which is sort of like a, it's got handles. Yeah. And you push it into the ground and then it has a pressure gauge on it. Yeah, okay. And it will give you a PSI reading, same as when you're pumping up your bike tires. Yeah, yeah. And you'll end up with a result between zero and 400 PSI, the higher the PSI, the higher the compaction. And you should be aiming for a PSI of around 200. That's sort of the right level of soil pressure you're looking for. So yeah, you basically mark out six points around the site, mark them with markers, label them with numbers and put them on your Google map. And then measure the PSI count at the sites and label. You can create a little table, so campsite number, label number, and PSI count. Yeah. Actually, I just noticed that this is an updated version of the... Yeah. So yeah, just dream, yeah, please share with me. I will. It's now up on the website again. Okay, cool. So where you found it on the website last time under our impact, this is the updated version indeed. But this is pretty straightforward. The penetrometer is probably the most expensive piece of equipment that this test suggests you use, apart from the soil samples. They're around $200. So apparently, Meno has seen the framework and has agreed to the costs. But it's probably going to be really difficult for you to find one of these in Bolivia. So I would suggest talking to him about getting one before you leave and then bringing it with you. Is that clear? Yeah, it is clear. Okay. The next test is measuring biodiversity using transects. We're using plants and insects as two species or two families of species to use as indicators for biodiversity changes. So a transect is essentially you just picking out areas of your site using a kind of big square. So you're creating like a massive picture frame, basically, that you're then just putting down on the ground and everything within that picture frame you're recording. So the plant diversity, imagine you pick a number of sites around the area. Six is often a good number. And you're selecting them based on the, I mean, I don't know exactly what the sites are going to be like, but if there's a range of different ecosystem types, there could be like a slopey area. There could be an area that's higher elevation than area that's got north facing south facing. So no, it's quite a mountainous area there, isn't it? Maybe you want to find an area at the top of the slope, halfway down the slope, at the bottom of the slope on the north face or the south face, depending on which side gets more sun. You want to pick areas that are all indicative of different growing conditions. It's a something that if I want some there, well, I think that those could be somehow selected even before I go if we understand the topography of the place, but is that something that you can advise with? Like once I have a better understanding of it, that I could get some advice from you. Like, yeah, from all of this, maybe better take it here, here and there. Yeah, it would be easier for me to do that if you have internet connection there. I don't know if you will. But another thing that you could do actually, I'm creating another little training for how to get the polygons from a site. A polygon is, do you know what a polygon is? Yeah, yeah. So I don't think this has been done at Chukai yet, but I might be mistaken, maybe Ben did it. If you can get the polygons to me, then I can send them. We're working with this man called Mikhail, who is a GIS mapping specialist. And once he has the polygons, he should be able to look at the site and tell you about the elevation, about erosion, vegetation cover, that sort of thing. So we could help you pick sites once we have those maps. Okay. So once there's a guide basically being created for how to do polygon, find the polygons for the site, and once that's finished, I'll send it to you. Great, thank you. Sorry, because you mentioned this was quite important. There is a yellow wash in something that is supposed to be used for this. The next test, we'll get to that. All you need for this test is something to make the frame out of, and you want it to be one meter wide, one meter squared size. So it can be pieces of wood, pieces of bamboo. It doesn't really matter what it's made of. Ideally, the size would be straight, it'd be straight edges. So yeah, whatever you can get your hands on basically, maybe it'd be good to talk to Menor about this to see what he thinks you could use. I'm really not sure what sort of shops there are in Cochabamba, but that's something to ask him about. You'll need a camera, but do you have a smartphone with a decent camera on it? I have a smartphone. I'm not sure. I mean, it's not the latest phone. But it's got good enough camera, right? Yeah, I guess. So you create your transect frame. You select the sites that are indicative of different areas of the site, or different management styles. So say there could be like an agroforestry area, there could be like a native vegetation area. You want to create a sample of the site basically when you're selecting your areas. You put the transect down on the ground, and then within that frame you'll have a number of different species of plants. Now, I'm not expecting you and other research officers to know exactly what all of the plants are. If there is someone in the area that has a good knowledge of the local plants and botany, and they would like to help you, then fantastic. So maybe there's someone in the village that knows all of the local plants and can tell you what they are. But basically we want to know the number of different species. That's essentially it, and you don't need to know what they are, but you can tell that they're different because they look different. And if there is a local botanist you can identify the different species, then that would be even better. But it's, I know it's a big ask, so we just want the number of different species present within your transect. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. Fantastic. Okay, then this is where the yellow washing up bowl comes in. This is the second biodiversity test, and it's to do with insects. So how long are you there for? I will be there for three months. Okay. Are you familiar with the climate of the area that you're going to? And nobody understands it will be summer. I know it's very high up, like 38 or 4,000 meters high, but it's sort of summer, so I'm not sure I haven't looked into that before yet. The reason I asked is because there tends to be a time in the year where there are more insects around. Okay. And what that is in Bolivia, I'm not sure, but Meno and certainly the local partner will know. So throughout your time there, find the best time for doing this test based on when the most insects are around. I mean, in Europe it would be late spring and late spring and summer, for instance, in the tropics it would be during the monsoon. In Mexico, I know it's when the rains come. So it could be that you're not there at the ideal time, in which case we might try and find a way to be there at the right time, but it's just still worth doing the test anyway. Okay. So this is called a pitfall trap. There are lots of different types of insect biodiversity tests you can do and they trap different insects. So what I'm realising from feedback from Mikayla, who's the data collector at Camparticlano in Spain, she was saying that the pitfall traps are not really catching that many insects and that is a due to the time of year. I mean, it's November now and most insects are around in like May to August. So it will be done again next year at the right time, but it's also showing that there are lots of different types of insects and this test only attracts certain types. So I'm going to be working with an intern from Varganingen University who will be looking into all of the other different types of tests that you can use to attract insects and maybe adding some more to the framework. So just to let you know, there probably will be some more insect tests added. Okay. But this one essentially, you dig holes, you select sites, again, three sites that are indicative of different management styles and different ecosystem types, dig a hole to the depth of the bowl. So say the bowl is 30 centimetres deep, you dig a 30 centimetre deep hole, put the bowl in it so that if an insect was walking along the ground, it will fall in. The bowls need to be yellow because this is the colour that attracts the most insects. And then you have a mixture of water molasses, which is a type of agricultural agriculturally used sugar, less processed brown sugar, soap or detergent. So like washing up liquid or something or powdered soap is also good. Tweezers and a toaster, again, you need an oven for this to dry the insects out. Ashley, do you have any recommendation for the size of the bowl, diameter or? No, standard washing up bowl size is fine. And they're normally like, again, around 30 to 40 centimetres in size. You know, like a standard sink size washing up bowl. Okay, bowls you put inside a sink to do the washing up with. Oh, okay. Yeah, I know what it means. So yeah, you create the mixture, which is water molasses and soap. The sugar attracts the insects and the soap keeps them in there. Place them around the land, wait three days, pick the bowls out, clean the insects from the soap. You can use a sieve and then count the number of different species and record how many species you found. And then dry the insects and then weigh them. So we want the total insect biomass, as well as how many species you found. Okay. And you record your results. All right. The next test is called soil your undies test. And it's essentially just finding some cotton underwear without any dye or any polyester. This has to be 100% cotton. Again, this might be something that you'll need to get before you go and take with you. And all you're doing is you're burying it in the ground and marking where you've put it. And then you're going to leave it for 60 days. Again, you should be doing all of these tests on the site that you're restoring and the control site. So you're constantly comparing the two. And then you dig up the underwear and then the level of composition, the amount of composition that has happened to the cotton will indicate how active the soil food web is. So how much fungi, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, all of the stuff that's in healthy soil, how much of it is present. And you'll be able to see that by the level of decomposition. So this is not a completely scientifically watertight test, but it's a really good way of showing soil health. Okay. You can hold up a pair of underwear that's completely disintegrated. And you can hold up a pair that's barely. And then you can say this one came from the restoration site and this one didn't. It's purely just to show via an image what the soil is doing. But it's very simple and basic tests, the sort of thing that primary schools do. But I still like it. Hey, one question. So given that some of these tests require being done like different sites in a site, I can do like many tests. Would that it doesn't really matter, right? For this one, they only mentioned doing one pair of underwear, but I mean, normally when you buy underwear in the UK anyway, you can get like packs of six. So you could just buy a pack of six and do it six times. It's up to you. No. Okay, that's clear. But what I meant was in one site, I can do the insect, the underwear, this and that. So I can perform different tests on the same site and then just have, maybe you would identify five to six sites. Yeah. Then you can. Okay. Yeah. Because you're going to be coming back to the same areas every time anyway, because for every test you want to pick sites that are indicative of different landscape topographical aspects as well as the different types of ecosystems that may exist on the site. So you're always going to be coming back. So you could have a cluster of tests happening in different areas. That's fine. Okay. Clear. Makes it easier for you as well. So yeah, that is the end of the ecological data collection methods. Do you have any questions? Not at the moment. I think, as I said, well, as you suggested, if you would have a call with this other person later that can just give us maybe the tips and tricks on the, yeah, on how to do this test, maybe, yeah, this person can share. We can ask more questions. But at the moment, I'm okay. Right. So, yeah, sorry, just being, yeah, aware of the time. I think one of the questions that I remember having about these ones, because they are mostly like qualitative methods with surveys, questionnaires. I was just wondering whether these surveys are already there. Yeah. Yeah. However, they were written with international campers in mind. But I need to revisit them basically, because I think maybe they need to be tweaked slightly so that they relate to the contexts of the people, the Bolivian people that are doing this work. So I'll send you the surveys, and then maybe together we can take a look at them another time, soon, in the next few weeks maybe, and decide whether we think they are relevant for that context or whether we need to rewrite them. Okay. Or I can just... Yeah, maybe, I mean, of course we can do that. I'm not sure whether they would actually play or not, because I haven't been there. So maybe maybe we can have with that. We can do that later. And just to say that I can also like translate, if you don't have them in Spanish, maybe you have them in Spanish because of the campaign in Spain. So that's not needed, but if not, I can translate them as well, of course. Okay, fantastic. Yeah, let me look into it, and I'll get back to you. Sure. And okay, I can see now that there is a report template document. Yeah, I've added it. Okay, that's great. It's the last time. So I will send that to you as well. So in terms of time, I'm just trying to address my last questions because I have to leave. So okay, there is the template report regarding time. So I saw that one of them, maybe the one that will take the longest is the the underwear test, because it says 60 days. But for the rest, how much time do you think it will take me to have all this, like to collect all the samples, do all the tests, roughly just to have an idea? I think the man would like to know that. It depends if you're doing it every day or if you're also doing other activities whilst you're there. But we normally say just to be on the safe side, you should be there for three months. Because it is a fair amount of work. I mean, each test will take a few days for each stage, probably. But you've located the sites, you've marked them both on the Google map and on the ground. Yeah, it is possible to do it quicker, but we don't want to send people out there with all of this training and then have them leave too early and the tests are not completed. Okay. Three months max, two months minimum, I'd say, between two and three months. Okay. How much time do you think it would require, let's say per week or hours per week? Would you have an idea? I think that's a question that you could ask to Sarah and Michaela. Okay. The two data collectors that are there at the moment. Because it's all quite abstract for me because I haven't collected this data before. Okay. I've been a part of seeing Cedric do it at Vera Organica, but it has evolved since then. So all of these tests together, no one has yet collected them all. Okay. But Michaela and Sarah will and I can connect to you of them via a Zoom call, maybe in like a couple of weeks time. And you can ask them those sorts of questions. Yeah, sure. Sounds good. Yeah, I just wanted to have an idea because I also would like to tell Menom be clear about how much time this would require me so with how much time he can count like with me for other activities. So that's basically it. Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. Cool. Thank you for your time. I'm going to stop sharing now. Yeah. I'm going to stop recording.