65 Million Trees Planted and Counting
Trees for the Future, a US-based NGO, has planted 65 million trees in dozens of countries. And they’re still going.
For almost exactly 20 years now, Trees for the Future has been coaching farmers on sustainable agroforestry techniques. That’s a fancy way to say farmers can improving their soil and crop quality by planting trees around the farm. The trees help by holding in soil moisture and drawing water back to refill water tables, preventing erosion and improving soil fertility.
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When they’re not planting trees or training farmers in agroforestry, Trees for the Future staff is providing low-technology communities with wood stoves that burn more efficiently and reduce the total firewood used. This benefits women, who are often responsible for gathering firewood for cooking.
Here’s a slightly dated but powerful look at Trees for the Future, narrated by founder Dave Deppner.
“Most communities around the world recognize that they need to plant trees on their degraded lands if they are to improve their lives,” says the Trees for the Future website. “We provide technical knowledge on agroforestry and sustainable development, along with planting materials so that communities can return their degraded lands and struggling farms back to sustainable production.”
Often it’s all too easy to get weighed down by bad news. After all, there’s enough bad news about the environment these days to sink a ship: the poles are melting, millions are going without water, many animals are threatened with extinction, other animals have gone extinct already, still others animals that we thought had gone extinct are rediscovered… only to be eaten. You get the picture.
But lest you be tempted to curl up into a protective ball and begin rocking back and forth, just think about inspirational environmental programs like Trees for the Future. You can even give them a hand and get involved as a volunteer or donor.
To read more, visit the Trees for the Future website.
Image credit: h.koppdelaney via Flickr, under a Creative Commons license.
Thank you for the spotlight on this organization. It is indeed sometimes a job to not allow a little black cloud to form overhead when reading and listening to the bad news bears. I do appreciate Eco-worldly’s format, especially in terms of how its articles often illustrate how people and organizations are working together globally to improve our mutual conditions, a view rarely highlighted in the mainstream TV and Radio news. Thanks again. I will look have a look at Trees for the Future’s site as an organization to support. Cheers!
Canada has made Hemp farming legal SEE:http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2008/0803hemp_e.html
Can this enlightened attitude help absorb C02 by turning vast areas of scrub brush and grassy wild fields into organized harvestable hemp plants, producing large amounts of fiber, and discouraging the cutting of trees for the same? Apparently high quality wood-like paneling products for construction may also help reduce Rain Forest destruction, and seeds can bed made into bio-diesel, reducing fossil fuel demands - so far , all good, right? Is Canada enlightened or sorely deluded from the eco-environmentalist point of view? P.S. We need American markets for our products, so any free P.R. is greatly appreciated!