ABOUT THE PROJECT
The drivers of forest degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa are multiple and compounding. From unregulated logging (often by foreign companies) to clearing for cash crops, to overuse of trees for fuel, human activity is putting increasing and devastating pressure on forest ecosystems.
For this reason, our Forests for Life programme seeks not only to restore forest ecosystems through planting trees but also to provide additional interventions which address these contextual drivers. By providing training in practices such as alternative livelihoods, woodlot management, and farmer-managed natural regeneration, alongside reforestation, our programme aims to decrease pressure on stressed ecosystems while assisting in accelerating their recovery.
WHY TREES?
The recent study, published in the journal Science, entitled, The global tree restoration potential, states, “This highlights global tree restoration as our most effective climate change solution to date… Our results highlight the opportunity of climate change mitigation through global tree restoration but also the urgent need for action.”
In an article written about the new study by Damian Carrington in The Guardian, he says. “Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could be planted without encroaching on crop land or urban areas.”
“This new quantitative evaluation shows [forest] restoration isn’t just one of our climate change solutions, it is overwhelmingly the top one,” said Prof Tom Crowther at the Swiss university ETH Zürich, who led the research.
ABOUT GREENPOP
The Greenpop Foundation NPC is an award-winning registered non-profit organisation (NPO#: 151-411 NPO; PBO#: 930050622) headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa.
We work to restore ecosystems and empower environmental stewards through forest restoration, urban greening, food gardening, and environmental awareness projects across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Greenpop was founded in 2010 and has since planted over 139,000 trees and inspired over 150,000 active citizens across South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania.
