The Treevolutionary

TREES FOR ZAMBIA

Posted by urbanedgemagdani on June 22, 2012 ·

Greenpop’s Trees for Zambia project begins on 1 July 2012! This 3-week tree-planting and eco-education event will kick start an ongoing initiative to spread environmental awareness in Zambia, the country with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.

After over a year of preparation, Greenpop’s Trees for Zambia ‘Conference of Action’ starts in less than 2 weeks – the team are setting up, trees are ready and school children, local businesses and volunteers are gearing up for 3 weeks of tree planting, soccer activities, live music and more.

Last week, the team received an inspiring video message of support from Wanjira Mathai, daughter of Nobel Peace prize Laureate and Green Belt Movement founder, Wangari Maathai (http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/). Wanjira Mathai is the Director of International Relations for her late mother’s organisation and shares her mother’s passion for trees and our planet. This video message addresses Greenpop’s volunteers and sends wishes and support from the Green Belt Movement. It will be screened at the Trees for Zambia event between 1st and 22 July.

With Trees for Zambia, Greenpop aims to:

• Spread education on environmental issues to school children, farmers and volunteers

• Promote conservation farming methods

• Encourage a culture of tree planting

• Develop a micro-nursery enterprise to financially support farmers

• Continue to spread the message that greening and sustainable living is enjoyable, fun and accessible to everyone

Indigenous and fruit trees will be planted in schools, forest concession areas and on small subsistence farms as part of a conservation farming method. A food forest will also be planted in a protected rural village area near Songwe with a women’s group who already use the area for gardening. Another planting location is right at the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site, where alien vegetation has been cleared. In addition, Greenpop has also arranged workshops for subsistence farmers to promote conservation farming methods (in partnership with the UNDP and the CFU), since traditional farming methods contribute to land degradation and deforestation, as well as lectures and workshops for children and volunteers.

Trees for Zambia will be the start of an ongoing campaign to make Zambia a greener and more sustainable place.

For more information:

Visit: http://www.greenpop.org/projects/trees-for-zambia/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GreenpopTreevolution

Email: lauren@greenpop.org

Call: (SA- Greenpop office) 021 461 9265 or

(ZAM - Thembi Mashabane, Greenpop co-ordinator): +26(0)97 634 9516

Carrying trees is rather a task - Greenpop is appealing for a vehicle for our ongoing tree planting project in Livingstone, Zambia

Truck for Trees

Greenpop is setting up an ongoing tree planting and eco-education project in Livingstone, Zambia - the country with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.

As a kickstart, we’re hosting a 3-week volunteer event from 1st to 21st July this year.

Volunteers, school children, local businesses and farmers will come together to plant over 5000 indigenous and fruit trees, spread environmental awareness and attend workshops on related issues.

‘Trees for Zambia’ is a conference of action, sharing and learning.

For the initial 3-week event, we are renting trucks to transport trees, compost, volunteers and green hope to all the sites and all the logistics are coming together nicely - we’re quite chuffed.

But for the ongoing project, we need a bakkie or small truck of our own - carrying trees is rather a task! We are looking for a vehicle to transport about 30 trees at a time with some compost and tools as well as a few green-fingered volunteers in the front.

We’re all sorted with the trees, compost, planting sites, planting partners, planting coordinators, seriously keen volunteers, educational material, huge passion and a lot of POP!

So all we need is a Truck for Trees - nothing fancy, nothing flash!

This is an appeal from Greenpop to anyone out there who is interested in sponsoring a Truck for Trees.

We can offer:

•   branding on the vehicle that will be traversing Livingstone daily filled with beautiful trees and smiling planters

•   your logo on our website

•   value through our social media channels

•   a profile in our newsletter

•   regular feedback on the planting project so you always know what’s happening on the ground

•   monthly beautiful pictures of your Truck for Trees in action for your use and for use in social media and marketing

•   media value through our press releases

•   and lots more

Please contact Lauren if you’re interested in partnering with us on this important reforestation and eco education project.

lauren@greenpop.org

+27(0)21 461 9265 OR +27(0)83 412 8006

www.greenpop.org

http://www.greenpop.org/projects/trees-for-zambia/

http://www.facebook.com/GreenpopTreevolution

Blog Post by Greenpop Treevolutionary Tim Cutter

Photos by Charlotte Brinkmann

A beautiful autumn day amongst the incredible fynbos vegetation of Table Mountain yesterday made for an ideal Greenpop training day.  

The Kirstenbosch education team taught everyone on the right way to prune their trees

In collaboration with the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the event was held for members of Greenpop’s over 160 beneficiaries, including primary schools, high schools, and community centers, from around Cape Town.  Through an interactive and dynamic environment of lectures, discussions, demonstrations, and nature walks, 58 eager principals, teachers and ground staff members learned about the importance of biodiversity both locally and globally, the threats to biodiversity, and why we must inspire the youth to become stewards of our environment.  

Manelisi is enjoying the shade of one of Kirstenbosch’s majestic Cape Ash trees. He’s a teacher at Kuyasa Primary School where Greenpop planted 30 indigenous trees this April

After a full day of interactive education hosted by SANBI training and educational facilitator Roleen Ellman, the participants not only went home with certificates but with big smiles. “It (the training day) was fantastic! I wish it was more than one day,” stated Richard Rhode, a participant and groundskeeper for Lourier Primary in Retreat. 

Greenpop, SANBI, and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens will continue to host lessons for beneficiaries in the future, including follow up courses for the attendees.

Blog Entry by Megan Petrous, Greenpop Marketing Coordinator

Attention all photographers and Greenpop supporters!

Ramsay Media in collaboration with BoE Private Clients is launching a photographic competition in hopes to raise awareness for a number of issues that affect all South Africans. The campaign, Picture the Change, essentially asks the public or media to submit a photo they believe depicts the change they hope to see in the world. The person with the best photo will receive R300 000 worth of media space that will go towards raising awareness for the cause of their choice. Furthermore, the winner will receive a SANParks-sponsored four-night stay in any one of its 21 parks.

We are asking any photographers who support Greenpop to please submit a photo or series of photos on our behalf. Some ideas could be any photos that were taken on our plant days, reforestation fests, or other events, as well as any photos that are relevant to the greening of South Africa.

For more information, check out the Picture the Change website by clicking HERE.

Article by: Katie Williams

“I name this tree Twiggy” squealed four-year old Anna excitedly. For Anna and her father, Anton Cartwright, Heritage Day 2011 began differently from the norm. Leaving Cape Town’s leafy southern suburbs, they headed to the under-greened community of Manenberg. The smoky-scented promise of a braai lingered in the air, but, first, a challenge: to help plant a thousand trees.

On Greenpop’s “Day of a Thousand Trees” an army of 500 volunteers descended on the proudly Manenberg community centre. Speeches, a stirring rendition of the national anthem from Red River Primary’s choir, and a unique “plant dance” had us singing, dancing, laughing, stretching and voicing our enthusiasm to get out into the community. Volunteers then dispersed to twelve locations across the township to plant indigenous trees and fruit trees.

After a short demonstration at Talfalah Primary School, team members started on the task: moving trees, mixing compost, shaking fertiliser, planting, then watering, naming and decorating the tree. Around the edge of a windswept playing field we created a border of indigenous thorn trees. The saplings were small but the effect of their presence was huge –each symbolising the care and love of its planters and hope for the future.

It was hot, tiring work, but for Anton, co-founder and coordinator of Promoting Access to Carbon Equity (PACE), one of the event’s sponsors, the day symbolised several important themes of his NGO’s work: poverty alleviation, community development, offsetting carbon emissions and bringing the carbon market to South Africa’s townships.  

“The greenhouse gases absorbed by these trees are used by companies and individuals to off-set their emissions”, explained Anton, who founded PACE to facilitate these types of transactions. “They pay for the trees and in exchange they get to claim the CO2 absorbed by the trees, but this is only a small part of a much more important exchange that involves bridging communities and investing in a shared future.”   

1,000 trees were successfully planted in Manenberg on Saturday, and volunteers celebrated with a braai, music and a speech from the minister of human settlements.  

On Sunday, we learned of the death of Wangari Muta Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Greenbelt Movement. The news is poignant for Greenpop volunteers. In Maathai’s lifetime, 40 million trees were planted across Africa, promoting biodiversity and creating jobs, especially for women. Maathai recognised the importance of trees, in helping “to heal the land and break the cycle of poverty”, and yet somehow being so much more than that.

In the first year of its “Treevolution”, Greenpop has planted 8,000 trees. Each tree is a symbol of hope and transformation. From a fragile sapling grows a vibrant organism, giving shade, aesthetic pleasure, and even fruit.

On Saturday, joining the “Treevolution”, we realised that planting trees was not so much about the sapling, but about the community. We were joining a cross-cultural movement, offsetting carbon emissions, meeting new people, and greening an underprivileged area. And, as Anna commented while heaving her over-sized spade into the soil, we were also “having so much fun”.