TREES FOR THE FUTURE TO PLANT 50 MILLION TREES IN 2021
14,000+ farmers in nine countries to use agroforestry to reach goal
SILVER SPRING, MD (March 3, 2021) – International development nonprofit Trees for the Future (TREES) is launching 45 new projects, reaching more than 14,000 smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa and setting a goal to plant 50 million trees this year. This will bring their total to over 250 millions trees planted.
“We’re able to set and reach these lofty goals because we’ve found a sustainable way to plant trees and change lives,” says Executive Director John Leary. “With more than 100 total projects, we’re mobilizing entire communities to embrace agroforestry for the good of each farming family and for the good of the planet.”
TREES trains farmers in the Forest Garden Approach, using agroforestry and permaculture to revitalize degraded land, ending hunger and poverty for the farming families in the program. Each Forest Garden project has 150 – 300 farmers and each farmer typically has 2,500 trees on their land by the end of the four-year program. TREES also plants trees through Collaborative Partnerships, working with other organizations to plant more trees in regions where unsustainable agriculture and land use practices have led to deforestation.
“We work with farmers, organizations, schools, and local governments to make sustainable agriculture and sustainable tree planting the norm, not the exception,” Leary explains. “We’re grateful to be working with more than 20 local partners across nine countries toward common environmental and humanitarian goals.”
This year, the 32-year-old tree planting organization is expanding into two new countries, adding Chad and Mali to their active projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Senegal, and Gambia.
“Forest Garden farmers in these nine countries are leading the way for agroforestry as a sustainable solution to our most pressing challenges,” Leary says. “And our individual donors, brand partners, and institutional supporters are ensuring that we can continue to forge a path for sustainable farming and tree planting, we can’t thank them enough.”
Learn more about Trees for the Future’s new projects and the countries where they work here.
###
Trees for the Future is a registered 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that is ending poverty and improving the environment by teaching farmers how to grow food more sustainably.