Tag Archives: trees

Treat Them to Trees

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This time of year when so many of us are talking about trees — which one to buy, how does it smell, what happens if my dog eats the branches — we should all take a minute to say “thank you” to the life of a tree and the environmental protection they provide.

Trees for environmental protection

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

Trees are essential to life on Earth. Heifer recognizes their simple yet extraordinary virtues and gives many varieties of trees and saplings including acacia, fodder, forest and fruit to families in the communities where we work. And trees seedlings are Passed On to other families ensuring the sustainable cycle that’s key to Heifer’s development model.

Did you know?

  • Trees breathe out oxygen and breathe in carbon dioxide.
  • Trees hold water in the soil and moisture in the air.
  • Trees provide food and medicines for birds, animals and people.
  • Fast-growing trees put nitrogen back in the soil, serve as windbreaks and provide fodder, fencing, firewood and fruit.
  • Multi-purpose trees that families plant along the contours of hillside plots and between rows of crops can provide shade for animals and high-protein fodder.
So as a “thank you” to trees for how much they give us,  I’m gifting trees to my friends and family this holiday season. Hope they breathe a little better.

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

This holiday season, give trees for your loved ones dedicated to environmental protection.

This post is part of our What to Give series, where we’re helping you choose the best Heifer gift for your loved ones. Read previous What to Give posts here, and subscribe to the What to Give series here.

Still don’t know what to give? Visit our full catalog page here.

Give Trees: The Perfect Alternative Gift for Vegetarians

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All Heifer projects strive for sustainability, and that’s why we often provide trees of different varieties to families in need. Trees enrich the air with oxygen, help maintain soils and provide fruits and nuts, as well.

Watch this video to see how Heifer’s efforts at reforestation and other agroecological methods are promoting soil conservation, erosion control and improved farming in Ecuador.

Fruits and Fodder
Planting trees ensures families have a source of fodder for livestock. Fruit- and nut-bearing trees provide nutritious and fresh foods, and surpluses can increase income.

Better Soil
In many countries where Heifer works, poor families cook on wood-burning stoves. Families must cut down trees to ensure they have enough firewood. Without trees, soil washes away. Tree roots hold together topsoil and help to sustain moisture and nutrients.

Firewood
With many families foraging for firewood in similar areas, sometimes families have to walk miles just to find enough wood to burn so they can cook a meal. When families plant trees, firewood is no lnger scarce and is available in the immediate area.

This holiday season, give the gift of trees in honor of your tree-hugging, vegetarian sister-in-law; and help a community grow food for themselves and their livestock while preventing soil erosion and water loss. And learn more about Heifer’s agroecology and agroforestry work by digging into our archives.

Heifer Honors Wangari Maathai

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Wangari Maathai by photographer Martin Rowe

Kenyan environmentalist and activist Wangari Maathai had a simple but ingenious strategy: To pay women to plant trees to solve both unemployment and deforestation. Her Green Belt Movement is responsible for planting more than 30 million trees across Africa and empowering more than 900,000 women, according to the United Nations.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and passed away late Sunday at age 71 after battling cancer. Read The New York Times account here.

Read our World Ark interview with Maathai in our September/October 2008 issue where she answers the question “What is the solution to world hunger and poverty?”

Click here to donate to the Green Belt Movement’s memorial fund to continue Maathai’s extraordinary work around the world.

Heifer South Africa Celebrates Nelson Mandela Day

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 Written by Clair Hawkridge, Resource Development Officer in South Africa
Sukuma Project in Mabheleni Village, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, is a group of 172 small farmers working partnership with Heifer International South Africa. On 18 July 2011, more than 100 project members, community members and volunteers gathered in the village to help plant fruit trees at their homes of project members, in honor of Nelson Mandela International Day. The Heifer International South Africa team coordinated the event and help support this great example of Sharing and Caring.
Nelson Mandela, former South African president and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, dedicated 67 years of his life to the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa and to leading the fight for human rights. The United Nations has declared 18 July Nelson Mandela International Day. On this day, Nelson Mandela’s birthday, people across South Africa and around the world dedicate 67 minutes to helping those in need. 
The members of the Sukuma Project are working towards becoming successful small-scale egg producers. Each project member will soon be receiving chickens. They will also grow vegetables and fruit. The orange, mango and avocado trees that were planted on Mandela Day will provide fruit for sale and for project families to eat.
The group spent the morning moving from house to house planting the trees. Part of the aim of Mandela Day is to encourage people to help one another in the spirit of the Ubuntu – the belief, fundamental in many African cultures, that a person is only a person because he or she cares for and helps others. This group showed how project members can work together and work with Heifer to make the lives of the whole community better.
Even the local chief joined in. Chief Nelisiwe Mbhele has been very supportive of the project. She sees it as a way for some of her people to get out of poverty. “This project is a very good project. It is assisting poor women get some food because sometimes there is no food for cooking,” she said. 
 
Project members are also very excited about the project. Mrs Busisiwe Mbhele (52) said, “I joined the project because I am very poor and my husband passed away. I am looking forward to having chickens that will lay eggs. Then I can sell the eggs and have money to buy things”. Mrs Mbhele supports her three sons who have been unable to find work.
Another project member told us that the fruit trees would make a huge difference for her. Mrs Eustina Mkhize (60) has 8 children and 17 grandchildren, 7 of whom live with her. She also supports one child of 8 who is an orphan. “I’m very excited about the trees,” she said. “I am hoping to sell the fruit and to eat it with my children”.
In the afternoon, everyone went up to the local school, Esiwoyeni Primary School. The school has a food garden that produces vegetables for the school feeding scheme. Miss BZ Zulu said that attendance at the school has increased dramatically since they began providing hot meals for the children. The project members and volunteers planted an orange tree so that the school pupils will be able to have fruit as well as vegetables.
It would have been impossible to plant all of the trees in one day (over 300 trees) but it was a great opportunity to share Mandela Day with the Sukuma Project members and see how committed they all are to helping each other to make the project a success.