SUSTAINABLE
GLOBAL GARDENS
TROPICAL TREE PLANTING & CONSERVATION
SGG is a poverty and hunger alleviation charity and most of this page concerns our tropical tree planting in East & Southern Africa. However, as a Rotarian Paul Keeley has become involved in ESRAG RGBI and its Heart4Trees tree planting programme. The Heart4Trees report below may be of interest to Rotarians wishing to plant in the UK or to supplementing their international projects with a tree planting element
Click here for Rotary 'Heart4Trees'
EVOLUTION OF TREE PROJECTS
Sustainable Global Gardens began planting trees in Tanzania in 2007. Our earliest efforts were on a small scale with 4,500 planted in the grounds of Soni Seminary in the Usambaras and about 900 planted around Mengwe village, Rombo District on the eastern slopes of Kilimanjaro. There are many reasons for planting trees. At Soni the planted trees provide protection against soil erosion on steep slopes as well as a source of future income & fuelwood. At Mengwe the first focus was on planting valuable indigenous species e.g. Melicia excelsa [Mvule ]
Students at Soni Seminary receive trees for planting in school grounds. Most of these were Grevillea robusta, a multi-purpose tree suitable for protection against soil erosion.The trees were planted on a very steep slope where the soil had no cover.
Some early planting was to promote indigenous species. This was the first Mvule [Milicia excelsa] which SGG helped plant in Rombo District.
Planting on Kilimanjaro and in West Kenya established the advantages of agroforestry for small scale farmers where trees can provide fruits for improving nutrition, fuel wood, fodder, shade and a supplementary income while maintaining good soil conditions on the farm. Many of our Rotary partners in Tanzania were concerned with improving education and conditions in schools so planting on school grounds accounts for much of our tree planting there in 2018.
Although tree-planting started in Tanzania, Busia County in West Kenya has often been the location of most SGG tree activity. Soon after SGG had started the feeding programme for 500 orphans +/or vulnerable children in Busia we were asked by guardians how could they find money to pay for the child's education. the solution was 'Trees for School Fees'. At the time eucalyptus were the favourite species because of a good local market and the rapidity of growth. Here [see two photos above] is the same tree & owner photographed in 2009 and 2011. Thus, a farmer could gain a good income from a woodlot within 5 years of planting. More recently Grevillea robusta has become the preferred species. Another major innovation occurred around 2010. Maendeleo Mashinani Organisation volunteer, Philip Namulundu [see left] encouraged SGG to plant bananas. We rapidly realised that bananas can produce a revenue 4-5 times the initial investment within two years. Since 2014 Busia has usually been the major location for SGG-funded tree-planting.
A partnership between SGG and the Rotary Club of Mkuu Rombo enabled the latter to organise a tree planting competition for 25 schools in Rombo District Tanzania in 2012. In 2016 SGG undertook the counting of trees in school grounds and estimated that 8,500 trees had survived and were growing well in those schools. The winner was Maki School who had planted 1,367 trees despite having very rocky ground [see picture left]. Another winner was Mamsera School who had planted mainly Acrocarpus in their maize field [see picture below left]. Prizes of water collecting tanks were awarded to the 3 best schools and a new competition has now been extended to other schools. Other Rotary Clubs had slightly different strategies. Machame Rotary Club wanted to promote Tephrosia vogelii as a natural pesticide and Moringa olifeira as a cash crop of high nutritional value. Within their nursery they also had 1500 Avocado seedlings [see picture below].
Read more...
During the Rotary year 2017-18 RI President Ian Riseley challenged every Rotarian in the world to plant at least one tree. Rotarian Paul Keeley of Newcastle Gosforth Rotary Club in District 1030, UK responded to this challenge by engaging 13 Tanzanian Rotary Clubs and several NGOs in Kenya on behalf of 44 Rotary clubs who donated to this tropical tree planting scheme. By early May 2018 Paul had recorded 41,475 trees which were planted in Busia, West Kenya or North East Tanzania. [see below for report] This project engaged several hundred farmers and thousands of school children all working to improve their farms, school grounds and local environment. Tanzanian & Kenyan tree-planting partners continued planting after 2018 despite all the difficulties of covid. During the 2019-2022 period those farmers accounted for a further 191,118 trees. [see below for report] After the success of this first Tropical Tree-Planting & Conservation [TTP&C] project, SGG is now looking for more Charitable Trusts, other institutions & individuals who will sponsor the current TTP&C project which plans to establish 300,000 healthy trees by 2028.
Recent progress in Kenya
Siritanyi group have been partners with SGG since 2008, so by 2023 when this photo was taken this member had a large stock of mature trees.
The FOCUSSA group have been founder members of Maendeleo Mashinani Organisation & partners of SGG for more than 15 years. Not only do they have a large stock of trees, but they have also established a small furniture business.
SGG views Kenya as the major location for tree projects. Of the 725 schemes recorded in the 2019-2022 Tropical Tree-Planting & Conservation project, 551 of those were in Kenya accounting for 140,018 of the 202,485 trees recorded. Only 72 schemes were in Tanzania, despite the strong rotarian involvement in the previous 2017-8 plantings. Their total tree-count for 2019-2022 was 32,674. Tree counts in Malawi started only in January 2023, but 26,993 trees were noted. SGG anticipates that this figure will rise rapidly in the 2023-28 second stage of this tree programme.
Very few trees have been counted so far in the 2023-2028 Tropical Tree-Planting & Conservation project, but we expect Kenya to continue being the main country for SGG-funded planting. One reason for this is that SGG has expanded support for trees into new areas. One such location is around Kitale where the Friends Meeting has a strong planting programme. This also applies to Birunda Friends group nearby. Here [see above left] one of their members has planted a row of Grevillea robusta along the farm boundary. Elsewhere on this farm there are indigenous species planted [e.g. Elgon teak, Meru oak] and mature trees suitable for carbon capture. Another important community group are Kasiwe Farmers, who are based on Rusinga Island.
,
Another significant development is SGG's sponsorship of SCOPE, who specialise in using permaculture methods to transform school grounds into productive horticultural and agroforestry space. Here [see above right] a narrow space at St Denis Libolina for the Physically Challenged, between a classroom & the school perimiter fence, a space entirely wasted until 2022 has been transformed with a double row of Grevillea robusta as well as bananas and vegetables to boost the school's own food production.
Recent Progress in Tanzania
