Indigenous Trees for Life

People helping the environment and helping themselves by growing trees

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Run for Water raises awareness of water scarcity

2010-04-08 13:54 by Simone Dale, Wildlands, via web

Zodwa Gumede’s daughter Fennele, aged seven, a Wildlands tree-preneur. Photo credit: Maryann Shaw

One in eight people do not have access to safe, clean drinking water. In Africa, many women and children need to walk 6km each day to secure water that is then unsuitable for drinking. The Dow Live Earth 6km Run/Walk for Water event is happening worldwide on 18 April 2010 to highlight this plight and raise awareness around water scarcity, and the South African event takes place at Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. A Parlotones concert will help draw the crowd and a water education village will be set up, with only 2000 tickets available. Conservation NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust are the event organizers and beneficiaries of the funds raised. Their Indigenous Trees for Life Programme enables vulnerable adults and children to grow a future for themselves. As “tree-preneurs” they grow indigenous trees from seed, and once they reach a certain height, they trade them back to Wildlands for planting into the community or they are used in reforestation programmes run by Wildlands. The credit notes received for the trees are traded for goods at “tree stores”. Food, clothing, school materials, uniforms and agricultural goods are purchased and even school fees are paid this way. Many tree-preneurs have also bought Jojo tanks for storing rainwater. Zodwa Gumede, mother of four children, is a tree-preneur in KwaJobe, a poor rural community near Mkhuze Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu Natal. “The Jojos are very helpful because we don’t have water taps here in Jobe” says Zodwa. “So we collect rainwater with the Jojos. We use that water for drinking and for cooking because it is clean. The other water we can get is from the pan but it’s not right because the cows drink there and we have to sterilize it.” In support of the programme, Jojo Tanks have come up with a scheme to help Wildlands and their tree-preneurs purchase Jojo tanks. For every 1500 litre Jojo tank purchased by Wildlands for tree-preneurs to buy, Jojo will match it with a donated one, up to 200 tanks. This frees up much needed funds for Wildlands to develop the tree growing programme further. Rod Cairns, managing director of JoJo Tanks explains: “At JoJo we are passionate about the role we should play in conserving our planet’s limited resources. Our association with Wildlands gives us an excellent opportunity to make a real difference and to contribute to the global effort to raise awareness of the need to save water. Saving water should be a way of life and the preservation and utilization of rainwater by installing rainwater tanks could grant relief to millions of disadvantaged South Africans and provide a cost-effective and convenient way for tree-preneurs to care for their trees.” Zodwa said of her Jojo Tank purchases: “We have to trade with 532 trees worth R 5 each. When the trees are ready you can buy a Jojo tank and have clean water. I will keep planting the trees so I can have more Jojo tanks.” For further details see: www.wildlands.co.za.

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Trees for...

2010-02-16 12:41 by Simone Dale, Wildlands, via web

Mr Skotana Msweli who is payin for his daughters degree with his trees.

Eighteen year old Angel Msweli passed all her first year BComm. subjects at the University of Zululand in 2009. What is particularly remarkable about this is that her father is paying her tuition fees by growing indigenous trees. Skotana Msweli is a “tree-preneur” with the Indigenous Trees for Life programme run by the conservation NGO Wildlands Conservations Trust. Tree-preneurs are needy members of township and rural communities who are shown how to grow indigenous trees from seed until they reach a certain height. They trade the trees back to Wildlands for food, clothes, bicycles, agricultural goods and tools, school and university fees. The trees are then planted back into the community or planted out in Wildland’s forest restoration projects. Mr Msweli is unemployed and has seven children, and grows his trees in the back yard of his home in the township of Waterloo near Durban. He is one of over 2 500 tree-preneurs, spread across twenty communities in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng, who grow around 300 000 indigenous trees each year. Angel feels that a degree will give her opportunities. “It will make my life better. I will be able to work in a job which I love and that I have studied for. I see myself as managing my own business, [or being] an accountant of big companies or a bank consultant.” Many communities continue to embrace the project and individuals are using their tree credits to purchase a wide range of goods and services, even driving lessons. Ningi Ngbashe is both a facilitator and a tree-preneur at the Buffelsdraai Project near Durban. In March 2009 Ningi started using her credit notes from her trees to buy driving lessons and has paid R 5725 of her tree growing income towards this. She passed the driver’s test first time and now drives a Wildlands vehicle to collect trees from the homes of the tree-preneurs when they are ready to be traded for goods. Victoria Mazibuko is a sixteen year old tree-preneur from KwaJobe in northern Zululand. She has bought herself a bicycle through the programme and she and her siblings grow trees together. They have recently purchased a water tank which requires 532 trees valued at five rand each. “The project helps the community very much because some of the families here are poor, they don’t have water tanks. We now have a tank. We didn’t dream we were going to get it, just easy like that.” Bonitas Medical Fund donations help make these achievements possible. Matseleng Mfeka of Bonitas said “Through our support of the Wildlands Conservation Trust, Bonitas not only hopes to play a small role in improving the environment, but also improving the lives of the tree-preneurs throughout our country. As they reforest various areas of South Africa, the benefits of both clean air and personal empowerment grows. Our main objective at Bonitas is to foster lifelong good health: the first step to this is to promote a healthy earth.”

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Indigenous Trees for School Fees

2010-02-16 12:32 by Simone Dale, Wildlands, via web

Simphiwe Xulu, 12, paid for his 2010 school fees with trees.

Twelve year old Simphiwe Xulu has paid his own school fees this year by growing trees. He is in grade seven at Ntabeni Primary School in Richards Bay and is a “tree-preneur” in the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme run by the conservation NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust. Tree-preneurs are individuals from township and rural communities in need, who are taught to grow indigenous trees from seed and care for them until they grow to a certain height. The trees are then traded back to Wildlands for goods such as food, clothes, school and university fees and the trees are then planted back into the community or planted out into forest restoration projects. Simphiwe’s mother Sindisiwe Mpanza said of the programme, “I am a single parent. I didn’t have money to pay for the school fees. The trees helped me a lot to make that payment. I got help with the food and the uniforms.” Simphiwe used twenty trees to pay for his school fees. He has also “spent” his trees buying his school uniform and books. He was very excited when he grew enough trees to be taken on an environmental education expedition to False Bay in September last year. Day trips and overnight stays in nature reserves are arranged by Wildlands to reward tree-preneurs that grow a certain number of trees, and they are taught about the environment. “I saw the animals I only see on TV,” said Simphiwe. Mrs Magubane, the Principal at Ntabeni Primary school, has noticed the change in the children who are growing trees. “Most of the tree-preneurs are orphans. The tree project pulls off lots of weight from the guardians, and the children become confident at school knowing they have paid their school fees.” There are now over five hundred tree-preneurs spread across six projects in the Richards Bay area. BHP Billiton and Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) seed funded the projects and have supported them for the last five years. December Matenjwa, Project Manager for Indigenous Trees for Life in Richards Bay said, “We are teaching the tree-preneurs to be aware of their environment. The child that pays for school fees with trees is taking responsibility for their education as well as learning entrepreneurial skills and caring for the environment.”

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