Nongbri F. lives in Dympep, a small village in the remote northeast of India. For her livelihood, she depends on the forest surrounding her village. But this forest is under threat. WeForest helps Nongbri and the people from 62 other villages in the East Khasi Hills region to grow trees and restore the original subtropical forest and its unique biodiversity.
Due to mining and logging in the East-Khasi Hills, more than a quarter of the region's forest cover has been lost. This is threatening the watershed and impacting the livelihood of the local tribal communities. The native subtropical forest has historically provided the food and forest products Khasi people depended on. Nowadays, this is no longer the case: forest loss has resulted in barren landscapes. By restoring the forests, we can restore the way of life of the Khasi Hills communities.
Environment and poverty alleviation go hand-in-hand in this project. With every 10,000 new trees we restore 29 acres of forest, increase the income of 25 households, support 7 women micro enterprises, and create seasonal employment for 180 people during the planting season (May to August). Bringing back the forests restores water cycles and improves climate resilience.
The New York Declaration on Forests confirmed in September 2014 that deforestation rates need to be cut in half and that 840 million acres of additional forests are needed if we wanted to halt climate change. That is equivalent to every person on Earth funding 36 trees.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
