50000 trees/year for a self-reliant rural Senegal

Friends,

All of us at CREATE! would like to thank you for your generosity that has helped our team in Senegal plant 50,000 trees in our partner community gardens and around different areas of the communities in 2022. Since the philosophy that drives our work is rooted in environmental protection, we see it as our duty to help mitigate the effects of climate change on our lived environment. Our reforestation campaigns are thus carried out every year in several localities in rural Senegal.

In the last decade of our work in West Africa, particularly, Senegal, we have come to see that this part of the world bears an enormous brunt of global climate change impacts through desert encroachment and decreasing rainfall that results in shorter growing seasons. Deforestation compounds these issues, yet communities need to continue collecting wood for cooking and building community infrastructure. Our team in Senegal implements participatory climate change projects to develop solutions to these interconnected challenges. Our annual reforestation campaign is one of the key programs in this area.

In order to implement this program, over the years, we have raised awareness among the local population in Senegal on the benefits of reforestation by showing them the changes that trees bring forth. The trees grown and nourished in the CREATE! gardens not only bear fruit but also provide a micro-climate to the people in a very short period of time. Seeing this, people in and around the region have started to request more trees from CREATE! to plant in their own communities and regions. While our tree production was only 5000 in 2010, over the years, the demand for trees have increased exponentially leading to the planting of 50,000 trees this year, an increase of 900%. This increase positively demonstrates the interest among the rural Sahelian people to better the situation by getting involved in the production, planting and protection of trees that are useful in saving the planet.

This year, like the years before, we planted a variety of trees in and around our partner communities. While acacia trees provide shade and act as living fences around the community garden, fruit and nut trees like papaya, lemon, guava, pomegranate and cashews are always a favorite with the community members. After planting around the garden, we also distribute trees for the community to plant in their own homes and places of worship. For example, every direct beneficiary of the community of Mbossedji received two shade plants of different species and two different fruit trees. The community also distributed trees to the Guinguinéo and Gagnick Commune as part of eco-citizen reforestation and to Walo Sindiéne for their new mosque.

At CREATE!, we believe that solutions to the challenges faced by rural villages in Senegal do not need to come at an environmental or social cost; rather, responsible and long-lasting changes can be made that benefit local communities as well as the local environment. With the interest and support of donors like you, our work continues. From all of us at CREATE! and from the women we work with, we thank you all for making this project a success.