And why we still encourage it.
You probably heard about the movement of planting trees per transaction a lot, especially a few years back. And a year or two after that there was a lot of backlash about the fact that most charity's were very profit driven, not keeping the communities of the land in mind and were monoculture cultivating the trees.
So you might wonder, why would you bother writing a blog post about it in 2020? Well because I did some research and think it's time to give back. To mother nature. By planting trees. The right way.
About 90% of the tree planting charities plant monoculture. Meaning the cultivation of a single crop in a given area. This is a fast way and this way they can plant trees faster and insensible.
Ever seen a untouched forest with only 1 tree? Me neither.
That is why we chose to partner up with Tree sisters. They look at every area on how they can restore and protect the forest rather than mass planting to make the fundraisers happy. They protect endangered species in Brazil, restoring mangrove and dry deciduous forests in Madagascar, replenishing the watershed of Mt Kenya, rescuing agricultural lands and restoring cloud forests in India,
reforesting cleared and burnt lands in Nepal, and restoring highlands forest to protect critically endangered gorillas in Cameroon.
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Next to the amazing and detailed work they do, they are a women led charity and use 80% of our donation for reforestation program - covering seeds, sapling growth and nursery costs, transport, planting, protection and monitoring, reporting and replanting if the first sapling fails in the tropics (fire, flood, drought, disease, grazing, crab predation) and the costs of due diligence.
The other 20% goes to feminine empowerment and social change work: campaigning and outreach, awareness raising, tree education, leadership training and network building in the global ‘north’ to grow the funding streams that restore more forest. And I'm absolutely living for that.
So from now on: for every order you place with bound, we will plant 2 trees. This isn't a campaign. It's a commitment. To our beloved mother nature.
Want to learn more about the Tree Sisters? Read more about their work on their website:
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Lots of love,
Malu