Green Blog's tree-planting program

[Simon]

Help us plant trees!

 

In celebration of International Forest Day we will re-launch our popular tree-planting program.

 

As we all know planting trees can help fight climate change and poverty, among many other things. And now you can help us plant trees, simply by visiting and using Green Blog! It's simple: we will plant one tree for every thousand forum posts, blog entries and members we reach on Green Blog. 

 

We currently have a little over 1000 registered members. Green Blog will plant one tree when we reach 2000 members.

Our members have made over 6000 posts in our forums. When we reach 7000 forum posts Green Blog will plant one tree. When we reach 1000 community blog posts another tree will be planted. And this will continue for every new milestone we reach!

 

You can see our progress here: http://green-blog.org/tree-planting

 

Why are trees so important?

 

Forests are vital for us, we cannot sustain life without healthy and thriving forests.

 

Forests provide us with clean air and water, but also with vital medicine. According to the US National Cancer Institute, 70% of all plants identified as having anti-cancer characteristics are found in our tropical rainforests. About 25% of drugs used in conventional medicines are derived from rainforest plants.

 

Forest also plays a direct role for 300 million people in their day-to-day lives by offering food, shelter and employment. If we fail to protect our forests we will essentially threaten our own homes and livelihoods.

 

Forests help safeguard biodiversity by being home to more than 50% of all plant and animal species. But all plant and animal species today face a real threat of extinction, which goes hand in hand with increasing deforestation. Extinction rates have increased by up to a thousand times in the last few hundred years - a rate which will increase further if we do not protect our forests.

 

Forests absorb nearly 30% of our CO2 emissions and effectively acts as a buffer against global warming. But our forests do not only absorb carbon, they also store nearly 300 billion tonnes of carbon. It's estimated that deforestation is responsible for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Here are 10 more forests facts!

 

Who will plant our trees?

 

Green Blog will plant trees with the help from Vi Agroforestry (Vi-skogen), which is a Swedish development cooperation organization that works with support to farmers in the Lake Victoria Basin in Eastern Africa.

 

Vi Agroforestry works in four countries in Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. They have regional office is based in Nairobi, Kenya. They also have offices in Kisumu and Kitale, Kenya, Masaka in Uganda, Kagera and Musoma in Tanzania and Kigali in Rwanda.

 

They were founded in 1983 and since then they've reached more than one million people through education, advisory and services. You can learn more over at: http://www.viagroforestry.org

[Simon]

Our tree-planting program is currently paused.