15,000 trees to combat desertification in Ethiopia

We want to take this opportunity to say a big thank you for supporting our efforts to restore the landscape of Ethiopia’s Tigray region. 

The project, which we launched last year, restores degraded lands to productive, flourishing forests for people and planet.

So, where are we now? Well, we’ve identified where we will be focusing our restoration efforts, that is, which areas need it the most, and have partnered with several communities in the region to get involved in our efforts.

With much of the decision-making out of the way, we’re extremely excited to announce that our first nurseries are in operation in Tigray. One of these is the Mygoa nursery. We've been busy preparing the nursery bed and planting seeds at Mygoa and we’re just waiting for them to germinate. 19 people manage the nursery, caring for and preparing the seedlings for planting. In time for the first planting season, when the next rainy season begins around June, the Mygoa nursery team will have grown around 40,000 seedlings.

We’ve been extremely busy these last few months collecting seeds from the nearby forest and local markets and will continue to collect even more seeds over the coming months. We’ll be setting up more nurseries as well, so that we can get as many trees growing as possible.

It is our aim to plant 32,380 trees this year. 

Thank you for making all of this possible. Together, we're Making Earth Cooler.

We said it before and we will continue saying it: reforestation can only be successful and sustainable if local people benefit. It goes without saying that WeForest involves local communities in all of its activities on the ground.

In Tigray we organized three community meetings in the past months to discuss how to make the new forests beneficial. People came up with several ideas, including honey production, timber from eucalyptus and fodder for cattle, goats and sheep. Besides these income generating activities, the reforestation project also creates real jobs: 20 people are involved in seed collection, 19 are employed in tree nurseries, 500 people will be paid to help plant the tree seedlings once they are ready and it is raining, 30 people will take care of the seedlings and the project will employ 4 guards. All in all, the project directly creates extra income for 573 people and their families.

Please have a look at the attached planting report in which you will find photos of the community meetings, and of the first planting site where forest restoration will start as soon as the rains begin.

Enjoy reading the report and please contact us if you have questions or would like to hear more about the reforestation project in Tigray, Ethiopia. Thank you for supporting WeForest and for Making Earth Cooler.

• Tigray_NovemberReport.pdf (PDF)