APOPO HeroTREEs - a Climate-Smart Solution

Welcome to our latest update!

From April to June 2018 our main focus was holding training sessions for staff, farmers and local communities as heavy rainfalls and a longer rainy season, followed by a dry period made transplanting trees in the mountains difficult.

Valuable training sessions were held regarding nursery and tree management in the village of Kisosa. The main focus of the training was the management of seedlings whilst in a nursery setting all the way through to transplantation into the field. As a result of the training, we've been able to identify that further steps can be taken to better the record-keeping of the seedlings which are transplanted.

In Choma village, we were delighted to see that one farmer has successfully planted over 250 seedlings of acrocarpus fraxinifolia and albezia rebbeck; some of the trees were planted close to river banks, and others as boundaries around his farm. The next steps for the nursery in Choma are to ensure that tree seedlings which are ready to be transplanted are taken by farmers at the right time to ensure optimal transplantation and successful growth. 

Due to the upcoming dry season, further transplantations will take place in September 2018 with several indigenous species to be included – at the moment the main trees in the area are pines, acrocarpus, cloves, and albezia.

It's thanks to wonderful donors like you that we're able to continue to educate and collaborate with local farmers and communities, introducing organic farming programmes & sustainable conservation projects to village communities in the Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania.

Thank you!

To become carbon neutral, APOPO needs to sequestrate carbon equal to 2000 planted trees a year. Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT), in partnership with APOPO, developed a programme designed to empower farmers to develop their own food forests.

It’s design guarantees that each involved farmer chooses a minimum of 5 tree species which will be later planted on his or her plot. All farmers are trained in tree nursery establishment and all planted trees are from their own prepared nurseries.

News from the field:

In the first quarter of 2018 all 5 HeroTREEs groups gathered in Ruvuma, Tanzania to witness the first payment for carbon offsetting to 50 heroes. These 50 heroes from Mgambazi, Tulo and Ruvuma were each paid a share of 2,352,450 TZS in recognition of planting and caretaking some 3282 HeroTREEs on their land in 2017; each farmer was paid on the basis of the type and number of trees they were able to plant and manage.

The hard work continued into the early months of 2018 with a total of 1422 seedlings of the Acrocarpus, Albezia and Cedrela species being transplanted into farmers' fields in Choma and Kisosa. 

We received appreciation for our work, carried out in partnership with SAT, and farmers were more determined than ever to plant more trees in 2018. The chairman of Choma Street, who is also one of our HeroTREEs farmers, said:

“We have never witnessed something like this in the Ulugulu Mountains; being provided with support to establish trees for our benefit and receiving payment for their establishment and caretaking -  this provides big motivation for our group in Choma to plant as many trees as we can.”

Thank you for your support!

The forests of the Uluguru Mountains are of critical importance to indigenous village communities, the cities of Morogoro and Dar es Salaam, and the survival of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. Furthermore, the project area is of vital importance to for Morogoro city's water supply.

On behalf of the communities involved, please keep supporting this vital work.