By Paulomi Bhattacharyya | CREATE! Development Associate & Project Leader
Friends,
It is my pleasure to share our first GlobalGiving report on the progress of CREATE!’s project to plant 30,000 trees in rural Senegal to fight deforestation and to provide the community members with food, shade and fuel. This progress has been possible due to your continued support.
Climate change and deforestation are contributing to the rapid desertification in rural Senegal. From 2001 to 2020, Senegal lost 4.47kha of tree cover, equivalent to a 11% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 856kt of CO emissions. In an effort to mitigate these effects, CREATE! communities plant trees in their cooperative gardens and around their village every year during the rainy season. These trees improve soil conditions, regulates temperatures around the communities and offsets more than 1,038,000 pounds of Carbon each year. They also provide the villagers with food, shade and fuel.
The preparation for this year’s “reforestation” efforts started early on, with the community members receiving training from the CREATE! technicians on the establishment of tree nurseries. In the month of April, 2021, technicians delivered the soil, the seeds, the sachets to prepare the saplings and tools like watering cans and wire meshes to set up these nurseries to 10 CREATE! communities, including Mboss, Santhie, Yougoure, Mbossedji and Ndiagne Kahone. These communities were chosen based on the quality of water available there together with the commitment of the community members in maintaining these nurseries. With the training and the tools, the communities started setting up the nurseries in May, 2021.
By the end of May, the community members had prepared the sachets with the soil, planted the seeds, watered and maintained them and are now seeing the saplings grow. This year, with the seeds provided them, the communities have planted fruit and nut trees including papayas, guavas, jujube, cashews and trees like Gliricidia, Albizzia lebbeck, Peltophorum and Cassia for shade and fuel. In the next few months they will keep maintaining the nurseries till it is time to replant the tree saplings around their community garden and at various places within the village and will enjoy the fruits and the shade these trees will provide them for years.
Thank you for your interest in and support of our programs in Senegal. This project would not be possible without your thoughtful donation! Please contact me at paulomi@createaction.org with any questions, feedback, or concerns. We really appreciate your donation to help women in rural Senegal fight the effects of desertification and climate change on their life and livelihoods.
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