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14 Apr 2021 15:12

Joliba Trust - Plant 100 Trees for just £10

Joliba Trust - Working to restore livelihoods

Want to make a difference? Plant 100 trees for just £10!

Mali in West Africa is made up mainly of arid plains bordering on the Sahara desert. It is badly affected as the temperature warms and many people have already migrated south as their land has become untenable. The Joliba Trust works in over 200 villages to stem this tide and has already received international recognition for its success in funding self-help development. This includes tree planting, dune stabilization, pasture regeneration, building wells, training in health and nutrition; in summary, sustaining the livelihoods of people threatened in particular by rising temperatures, increasing droughts and desertification.

Trees are essential to this work, and in the last 20 years Joliba have planted several million of them. Very soon, they make a noticeable difference to the topsoil depth in adjoining fields. Some, like papaya trees, bear fruit in just 6 months, and others like mango, orange and date and tamarind also fruit quickly and help local women to generate an income. Others like baobabs provide leaves which help millet, a staple local food, to grow; their fruit provides utritious feed for cattle and they are excellent at stabilizing dunes, surviving droughts, and helping in times of famine.

Education is key to the future and children in local schools are encouraged to learn about trees and how to protect their land. In one school, children have started a small ‘botanical garden’, funded by Joliba, which has 31 varieties of trees and a nursery which helps earn them pocket money in addition to enabling more trees to be planted. Children in many other schools have planted trees for food, boundaries and shade.

Beekeeping is another aspect of Joliba’s forestry programme, helping to pollinate crops, increase biodiversity and generate income to sustain other local projects.

Joliba’s work on dune stabilization has been pioneering. Stronger winds and droughts due to global warming have made vast amounts of farmland too sandy to grow crops any more. Since 2004 over 100 hectares of dunes have been converted, protecting the livelihoods of about 26,000 people. Everyone is desperately keen to work on land regeneration, which is often relatively easy if simple measures are taken. Moreover, carbon sequestration is particularly effective in the Sahel, as trees and plants grow so quickly. Planting trees there is also cheap, meaning that money donated to Joliba has a far greater overall effect on combatting global warming than if the same money were to be spent in Europe. In addition, whilst trees planted in Europe help to slow global warming, in Mali they also have a substantial effect on people’s everyday lives, providing fruit, fuel and income, enriching the soil and sustaining agriculture, giving them a livelihood and allowing them to stay in their villages.

Joliba Trust is run largely by its founder, Caroline Hart, but the work is managed by local partners in Mali. Its patrons are Jon Snow, Caroline Lucas MP and Satish Kumar. Shared Earth gave them a donation of £2,000 last year.

A little can make a huge difference to people’s lives in Mali and 95p out of every £1 donated goes directly to field projects. To learn more or make a donation, look at www.jolibatrust.org.uk or email info@jolibatrust.org.uk.

Created On 14 Apr 2021 15:12 - >>