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30th January 2020
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Community Nursery
The community nursery serves as a site for training and experimentation. Each year 15,000 tree seedlings are grown there. These include species for land restoration, such as acacia and eucalyptus, as well as indigenous species and fruit trees. The seedlings are used both for community and family land restoration.
Community Reforestation
Each year entire communities commit to mass tree planting and maintenance sessions, lasting several days. Planting trees provides multiple benefits to local communities, as well as improving the ecosystem. Trees are used to stabilise the soil and are then sustainably coppiced to provide fuel wood, timber and craft materials (such as raffia) as sources of income. Reforestation and sustainable coppicing reduce pressure on the remaining fragments of indigenous forest in the region. Reforestation also provides a legitimate way for individuals and groups to claim land rights, if they can prove that they have worked to improve the land for a period of 5 years or more.
Environmental Education
Our partners understand that to protect the environment for the long term you need to get the younger generation involved and motivated. Environmental education is provided in local schools, raising awareness of the causes and impacts of climate change, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss both locally, nationally and internationally. The programme ultimately focuses on local solutions such as recycling and improved natural resource management. Children are given the opportunity to get involved in tree planting with a school project to plant indigenous trees, such as the baobab, on school grounds.
School kitchen gardens and sustainable agricultural training
School kitchen gardens are a wonderful way to teach children and their families how to grow food sustainably, they also provide fresh produce that can be sold at the market to generate vitally needed funds for school running costs. As a result of seeing sustainable agriculture in practice, more and more families are signing up to establish their own sustainable kitchen gardens, orchards and forestry plots.
Micro-credit
FIVEMI’s micro-credit scheme is enabling women to set up their own businesses and gain some financial independence. A revolving fund, managed by the cooperative, allows women, who would never be able to access bank credit, to take out small loans to establish or develop their businesses. FIVEMI allows women to pay their loans back at a rate that reflects their circumstances. As the funds are reimbursed, they are used to offer new loans, helping more women make a living.
Support and training to empower women
