In 2017, we set ourselves the challenge to plant 1 million trees in five years! Today, we’re delighted to say that we’ve planted an incredible 1,000,000 trees, which means we’ve reached our #BecomeOneOfTheMillion campaign goal. We couldn’t have achieved this without the hard work of our tree planting partners: WeForest, Eden Projects and The Arbor Day Foundation, but perhaps, most importantly, we wouldn’t have risen to this challenge without the support from you, the Tentsile Tribe! So, from the bottom of our hearts thank you!
Tentsile was founded with one goal in mind, to save trees by allowing people to experience their majesty in nature. As we like to say, if we’re all hanging out in trees, they can’t be chopped down. In this blog, we want to celebrate trees and take an in-depth look at the vital part they can play in protecting the planet.
It’s pretty amazing what trees can do! In fact, studies show that planting trees is the most low-tech, sustainable and cost-effective way of combating climate change.[1]
Trees for the Planet
Photo by Arbor Day Foundation
Half a million trees roughly equates to an area the size of 1000 football fields! On average 1 tree can absorb as much as 1 ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime,[2] so these trees have the capacity to sequester 500,000 tons of CO2.! To put that into context the average global carbon footprint per person is 20 tons.[3] Although there are plenty of negative environmental stats to reports, here, at Tentsile, we prefer to look at proactive ways we can make the planet greener, together.
Thanks to our tree planting partners we support planting projects across Zambia, India, Madagascar and the USA which means there’s plenty of positive news to report. In Zambia and India alone 4,497 hectares have already been reforested.
Trees for the People
Photo by Eden Reforestation Projects
Not only is this positive for the planet but it also provides vital livelihoods to local communities. So far around 4000 people[4], including paid farmers, volunteers, local men, and women are involved in these reforestation efforts. According to Eden Projects, over 2.2 million work days have been created in Madagascar alone! Forestry training, free beehives to generate income and subsidized wood stoves all help to keep solidify the links between locals and the eco-system they live in.
So, you can see, not only could tree planting help turn the tide of climate change on a global scale it also has the potential of changing lives for the better on a local scale. That’s why in 2019 we’re aiming for an even bigger, better push for a greener planet and we can’t wait to share our eco-updates with you along the way.
Want to get involved? #BecomeOneOfTheMillion
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/17/world/trillion-trees-climate-change-intl-scn/index.html
[2] https://www.treesofstrength.org/
[3] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080428120658.htm
[4] 3500 families engaged in India, 500 farmers in Zambia with Weforest.org
