A Food-Forest for Us
This project aims to improve local livelihoods and biodiversity in Idunda village (Morogoro) and Buyezi village (Kigoma) by implementing community-led syntropic agroforestry farms centered on the cultivation and sustainable management of native trees with high economic and ecological value. By combining traditional farming with native tree cultivation in agroforestry systems, the project seeks to create sustainable income opportunities, increase biodiversity, and strengthen food security for the local community.
We have identified a number of native tree species with economic potential. Its food forest because it takes the advantage of lifecycle of a crop, amount of sunlight intensity required by the crop and the space to plant diverse plants together for food security, conserving biodiversity and increasing carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation. Further, we will provide processing and packaging machinery to sell non-timber native tree products on the market.
The most innovative aspect of this project is actively cultivating native trees that, until now, have only grown in the wild.
The project comprises a number of consecutive steps:
Seed collection and the establishment of a seedbank; seed germination and implementation of a plant nursery; creation of pilot agroforestry systems; provision of processing machinery.
Expected results:
1 seed bank
5 plant nurseries
10000 trees planted
100 farmers trained in syntropic agroforestry
5 hectares of agroforestry planted
500 tons of CO2 sequestered in next two years, would you like to take part of it?
Center for Native tree studies of Africa
We are establishing a center for Native Trees Studies of Africa to be a hub for researchers to explore the potential benefits of native trees for people and biodiversity. The center will bring about the existence of native tree sustainability aligning with the international agreement for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and UNFCCC compatible with SDGs number 1, 2, 13, and 15. Moreover, the center will provide an avenue for the existence of potential in our native trees, such as food and medicine. Also, the center will be a cause for climate change mitigation and biodiversity habitat restoration. While making available information and products about native trees.
A center will feature: A comprehensive herbarium and literature library dedicated to African native trees. A seedbank preserving diverse native tree seeds. A nursery for raising seedlings and supporting restoration projects, a Processing unit for value-adding native tree products and a native tree arboretum.
The Impact: The program aims at ensuring that native trees which are rich in medicine and natural food are retained and sustained. On the other hand, if nothing is passing without noticing that these native trees are been depleted, there will be a massive loss of biodiversity which threats the ecosystem; global warming will manifest thus accelerating climate change impacts after which poverty to the community will be intensified.
Native Tree Arboretum
For continued research studies and training we establish a project to plant native trees in plot stations of different particular ecosystem, where respective trees are Natives and plays role of restoring threatened ecosystems in Tanzania.