If a Tree Falls...
NCP’s program for reforestation and rainforest preservation
The world lost another 10 million acres for forests last year even as the climate crisis bears down on us (and trees can help us with that), plant and animal populations decline (and trees can help them with that), and forest fires and bark beetles continue their assault on these keystone ecosystems.
NCP is working with our partners to restore trees and with them their beauty and their vital role in making life on earth possible.
Forests are key to life on earth. Oxygen, habitat, carbon sequestration, medicinal plants,
home to native people, places of wildness and wonder—they do it all. Yet they’re
disappearing fast, thanks to farming, ranching, oil drilling, firewood gathering and
charcoal production, palm and cocoa plantations, urbanization—and now climate change.
Check out our promo video on NCP reforestation efforts and the importance of trees =>
Through our If a Tree Falls… program, NCP is supporting reforestation in Myanmar,
South Sudan, the DR Congo, Malawi and the Ecuadorian Amazon, with new
partnerships in Nepal and Borneo. In some areas, $10 plants 100 trees; in others,
it's $1-$3 per tree - still quite a deal! How? Jimmy Zan in Myanmar gathers avocado
pits from local restaurants; in South Sudan, Paskwale Ben is using land his uncle loans
him, and employs recycled mosquito net bags as potting containers. Here's a promo flyer
featuring Paskwale's list of why "tree is our life."
Check out our Two (!) Million Tree Campaign
Peter Nyika Otto (left) leads our newest reforestation site, at Pageri, South Sudan. He aims to plant 30,000 trees this year - mango guava, lemon, gista, teak and more.
Rainforest Preservation
In the Ecuadorian Amazon, we support native communities as they protect the forest and preserve their
own culture. Franklin (right) has seen our groups come to his Cofan community for 20 years, learning
about the rainforest from his grandfather, chief shaman Aurelio, who recently passed away. NCP has
provided financial support as Franklin in follows in his grandpa's footsteps
in becoming a shaman. NCP is also assisting him in training to be a
teacher, so as to educate the children in the community in their own
language (rather than in Spanish as used by government teachers) and
incorporate knowledge of the spiritual, medicinal and practical
importance of the rainforest. He has also begun offering workshops on
plastic pollution!
We have purchased a critical section of cloud forest high in the
Andes to protect this biodiverse area, which also feeds rivers below,
from gold mining and other nefarious industries.
We also support Kichwah,Siona and Shuar people as they
educate their own people and outsiders about the importance
of the forest – for them, and for the world. This Shuar PTA leader
and students have planted over 4000 trees around their village
with NCP support.
NCP friend and co-conspirator Dustin Wilgers has
a new children's book out! https://dustin.wilgers.square.site
The plastic reduction/recycling program NCP is funding and Franklin is leading will aim to reduce the amount of plastic coming into the community, and recycled the rest. Plastic in their rivers is affecting the fish catch and littering the environment. They are also working with women's groups to make reusable plastic bags for use when shopping in nearby towns. Here, he leads a community workshop.
Reforestation:
Myanmar, Ecuador, South Sudan, Malawi, the DR Congo, Nepal, Borneo
If a Tree Falls… enables reforestation through NCP partners in Asia, Africa and the Americas. We provide the funding, they provide the expertise, tree nurseries and community connections.
In Myanmar, we work with communities in the cyclone-prone SW delta to plant trees in any available space, and NCP partner and trekking guide Saw Jimmy Zan (right) works to reforest badly deforested hill areas. He’ll plant 10,000 trees this year with our support. Of this reforestation site he says, "When I come here, this is my paradise."
We have started working with our partner in Nepal, the anti-trafficking organization Shakti Samuha, to initiate reforestation done by women's groups. “Climate change leads to migration which leads to insecurity and vulnerability for girls and women to be trafficked,” Shakti leaders told us. We also provide women groups with fruit trees such as avacado and lemon for income generation.
NCP has committed $15,000 per year to planting mangroves in Borneo Learn how you can help restore these wonder trees on our Mangroves to the Rescue page!
Every $1 plants 1-10 trees, depending on the location!
In East Africa, population pressures, charcoal production and firewood gathering are big causes of deforestation—which then leads to soil erosion and erratic rainfall patterns. This, in turn, leads to even more conflict in these war-ridden lands, as there is less good land to go around.
In South Sudan, NCP supports three reforestation sites that together will plant 60,000 trees this year, making NCP the leading reforestation agency in this region of the country.
Congolese women have had to walk into isolated areas to gather firewood, and sometimes are attacked. We’re bringing the forests to the women, planting 45,000 fruit, medicinal and firewood trees over the next three years near their communities.
In Borneo, we are launching a new partnership to restore
mangroves while also replanting forest areas. Mangroves have
been destroyed around the world, even though they sequester
carbon at four times the rate of tropical rain forests, playing a key
role in addressing climate change. They also reduce erosion from
sea level rise and storms, act as nurseries for fish, filter water,
and buffer the impact of cyclones and tsunamis on coastal
communities by 75 percent! As for "regular" forests, our partner,
the Sabah forestry department, tells us that while 30 percent of Borneo is protected, 40 percent is given to palm oil and other commercial products, leading to the loss of half the island's forests. This is one of the reasons orangutan populations on the island have declined by 150,000 since 1999 - and the impetus for our reforestation efforts there!
In Malawi, climate change is wreaking havoc with agriculture, causing
people to turn to charcoal production for income, leading to massive
deforestation. We are joining with Creative Solutions for the Environment
to address this situation on many levels, including supporting their
reforestation efforts and joining with The Jane Goodall Institute to launch
agro-forestry projects (right).
We also work at the "demand side" of deforestation, helping Congolese
women learn to make wood-conserving cook stoves. Compared to
cooking over open fires, these stoves use 80 percent less wood! And
the women can also make stoves to sell, earning $1 per stove.
Palm Oil Plantations
And then there's palm oil - the nemesis of tropical forests around the world. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Robin McDowell featured NCP friend Olivia Chaffin as she took on the Girl Scouts over palm oil in their cookies, both for environmental reasons and because of child and slave labor on the plantations. Here's the article.
What can the rest of us do about palm oil? Share this article with others. People often just don't know.
Buy whole (unprocessed) foods (no palm oil there, plus cheaper and healthier) and check labels on everything.
Follow Olivia's lead: challenge the companies who make things we use that contain palm oil. Don't let them get away with the "sustainably produced" excuse.
Write our Senators and ask them to support a bill to stop importing palm oil produced with child labor.
Support NCP as we actively supporting our friend, Siona shaman Delio, and other native communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon who are fighting off the palm oil corporations.
"Tree is our life"
(When asked about the purposes for his tree planting, NCP South Sudan partner Paskwale Ben sent this summary of the reasons he and his team plant tens of thousands of trees every year with our support.
Our community plants trees for
1 source of income
2 construction
3 oxygen
4 rainfall
5 shade
6 medication
7 fuel
8 wind control
9 soil improvement
10 home furnitures
11 bee hives
12 boats
13 animals' food
14 books
15 juice
16. etc
Paskwale Ben, Nimule, South Sudan
Help us preserve forests!
$10 plants 100 trees in Myanmar, South Sudan or Malawi
$.50 plants mangrove saplings in Borneo or 2 trees in the DR Congo
100 trees offsets 5000 pounds of CO2 every year!
$6 provides materials and instruction for a woman to learn to make a cook stove
or send checks directly to NCP
NCP Learning Tours visit all these places—join us!
100 percent of donations to If a Tree Falls… and NCP’s other Special Projects go to the programs themselves—really!