Active Giving Impact
688.980 trees
Introduction
Eden Reforestation Projects has the vision to plant a minimum of 500 million trees each year and to offer hope through the employment of tens of thousands of people in countries where extreme poverty is rampant. Their mission is to provide fair wage employment to impoverished villagers as agents of global forest restoration programs. While their primary goal is to lift people out of poverty, they have also become a model for environmental restoration and land management. The organisation is currently active in Nepal, Madagascar, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Honduras and Kenya.
Problem
The destruction of healthy forest systems causes many different problems. Trees provide a habitat for animals, purify water sources, control flooding and erosion and help to replenish the soil with nutrients needed for farming. When farmers can’t grow plants reliably their farms will fail and they have no option but to move to the overcrowded cities looking for work.
Solution
The solution approach of Eden Reforestation Projects for reforestation and ecological restoration is to hire villagers to grow, plant, and guard native forest species to maturity on a massive scale. The “employ to plant methodology” results in a multiplication of positive socio-economical and environmental measures. Hiring the villagers enables a consistent financial income to provide for their families. They are trained to plant native tree species and to protect their planted forests because they have a vested interest in them. This results in a survival rate over 80%. By keeping the costs low, the organisation is now recognized as one of the most cost-effective reforestation projects on the planet.
Impact
The organization already planted 716 030 971 million trees in 8 countries and created 7 160 309 workdays distributed over 237 projects. By December 2020, Eden managed to provide full and partial season employment to 17,586 individuals living within impoverished global communities.
Global Impact
491 : Number of Microentreprises started by Eden Employees
4,508 : Number of people with access to clean water
14,734 : Access to Education
38,064 : Number of people with access to healthcare
56,692 : Number of people with access to high quality food
*Numbers from the 2020 Annual Report
History
Eden Reforestation Projects’ concept began in Ethiopia in 2004 under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Fitch, after he witnessed villages that had been decimated by deforestation. Many of the villagers, who had been raised over many generations in these areas, were being threatened with relocation to refugee camps following radical deforestation. “Eden Reforestation Projects” was launched in order to attempt to reverse environmental devastation that negatively impacted families and local culture. The non-profit is now successfully reducing poverty and restoring healthy forests.