KEEPING EARTH
Working towards the preservation and restoration of critical environments to enhance biodiversity and promote sustainable development.
Africa Exchange realizes there are many factors at play in environmental preservation and conservation. We seek to raise awareness of the relationships between poverty reduction, population growth, biodiversity preservation, consumption of natural resources, pollution and climate change.
Trees for Life!
This is our flagship environmental project which facilitates tree planting at each of our Integrated Child Development Centers (ICDCs). Students enrolled at our ICDC units are provided seedlings from our tree nurseries and assisted to plant one tree per term (3 per year) on family or communal land. Seedlings provided are a mixture of mostly indigenous trees that are planted to stem erosion, preserve soil structure, sequester carbon and supplement nutrition. Instead of exotic mono crop varieties, we plant trees according to the following schedule:
Term 1, mti was maana (significant indigenous varieties for timber or agroforestry)
Term 2, mti wa matunda (fruit trees that supplement nutrition)
Term 3, mti wa maridadi (ornamental flowering trees for beauty)
Each tree planted provides income for a trained tree nursery manager who sells other seedlings locally for income generation.
Bee Cause
In a few communities we promote beekeeping through the establishment of apiaries, honey collection and marketing for income generation. Honey is collected, packaged and sold under our “BeeCause” label with all proceeds going to community members and for the purchase of additional hives for additional apiary sites.
