As we celebrate World Environment Day on Friday (5 June), Northern Ireland charity Self Help Africa has launched a local-to-global climate change action campaign in Northern Ireland and Africa to combat climate change by planting One Million Trees.
While we have been battling the pandemic you will have seen the news reports showing how the planet has reacted positively in various countries during lockdown and as the threat of climate change is still real and frightening, one of the best hopes our planet has is trees, to provide effective ways to remove harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They need to be planted urgently, and at scale. So if you want to continue to help our planet by taking positive climate change action, you could contribute to this campaign and plant a tree – a vital step in saving our planet.
With your help in planting 100,000 trees across Ireland, Self Help Africa aims to plant One Million Trees in sub-Saharan Africa, as for every tree planted here Self Help Africa will plant 10 new trees in Africa. You can get involved by donating as little as £5.00 which will plant a tree here while that donation will also plant 10 African trees.
This campaign is affiliated to a wider UN backed initiative “One Trillion Trees”, one of the biggest global reforestation initiatives in history, and the native Irish trees will be planted by the cross-border organisation Trees on the Land, which will organise tree planting days with farmers, smallholders, community groups, councils, schools, colleges and many other landowners as lockdown eases.
Denny Elliott, Head of Self Help Africa in Northern Ireland, said: “The message of this campaign is while no-one can do everything to combat climate change, everybody can do something. In Africa, trees not only help remove harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, they also provide an important source of food, income, shade and shelter for rural poor households. I know the public in Northern Ireland are renowned for being extremely generous with charitable giving and this campaign provides a real win win for Self Help Africa as we’re helping the environment at home as well as abroad.”
Backed by premium dairy brand Glenisk, the One Million Trees campaign is being supported through their leading Bio Organic Yogurt range for the rest of this year and a schools programme supported by teaching union INTO is being developed for school children.
To find out how you can get involved with ‘One Million Trees in 2020’ and to make a donation, please visit selfhelpafrica.org/onemilliontrees.
