These Earth Helpers are saving their country one tree at a time
Amis de la Planete du Cameroun
They’re young, and they don’t take no for an answer. Despite a lack of funding that halts the altruistic efforts of many climate action groups in the equatorial African nation of Cameroon, president of Ami de la Planete du Cameroun, Jean Felix Ebo’o, has a major goal. He and his organization have started their national campaign to educate the youth and rally volunteers to plant 10,000 trees in their country.
Like most friends of this Earth, Mr. Ebo’o and his team have invested their hopes in education. But they’re taking it to the next level. Instead of simply going into schools to teach kids about reforestation, which they’ve done since 2011, they’re also getting the kids planting trees for their own communities.
Photo courtesy of Amis de la Planete
“We plant fruit trees for everyone to eat when they are hungry, traditional medicinal trees that people use to fight Coronavirus, and we plant endangered native trees too,” Mr. Ebo’o explained on a Zoom call last week. “So far, we’ve planted 2000 trees. And our nursery has thousands of trees sprouting for the next major tree planting event on February 2.”
“We have an obligation to save this planet for the future generation,” he said, “Nature is the solution.”
Is planting trees the answer?
Planting trees is not the answer. But it sure is one great action we can each take today! Some scientists have argued that the simple act of planting trees can help combat our climate crisis. And it’s a cheap solution that we can all take part.
Here’s some basic facts we know about planting trees:
Trees can help feed us and the millions of species we share this planet
We need more than one type of tree. Tree diversity helps prevent fires and capture more carbon.
That’s why one simple act we can take as humans is to make planting trees a priority.
How do I plant trees?
For my friend, writer Tomiko Breland’s birthday this year, she teamed up with a local conservation agency in Monterey County, California to plant trees with her friends and family.
Photo courtesy of Tomiko Breland
She said of the experience, “I wanted to show my boys (5 and 6) that the world gives and gives and gives to us, and that we should always be thinking about ways to give back and take care of it, even on days that we are typically thinking about ourselves. The earth is something to celebrate."
Photo courtesy of Tomiko Breland.
Like Tomiko, earlier this year, when my oldest son, Kai, celebrated his bar mitzvah, he asked everyone in attendance (on the Zoom call…it was 2020) to plant trees for him instead of giving gifts. Collaborating with this great organization One Tree Planted, our community stepped up to plant thousands of trees in our home state of California.
This week’s action
🎊 🎉 This week’s my birthday. 🎊 🎉
To celebrate, I’m asking each of you to plant trees. Let’s plant gobs of them.
You can plant a native tree, or a fruit tree in your garden, or donate cash to an organization that’s already planting trees around the world. Organizations like the Nature Conservancy, One Tree Planted, the National Forest Foundation, or the Arbor Day Foundation offer easy clicks to purchase trees in locations you choose.
Want more direct action? Engage the young people in your lives to reach out to your community leaders. Does a local park need some trees housed into the soil? Does a popular trail need some shrubs planted? Maybe your neighborhood can green the sidewalks like this cool organization is doing in San Francisco? Get involved. Get dirty. And have some fun!
After you plant your trees, encourage others to do the same. And share photos with us. Let’s make this a movement started by YOU.
If you like this newsletter, please share widely. It takes a global village to do the work we need to accomplish.