We have adopted the village of Bethel in the community of Cabaret, Haiti, which has been devastated by deforestation and global climate change. The project we have sponsored will plant more than 5,000 forestry and fruit trees. The trees are fast growing and permanent. According to the non-profit's executive director, these "beneficial trees will protect the fragile lands and assure that families can continue to live in dignity. Each year, these trees will remove several tons of pollution from the global atmosphere [...] while protecting lands and assisting the natural return of past diversity." Only three percent of Haiti's original forests remains, leaving it brown and barren. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the deforestation leaves its people vulnerable to flooding and mudslides, which kill many and wash away what little fertile topsoil remains. Eventually the hillsides turn to rock and cannot be farmed.
Trees for the Future fits its program to what best suits each community, teaching people how to better use the land by integrating the elements of their daily lives — trees, people, animals, agriculture — into a system that is self-sustaining. They also train people to spread the knowledge they have gained.
Since the idea is to offset all our upcoming (June 2008) travel, the donation is basically in the names of everyone attending the wedding — so, in a sense, it is your donation as much as it is ours. At 5,000 trees, that's roughly 100 trees per person. Check out Trees for the Future at www.treesftf.org.
Jason
PS: I had two trees survive my planting of the "Save the Date" seeds, a redwood (left) and a sequoia (right). Here they are at about 10 weeks. Anyone else have any luck?
2 comments:
No luck on mine. My little tree refuses to grow so far :(
Don't feel bad. I know what I'm doing and I got two out of 50. I haven't heard that anyone else has gotten anything — but some people have just started their planting.
We'll see.
Jason
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