Alleviating poverty with tree planting

Photo credit: Tree Aid

TREE AID CEO John Moffett and Tadessa Gitana visit tree nursery in Wof Washa

Tree planting helps lift people out of poverty in Ethiopia.

Tree Aid by Sergio Zedda

TREE AID has supported projects in Ethiopia since the 1980s famine that killed nearly 1 million people. We’ve made good progress, as shown in a recent visit to by our CEO, John Moffett. Today, the people of Ethiopia still experience extreme poverty: according to the  UN Human Development Index, 31% of the population live on less than $2 a day, and nearly half of Ethiopian children suffer stunting from malnutrition.

Always working in partnership with local organisations, our projects have supported local development, from re-planting depleted juniper forests to training honey enterprise groups in beekeeping, from tree nursery management to river bank replanting. One of these projects, in the ancient Wof Washa Forest, supports some of the poorest communities on earth to use the forest to generate income to support their families.

Now in its third year, the project is starting to make a difference, both to the landscape and to the people who live in the village. With TREE AID’s support, a eucalyptus nursery was established so that this fast growing tree can provide both a cash crop and firewood for the village.  We recently visited the project in the north of the country in the Wof Washa forest. The farmers are waiting for the long rainy season, which is yet to start, before planting the hundreds of tree seedlings growing in project nurseries.

Read the full article: Tree Aid