As you’re probably aware by now, here at Word Forest we’re just a little bit keen on trees – not just on planting them but on supporting communities to nurture and protect them for future generations. The 21st March each year is designated as International Day of the Forest by the UN – it is also, by serendipitous coincidence, both the birthday of our CEO Tracey West and our women’s empowerment group, the Mothers Of The Forest. So this week we’re taking the opportunity to spread a little more tree love on our website with articles and info on all sorts of things tree.
Most of Word Forest’s tree planting is in Kenya and there are several reasons for this. Firstly, trees grow much more rapidly near the equator (up to ten times as fast as in temperate regions) and so, from a climate perspective, lock in carbon dioxide much more quickly. Secondly, it supports communities to plant and nurture trees and make a living from their commodities such as fruit and nuts, rather than cutting trees down to make charcoal which, while illegal and environmentally damaging, was often their only recourse for putting food on the table. Thirdly, access to land on which to plant is abundant in Kenya – although we have supported some very small scale projects in the UK, we haven’t been able to find suitable areas to plant here. Fortunately, there are many other organisations that are doing brilliant work on that front.
Kenya attained 12% tree cover in 2022 and is aiming for an ambitious 20% by 2030.
UK tree cover (according to Forest Research) was 13% in 2022 (19% in Scotland,15% in Wales, 10% in England and 9% in Northern Ireland).
There’s progress being made but we need to keep at it. So please do join us here during this special week:
Come and visit the website each day to see what we’ve got lined up for your delectation.
Watch our documentary #TreesAreTheKey, narrated by Kate Winslet, which will give you a good idea of how and why we do what we do. There’s a live showing in Sidmouth on Saturday 25th March at 11 a.m. Tickets are free but numbers are limited so if you’re local and fancy coming down, snap them up quickly here: #TreesAreTheKey Screening
Let us know what you’re doing to look after trees and our beautiful planet – we know there are loads of amazing projects out there, from woodland conservation to community orchards, school gardens to growing cooperatives.
Send an e-card or two, have a nose around our ethical clothing or perhaps treat someone to a tree or two with our certificates of tree planting. Any donations are so gratefully received and help us to continue to get those much needed trees in the ground.
Visit our Educational Learning Platform where you’ll find some great short courses. CEO Tracey West says “My ambitious vision for creating Trees Are The Key Awareness Week back in 2021 was that we’d be able to offer exciting learning experiences, for students of all ages, enabling them to be better environmentalists. I hoped we’d be able to achieve this by offering a wide selection of courses on a variety of topics. Thankfully, Word Forest has been blessed to work with amazing people who have done just that! We’ve got lots of new courses in the pipeline too.” .
Enjoy the week – and thank you so much. We couldn’t do it without you!
The Team
