Greenpop - 3358 trees, 21 days and thousands of seeds sown

Tree talk

3358 trees were planted in total between 7-28 July 2013. 16 schools, one women's group, one church and one small community farm participated in a fun-filled day of tree planting, education, seed propagation and solar cooking demonstrations. 3 educational tree-focused wall murals were facilitated by Viv Connel with the children coming up with the pictures, words and design themselves. 1000 banana trees were planted at Livingfalls Biopower Banana Plantation as part of a supportive partnership with this local bio-digester initiative. The Livingfalls Biopower initiative aims to provide an alternative, renewable energy source to the local community and hotels in Livingstone.

1064 indigenous trees were planted in a reforestation effort in a concession area of Dambwa forest in partnership with the African Lion & Environmental Research Trust. 24 indigenous trees were planted on the second Friday of Trees for Zambia at the beautiful Victoria Falls in partnership with the National Heritage Conservation Commission. 300 orange trees and 307 faidherbia albida trees were planted with a group of subsistence farmers at a cooperative community farm called Sons of Thunder.

Solar for trees

Twenty handmade solar cookers were made out of recycled materials during the three weeks (with each school group) to demonstrate that almost everything needed to make a working solar cooker can be found and thus it is one of the cheapest, safest and most resource-efficient methods of cooking, particularly in Zambia which has a high number of sunny days per year.

Two eco workshops were held for local schools' eco-club participants to foster eco-education through engagement, action, creation and fun! This reflected an ongoing initiative between local schools eco-clubs and Greenpop. The 100 school children who attended were the winning groups from the a solar cooking project Greenpop has been running with Uncle Benji (Greenpop Zambia's director of Trees) and Julia Taylor (Greenpop's project coordinator for the past five months) since March 2013 with the schools trees were planted at last year.

People and planet

Three speaker evenings were held each Thursday during the project to educate and inspire. Evelyn Roe, a botanical researcher came from Bovu Island, an island on the Zambezi to share her research on the sustainable harvesting of wild plants used for medicine. David Youldon, CEO of African Lion & Environmental Research Trust spoke about the ALERT project and the value of trees for lions in Africa. Wanjira Mathai, daughter of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai and director of the Green Belt Movement, sent a direct video message to the Greenpop volunteers. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, director general of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) also sent his message to Greenpop via video, answering questions submitted in advance by attendees of the action event.

Environmental youth activist, Tribute Jabulile Mboweni shared her experience of conservation activism, biodiversity and her year of research on Dussen Island. Tribute has represented South Africa internationally, in Germany, Canada, Japan and Mexico and was recognised by the Mail & Guardian's list of 200 Young South Africans, under the environmental sector. Victor Chiiba of the Zambian Forestry Department joined in for the second speaker evening of the action conference, speaking on the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Zambia and what measures the government are taking to alleviate these issues. Greenpop is working closely with the Zambian Ministry of Forestry.

Crosby Menzies of Sunfire Solutions lent his experience of being at the helm of Southern Africa's longest standing solar cooker company to the discussion on clean energy. Elizabeth Musonda joined in from Lusaka to share her passion for sustaining our environment through the use of clean energy and presented her homemade efficient energy cookstoves. Climate change-maker and sustainability enthusiast, Anna Shevel, joined in week three to talk about Green Travel. Sustainability pioneer, Josh Ramsey, spoke to the attendees about his environmental endeavour 'Sail, Cycle, Trek' and the need to protect our forests on a global scale. Elias and Precious from the African Centre Holistic Management in Zimbabwe joined in to talk about their holistic methods of managing land and Nathan Daniel from Culture Talent talked about a climate conference he attended in Rio.

POP!

In true Greenpop style, a hard week of planting culminated in a live music celebration. Planters and community members shook loose their planting aches on Friday evenings to the tunes of Tribs Mboweni, Flint, Meet Spark, Mabel Zulu, Yes Rasta, Pat McCay, Jeremy Loops and Co., Blacklight Panda and DJ BobzYourUncle.

At the end of week two, Greenpop brought a fusion celebration of eco-awareness and music to Livingstone by way of their Earthfest. Earthfest was a two-day festival, where on day one participants all jumped aboard the Victoria Falls Steam Train after a day of planting indigenous trees at the Mighty Falls. Day two kicked off with a morning of eco workshops and stalls at the Greenpop Village and as the sun set the music started, with musicians Tanga Pasi, Chicken Bus Band, Yes Rasta, Jeremy Loops and Co., Pat McCay and Blacklight Panda taking to the stage.

Moving forward

Trees for Zambia 2013 was the second action event to boost Greenpop's ongoing project in Zambia. Moving forward Greenpop plans to strengthen partnerships, work closely with local authorities to ensure trees are planted sustainably, work on land management plans to support natural reforestation, further develop eco awareness campaigns through radio, video and theatre as well as researching ways to look into job creation and local innovation through green initiatives.

For the full Trees for Zambia 2013 Concept Note, click here.

For more information or to get involved in Trees for Zambia in any way, email gro.popneerg@aibmaZ or gro.popneerg@nerual.