On Saturday, 1 September 2007, Scheckter will be handing over the first of 11 000 trees he has sponsored through Food & Trees for Africa to the community of Dobsonville, Soweto.
There will be a number of VIPs, including Joburg executive mayor, councillor Amos Masondo, and 500 community members invited to celebrate this milestone.
“For the past two years, Talk Radio 702 has been involved in greening projects aimed at uplifting previously disadvantaged communities and encouraging people to become self-sufficient,” says Talk Radio 702 station manager, Pheladi Gwangwa.
“In 2005 we handed 702 trees to the community of Soweto and last year we donated the same amount to the community of Ivory Park in Midrand. This year we decided to get involved in the Soweto Greening Project.
“We want to create an urban forest in Soweto, just as we have urban forests in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. For us, it is more than just about planting trees. It's about leaving a legacy for the children and grandchildren of the community of Soweto.”
The project came about after South Africa's greening organisation, Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA), was approached to help raise funds and implement its award-winning Trees for Homes programme in Soweto.
The Soweto Green project's key goals are to distribute 200 000 fruit and indigenous trees to 200 000 Sowetan homeowners, as well as train unemployed community members who become community based educators (CBEs), and provide them with short-term employment.
For every 500 trees FTFA (together with the local stakeholders) identifies and trains 10 CBEs who are employed part-time for up to three months to spread awareness of the programme, the need for clean and green neighbourhoods, and the many benefits that trees have, including their role in mitigating climate change.
“Climate change is arguably the most crucial issue of our time and is the biggest environmental challenge that we face. While many of us agree that we must do something, it seems too vast a problem for any one of us to tackle,” says Jeunesse Park, CEO of FTFA.
“Early last year FTFA launched the Carbon Standard – the first South African carbon calculator (accessible on www.trees.co.za), which facilitates the measurement of carbon footprints and equates this to the number of trees needed to offset these emissions.
“The Carbon Standard has since helped to make it easy and affordable for government, individuals and corporations to offset carbon emissions by planting trees as they provide us with the air we breathe and absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale.”
FTFA has the backing of several large organisations, government officials, as well as prominent personalities. Scheckter says he decided to get involved with FTFA because it touched on two points he believed were of great importance.
“Teaching people how to grow their own food encourages long-term sustainability, which in turn, empowers local communities. This way they don't have to rely on the occasional food parcel to survive,” he says. “There is also something very rewarding about picking and eating fruit or vegetable grown in your own garden, and every tree that is planted helps the environment.”
Johannesburg City Parks – the greening entity in the City of Johannesburg – aims to plant 100 000 trees in parks and public spaces and is accelerating greening programmes in its bid to build a more healthy and vibrant environment in Johannesburg.
“Programmes such as the Soweto Greening Project and the Tree-by-Tree greening initiative, are aimed at resolving greening imbalances in new and developing suburbs,” said the Member of Mayoral Committee for Environment in the City of Johannesburg, Councillor Prema Naidoo.
“Greening our city is a shared responsibility. So many of our areas are rich in heritage and culture and yet poor in environment and in health. Johannesburg City Parks and its greening partners will observe National Arbour Week by partnering schools, communities and the private sector in various tree planting ceremonies and use the week as a platform to highlight the importance of growing and nurturing our natural environment.”
