Corporate Responsibility: Planting Fruit Trees in Africa
Image source: Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted a Million Trees
A London based office fruit delivery company, ‘Fruitful Office’ alongside UK charity ‘RIPPLE Africa’, has been working hard to bring the benefits of fruit to those who need it most. For over ten years, Fruitful Office has committed their resources to planting one tree in Malawi, Africa, for every fruit basket purchased by their customers.
The campaign, Planting Fruit Trees in Africa, has focused on planting easy, quick growing trees that can provide the people of the area with healthy, delicious fruit and a sustainable source of firewood.
The campaign at work
The Fruitful Office and Ripple Africa campaign helps individual Malawian householders, farmers, schools and community clubs to grow tree seedlings. The local community is trained in growing and maintaining these, and Fruitful Office also provides the equipment if needed.
The tree seedlings are planted in various orchards, woodlots and around household perimeters, allowing Malawian families to benefit from both the fruit of the trees and the firewood. In many cases, the fruit from the trees can also become a source of income generation for many families.
Fruitful Office provides progress updates for their customers every three months on detailing the successes and challenges of the campaign. With a typical quarter yielding over a hundred thousand new trees in Malawi, the project is now focused on the deforestation of the Muzuzu area.
Tackling deforestation in Muzuzu
The northern region of Muzuzu is a very deforested area with a large demand for firewood from the 200,000-strong population.
Fruitful Office’s project in Muzuzu has helped provide a sustainable source of timber by planting quick growing exotic trees. In turn, this conserves existing indigenous trees as the new trees decrease the demand for wood from Malawi’s natural forests. As well as this, the initiative restores land by planting nitrogen-fixing trees and reduces deforestation overall in Malawi.
RIPPLE Africa have helped communities plant over 19 million trees, supporting tens of thousands of households per year to each plant 25 quick growing trees for firewood and 10 fruit trees.
Their work has also supported schools, farmers and community groups to grow a variety of trees. With help from Fruitful Office, this planting project is the largest tree-planting project in the Nkhata Bay District, and provides a real long-term solution to fighting deforestation in Africa.
Fast growing trees like Senna Siamea provide an immediate benefit to the community, as they can use branches for firewood without felling the whole tree – and the branches grow back again quickly for more wood. This helps to alleviate the significant burden the need for firewood places on Malawi’s indigenous forests.
Deforestation in Africa is one of the greatest threats facing Malawians today, resulting in less rain, hotter climates, soil erosion, and drought. This tree planting initiative is addressing demand while helping to solve the problem at the same time.
