Tree Sponsorships in Senegal and The Gambia

Senegal and The Gambia

Two Climate Fund projects in the Senegal/The Gambia Landscape of the Year and in northern Senegal have planted nearly 5,000 fruit trees since 2018. Both projects included awareness-raising activities and ongoing community support to ensure good care and growing conditions for the trees. Four years after the first trees were planted, the first fruits were harvested by women in the villages. Tree sponsorships are to ensure continuous support for the project regions and an expansion of the initiative to other villages.

Mamadou Mbodji
When trees are planted in Africa, it benefits not only Africa but also Europe. Let’s plant trees for our planet and for a good future for all people!

Mamadou Mbodji, President of the Naturefriends  Africa Network and Vice-President of NFI

Your Climate Fund donation enables:

  • Planting of at least 3,500 trees annually
  • Awareness raising for climate and nature protection
  • Continuous support for the participating women and families
  • Capacity building in tree care, harvesting, processing and marketing of fruit
  • Educational activities for children/youth

Planting fruit trees is associated with many positive ecological, social, and economic aspects. The involvement of the local population – especially the women who are traditionally responsible for gardening – is a key factor for successful implementation and starts with awareness-raising measures and the joint selection of locations for the trees in the immediate living environment of the families. After planting, the trees are handed over to the care of the families. From now on, they take care of the trees, e.g. watering them and protecting them from goats and other grazing animals.

Thanks to the tree plantations, the women can strengthen their role in their families and the local communities, e.g. by providing tasty fruit and by building skills in tree care, healthy nutrition and fruit processing and marketing. By selling some of the fruit, they can contribute to the family income.

Ongoing support for the participating women and families is an essential pillar of the initiative. The ecological conditions in the project regions are difficult by nature and are becoming more extreme due to man-made global warming, resulting in periods of extreme heat and prolonged drought as well as occasional heavy rainfall with severe flooding and erosion and degradation of the soil. As a result, not all young trees survive and on average 30% have to be replanted.

Tree sponsorships are intended to enable an expansion of tree planting with necessary replanting, the implementation of educational activities and the involvement of more families and villages.

All villages are visited at least twice a year by the Senegalese and Gambian Naturefriends project teams. Each visit is accompanied by training activities to ensure good care of the trees and to provide basic knowledge about climate change and ways to mitigate it. As soon as the trees bear fruit, training in processing and selling the fruit is planned.

Another important component is educational measures for children and young people to teach them about climate change, the importance of trees and the mindful use of natural resources.

To enable the continuous support of the project regions and an expansion of the initiative, a long-term perspective with annual funding of at least 9,500 euros is envisaged.

Tree sponsorships with regular payments are an important pillar for the success of the initiative. As little as 10 euros a month make a concrete contribution to climate justice that benefits the people in the project regions who are particularly affected by climate change.

Become a sponsor and donate trees for a better future! Your donation will be forwarded without deductions to Naturefriends Senegal, which coordinates the project. If you provide us with your e-mail address, you will receive a sponsorship certificate and an annual overview of the activities carried out.

In addition, the first ten sponsors will receive small surprise gifts from Senegal!

The following schemes are proposed for tree sponsors:

  • 10 euros per month to finance the planting of at least 40 fruit trees per year and the accompanying awareness-raising and training measures.
  • 15 euros per month to finance the planting of at least 60 fruit trees per year and the accompanying awareness-raising and training activities.
  • 30 euros per month to finance the planting of at least 120 fruit trees per year and the accompanying awareness-raising and training measures.
  • 50 euros per month to finance the initiative for an entire village with the planting of at least 200 fruit trees annually.
Andrea Lichtenecker
A tree sponsorship offers the opportunity to make a personal contribution to more climate justice and to sustainably improve the living conditions of people in the project regions.

Andrea Lichtenecker, Executive Director of Naturefriends International

In addition to the proposed schemes, individual donations of any amount are of course welcome!

You can find news about the project launch here.

Curious about what has been achieved so far? Here you can find out first-hand how our trees are developing.

Frequently asked questions are answered here.