Tree Sponsorships in Senegal and The Gambia

The planting of fruit trees goes along with many ecological, social, and economic benefits. The involvement of local people – especially the women who are traditionally responsible for gardening – is a key factor for successful implementation and starts with awareness-raising activities followed by the joint selection of locations for the trees in the vicinity of the families’ homes. Once planted, the trees are handed over to the families, who are responsible for taking care of them, such as watering the seedlings and protecting them from goats and other grazing animals. 

Thanks to tree plantings, women can strengthen their role in their families and in the local communities, e.g., by providing tasty fruit and by building capacities in tree care, healthy nutrition, and proceeding and marketing of fruit. Selling parts of the fruit enables them to contribute to the family income. 

Continuous mentoring of the participating women and families is an essential pillar of the initiative. The natural conditions in the project regions are inherently difficult and are becoming increasingly extreme due to human-made global warming, resulting in periods of extreme heat and long-lasting drought, as well as occasionally heavy rainfall with severe flooding, and erosion and degradation of the soils. In consequence, not all young trees survive and an average of 30 % need 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 by the project teams of Senegalese and Gambian Naturefriends at least twice a year. Each visit includes capacity-building activities ensuring that locals take good care of the trees and understand the basic principles of climate change and how to contribute to climate protection. Once the trees produce fruit, additional training on how to process and sell the fruit is foreseen.  

Educational activities for children and young people, teaching them about climate change and the importance of trees and taking care of natural resources, are another important module. 

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 foreseen. 

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

Become a sponsor today and donate trees for a better future! Your donation will be handed over without deductions to Naturefriends Senegal, who will coordinate the project. If you give us your e-mail address, you will receive a sponsorship certificate and an annual overview of the activities carried out.

Moreover, we will send the first ten sponsors small surprise gifts from Senegal!

For information on the Landscape of the Year region, please see here.