pressrelease

Contact: Cherry Hamson
Tel: 01527 597757

April 4th, 2006

ALUPRO OFFERS CLIMATE CHANGE VISIT TO AFRICA

An opportunity for local authority officers to see how climate change is affecting sub-Saharan Africa is being offered by Alupro (Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation). The fact-finding trip will visit the Gabio Forest in Burkina Faso, where Alupro is planting a native tree for every tonne of aluminium cans and foil recycled this year, and also visit the forest seed bank in the country's capital Ouagadougou.

The trip is being hosted by the West African offices of Alupro's project partner, Tree Aid, a small Bristol-based charity dedicated to helping local African communities adjust the way they manage ancient forests as climate change causes increasingly severe problems in the area.

Trees are dying earlier, bush fires are more prevalent and food is more scarce, so the new trees resulting from the UK recycling programme are making a significant contribution to the livelihoods of the people who depend on the forest for survival.

All the tree species have been chosen for their food and medicinal uses - cashew, mango, baobab and acacia - with the seedlings given free to villagers, and sold at a nominal price to more commercial community foresters. The first 10,000 seedlings have already been planted out, with a target of 40,000 trees this year.

Alupro will be inviting two of the campaign's top-performing local authority recycling officers to join the six-day, all expenses paid trip to Burkina Faso in November. "It's a fabulous opportunity to see first hand the reality of what we are hearing about all the time in the media, and to be able to do something to help" says Alupro communications director Cherry Hamson. "We went out to Burkina Faso last year and it's a wonderful place, with resourceful, welcoming people, no tourists and a lively culture. And we have the best guides possible in our African colleagues.

"We want this to be a long-term programme commitment, and have lots of ideas to build links between UK recyclers and the African project. The more we recycle, the more trees we'll plant, so we hope the prospect of winning this trip will encourage recycling officers to hike up their campaigning efforts locally to new levels. We've got exciting new materials and initiatives to help, and it's definitely not too late to get involved."

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