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Alupro, has been planting trees since 2004, first in the UK, then in Burkina Faso, and now in Malawi, where an area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every ten minutes.
In the five years to June 2009 we have planted nearly 250,000 trees, and the more everyone recycles, the more trees will be grown - a tree for every tonne recycled.
The speed of de-forestation across the globe is alarming. Sometimes forests are destroyed for commercial logging, but in many cases it’s just people clearing land, burning old crops, and abandoning exhausted soil as they always have. But now on a much bigger scale because of rising population numbers.
The half tonne of carbon gases emitted when a tonne of aluminium is recycled matches the half tonne of carbon dioxide that an average tree converts into sugar during its lifetime.
Our tree growing project in Malawi is the most ambitious yet, since the fruit trees not only tackle de-forestation, but also improve local nutrition and provide the basis for new skills to be taught. As cropping levels improve, the plan is for small businesses to be developed which will dry and sell the fruits grown co-operatively by local people.
This is sustainable development at its most practical - aiming to lift people from subsistence agriculture to self-determining economic activity, while protecting the environment.
The project is run by the Malawian staff of British charity Ripple Africa, supporting 100 ‘garden’ groups in the Nkhata Bay district of northern Malawi who are growing replacement forest trees as well as Alupro’s guava and paw paw trees for local families.
Your recycling efforts in the UK are also providing the innovation which can transform lives: the introduction of new fruit species to the area. The bigger, juicier oranges and mangoes which will be produced through grafting and budding improved plant material on to native lemon rootstock are key to developing the economic potential of the project.
Our involvement
As well as funding a fruit tree for every tonne of aluminium packaging recycled in the UK, as reported by official Government figures, Alupro provides the greenhouse, materials, tools, and several staff salaries in Malawi. We are fully engaged with project development, and have already visited the project twice.
We are able to support this work only because you take the trouble to recycle your aluminium drinks cans, aerosols and clean foil, showing that you care about protecting our global environment. Thanks to you, we recycle more than ever before. But we can still do more...
Click here to download a detailed report
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