FORESTS FOR LIFE

In 2018, we consolidated all of our reforestation and sustainable development work under our Forests for Life programme.

Through this programme, we form long-term partnerships with small-scale organisations and provide support to plant trees, restore forest and woodland habitats, manage critical catchment areas, and improve the lives of communities that rely on forest resources in Sub-Saharan Africa.

We aim to plant 500,000 trees by 2025 to restore degraded forest areas, increase biodiversity, and expand ecosystem services across Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2030, we plan to have put 1 million trees in the ground.

500,000 trees can make a huge impact – they can sequester approximately 37 million kg of carbon dioxide, restore 500 hectares of degraded forest ecosystems and improve the lives of over 5,000 people.

It is estimated that by preventing forest loss and taking active steps towards the restoration of degraded forests, over one-third of the total climate change mitigation that scientists say is required by 2030, could be achieved.

“As a South African organisation, Greenpop is acutely aware of the complex challenges associated with indigenous forest management in Sub-Saharan Africa. As such, we design our projects with a pro-community stance that recognises the local threats to reforestation success, identifies local community needs, and incorporates solutions that benefit both forests and people.

In addition to putting trees in the ground, we reduce threats to restored areas by providing locally relevant, project-specific support services:”

Greenpop has developed a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation methodology for all of our Forests for Life projects. This allows us to:

1. Measure the direct ecological, social and economic impacts of restoration activities within the landscape;
2. Inform and facilitate an adaptive management approach to forest restoration;
3. Increase available knowledge and data sets through active research.

In order to establish goals and indicators for our FFL projects, Greenpop utilises the methodology outlined in The Road to Restoration (FAO and WRI, 2019). Based on this methodology, we identify a subset of the 24 Road to Restoration goals which are relevant for a specific forest restoration project based on the project’s context, budget, scope and the capacity of implementing partners.

After defining specific goals during project development, Greenpop and our local partners select the appropriate monitoring methods to assess progress towards the goals defined for that specific project over a 20 year period. As such, each of Greenpop’s forest restoration projects include a custom set of monitoring methodologies which are utilised to assess progress.