Townships are being uplifted through the efforts of Food and Trees for Africa
Thabo Mohlala
Martha Boshomane grew up liking trees, so when Food and Trees for Africa donated trees to the people of the newly developed Tsutsumani All Africa Games housing project she was naturally over the moon.
Martha is one of the beneficiaries of Food and Trees for Africa’s tree planting programme, Trees for Homes. According to Jeunesse Park, chief executive director of Food and Trees for Africa, the programme started small but has grown into something exciting. The results are phenomenal.
Food and Trees for Africa was established in 1990 with the organisation distributing trees to disadvantaged communities.
“The rapid increase in urban population, especially in disadvantaged areas, has proceeded with little or no town or environmental planning,” says Park. “[These areas] are characterised by poor and unsustainable use of public spaces and by the ever-decreasing quality of land, water and air. Typically developers will enter an area and bulldoze it, razing all vegetation, including large and old trees, and then erect environmentally unfriendly dwellings in a dust bowl.
“A group of concerned individuals, representing some of the larger greening organisations in South Africa at the time, came together with the realisation that the real environmental crisis in the country was not restricted to saving rhinos and elephants. Rather, they identified the need to urgently uplift the quality of life in the township environments and recognised that a simple way of achieving this was through the greening of these unhealthy, denuded and degraded landscapes”.
Food and Trees for Africa was given a boost when the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry donated R1,2-million as seed capital. In presenting the money, the minister, Ronnie Kasrils, announced that his department has prepared a “national urban greening” fund that would complement the organisation’s efforts.
Said Kasrils: “Urban greening is integral to development and vital for a healthy quality of life. My department will work with Food and Trees for Africa to manage this fund that we hope to grow through donations. The Urban Greening Fund will forge links between communities and local authorities in their efforts to plant trees and develop parks and food gardens.”
But how did Food and Trees for Africa manage before the windfall from the department?
“For the past 10 years we have been raising funds from a range of companies, aid agencies and individuals,” says Park. “Later USAid came on board as the main sponsor”.
The National Urban Reconstruction and Housing Agency became another valuable addition. It joined with the “aim to improve the quality of life in low-income housing developments by partnering with the contractors/developers and Food and Trees for Africa to plant a tree with every house built through National Urban Reconstruction and Housing Agency guarantees”. The Fruit-tree company also came on board, providing shade and trees.
Families and community organisations have taken to the idea with enthusiasm. “This is shown by the number of requests we are receiving from schools, women and church groups, residents associations, police stations and other civil society organisations,” says Park.
“So high is the demand for trees that on one occasion we had to call police and soldiers to help disperse the crowd who were jostling to get trees,” says Lawrence Tshokogohle, the organisation’s project assistant. He says he is “encouraged by the growing appreciation for environmental awareness among communities”.
The project also has an empowerment element. “We train local unemployed people how to plant and maintain trees. They then speak to their neighbours,” says Park. “Ideally, we would also like to buy trees from black nurseries although there seems to be few of them out there .”
Park says Food and Trees for Africa is negotiating with City Parks, which is contemplating greening Soweto through community-based organisations. If this succeeds, says Park, “it will be a shining example of a sound collaboration between the government, the private sector and NGOs”.
To ensure that people add value to this initiative “most of these recipient communities contributed 10% to 20% of the cost of the trees, which improves community ownership of the trees,” says Park.
“Community members choose the spots for trees and dig their own holes while Food and Trees for Africa will provide the community with information about tree planting, care and maintenance.”
The idea of greening and environmental awareness has also been extended to schoolchildren in the form of an Eduplant competition. Eduplant focuses on permaculture, a system of farming and gardening that combines plants, animals, building, water, the local people and the landscape in a way that produces more energy than it uses, recycles all nutrients and waste, and imitates nature as much as possible.
“Urban greening will contribute significantly to making cities more liveable,” says Park. “In townships and informal settlements, urban greening can directly meet basic needs including food, fuel, fodder and timber.”
Social benefits are as significant. “They relate to health, employment, education, recreation, aesthetic and landscape benefits, the building of civic pride and community spirit, and reduced crime,” says Park.
Food and Trees for Africa can pride itself on having laid a sound foundation for environmentally conscious communities across South Africa.
Communities that have benefited from the Trees for Homes include: Bramfisherville near Dobsonville, Tsutsumani All Africa Games Village in Alexandra, Bontle Tree Project, Diepsloot and Tshepisong.