Seeing the wood for the trees

We were originally sourcing our Organic Whey Protein from all the way over in northern California in the USA, because that was the only place it was produced. That’s a heck of a distance to ship and subsequently a lot of CO2 emitted, so it felt like a good idea to help mitigate the resulting carbon footprint having a tree planted for every pack. We partnered with Trees for the Future in order to achieve this, and despite now sourcing much closer to the UK in Germany we intend for this to be an ongoing thing.

The thing is, these guys don’t just plant trees for the trees’ sake. There’s a fantastic woodland based food production system that incorporates fruit and nut trees, herbs, shrubs, vegetables and vines, providing an ongoing sustainable food and income source for farmers in across Africa. This is called the Forest Garden and this is what Trees for the Future is all about!

They currently have 14 projects underway in five countries in Sub Saharan Africa focusing on the implementation of Forest Garden Programs in Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda and Tanzania, as these are areas where they’re having the biggest impact and seeing amazing results.

The amazing benefits of this program are many, such as:

Helping reverse environmental degradation, restoring biodiversity and soaking up greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Providing a solution to the seemingly never ending battle between farms and forests and helping improve soil quality.
A source of food for Livestock.
Provide fuel wood so villagers don’t need to cut down trees.
Permanently increase the income of poor farmers, help families to feed themselves and provide permanent and seasonal employment.

The positive human impact of tree planting is something not to be taken for granted, but adding up the environmental and wildlife benefits too really brings home what a brilliant scheme Trees for the Future have got going on here. So much more than “just planting trees!”