Tree planting? let’s check some facts and figures: 100 days for 75,000 trees planted: in three months, our team convinced 75 families in 9 villages to collect and pellet 10,000 seeds each from one of their seed trees, and another 75 families to reforest and maintain 2 hectares of land.
In all, at least 150 people immediately benefited from the project, not to mention the involvement of numerous village and prefectural authorities who encouraged the population to plant trees. Because it is urgent!
750,000 pellets of seed have been sown on 150 hectares of land. Half of them are expected to germinate and half to survive the first three years. One hectare of rainforest has between 300 and 500 mature trees capable of reproducing. So in the long run our action should generate 75,000 diversified trees, useful to the population. Tree planting in Guinea is cost-effective: this reforestation campaign has costed CHF 32,000, i.e. about 45 cents per tree (in comparison, planting in a swiss city costs CHF 50 per tree, meaning 100 times more!).
We are now giving way to the rainy season, which will last until October, and then we will start a new reforestation campaign. Speaking of rains: more and more serious studies show that it is the forests that seed the clouds to make the rain come down – wonderful, isn’t it?
