Trees in Malawi are being cut down at an alarming rate. An area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every 10 minutes. This tree planting project is centred in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi, Africa, an area of 4,000 sq.km which is about the size of Kent. Ultimately, we want to set up 400 community tree nurseries growing a total of 4 million trees per year.

In 2006, we opened 75 community tree nurseries and planted out 550,000 trees in January 2007. In 2007, we raised 1,250,000 tree seedlings in 137 community tree nurseries, and we estimate that 3,000 people are working on this project. We are planting a combination of indigenous, exotic and fruit trees. The main aims of the project are to provide sustainable timber in woodlots for firewood, building, etc., to restore degraded land by planting indigenous trees, and to provide additional food using fruit trees and nitrogen-fixing trees. In addition to tree planting, we are also involved in environmental awareness training.

We need to raise funds for...