TreeSisters Need Women to Plant a Billion Trees

In their own words, “TreeSisters is a global network of women who donate monthly to fund the restoration of our tropical forests as a collective expression of planetary care. As a feminine leadership and tropical reforestation organisation, we exist to call forth the brilliance and generosity of women everywhere and channel it towards the trees. Our goal is to make it as normal for everyone to give back to nature as it currently is to take nature for granted.”

The idea for TreeSisters was conceived in 2009 by Clare Dakin who joined with Bernadette Ryder to start it a year later.  However it wasn’t until 2014 that the first 15,000 drought resistant trees were planted in Tamil Nadu.  In 2015 they partnered with their second group, Eden Projects in Madagascar to reforest mangroves.  By June 2016 they had funded the planting of 140,000 trees in India and Madagascar. In Sept. 2016 they partnered with WeForest in Brazil and the International Tree Foundation in Kenya. By Oct. 2016 they reached the goal of 500,000 trees planted each year.  By Oct. 2017 they had planted their millionth tree. And now they want to escalate that goal to a million trees a year growing to a billion by the year 2020 by recruiting more women to give monthly to support this plan.

TreeSisters has worked very hard to reclaim a model that is rooted in nature and true to women.  They are offering free on-line courses, conversations and resources to give women the old and the new stories that will empower them to take care of the Earth.  This is not a campaign that is based on fear and guilt but on accessing the depth of the feminine aspect which exists in women and men to nurture and heal.  As evidence of the power of this approach, since they launched their new campaign after just reaching one million planted trees this October, in just one month over 300,000 trees were added as women around the world joined their treesisters in this project. 

TreeSisters needs 2 million women giving an average of 17$ Can per month to work together to achieve the billion tree goal.  Clare Dakin articulates it well when she says that this is a radical experiment that has never been tried before.  They are not only trying to plant trees to help the Earth and its inhabitants but are also trying to shift the cultural paradigm so that women can regain their place as protectors and nurturers of the planet as well as normalizing the idea that everyone gives back to take care of the Earth.

TreeSisters partners with already existing reforestation organizations in the tropics.  They report that the latest evidence is that trees in the tropics grow faster and sequester carbon dioxide three times faster than trees in temperate climates.  These local reforestation projects pay women to plant seeds, nurture seedlings and later plant the saplings.  One project reported an 80% survival rate for the saplings.  They focus on native species which will thrive, even in difficult conditions.

 In deforested areas in Africa, the lack of trees means a lack of rain and that leads to rivers drying up.  People who already live in poverty now have even more difficulties.  The TreeSisters website https://www.treesisters.org  states that “trees replenish groundwater and rivers, protect biodiversity, soil and livelihoods, and support healthy ocean temperatures.  They represent one of the best solutions we have to escalating climate disruption.”

The women who are a part of TreeSisters who donate monthly allow for women in these communities to be paid to plant trees which allows them to start micro businesses and send their daughters to school.  You can see the evidence of this in this video from Kenya. 

I am very excited to come across this global project.  I know from previous research that when women are given the tools, they will work tirelessly to provide a better world for their children.  The global community of TreeSisters is founded on respect and based on the old and new stories of women as protectors of the land and water.  This community offers hope through women working together in a way that is true to their strengths, passions and abilities.

 

It is so much better to participate with people who are being part of the solution than it is to feel powerless in the face of constant bad news.  And of course, men can be part of this as well and strengthen the feminine aspect of themselves.  Businesses and individuals are doing fundraisers, donating parts of their profits and sharing this story with their friends  If it takes a village to raise a child, it may take the whole world to care for our common mother, the Earth.