Fast-growing,nitrogen-fixing Leucaena tree

Trees for the Future: http://www.plant-trees.org/main.htm

The nonprofit organization Trees for the Future states that "each year, the world loses 42 million acres of forests--an area about the size of New England. Reasons include clear-cut logging, 'slash-and-burn' agriculture, over-grazing and clearing land for commercial plantations.

This rapid growing crisis has a human face. The people of these threatened lands, growing subsistence crops to meet their needs, are greatly dependent on the surrounding forests.

Forests are essential to the continuation of human existence on these fragile lands. They restore the soil, allow streams to run cleanly through the year, provide fuel wood to cook food, offer sanctuary to wildlife, protect biodiversity, and enable people to continue producing their needs in an environmentally sustainable way.

When trees are gone, soils are stripped away by erosion. Crops begin to fail. Wells and streams go dry. Livestock starve. Women and children searching for fuel wood and fodder walk miles each day across the dying land. With no hope, people are forced into city slums.

These people understand the relationship betwen deforestation and their present plight, and they are prepared to work to bring trees and forests back to the land. For them to succeed, they need training, seeds of good quality, planning help and encouragement."

This is where Trees for the Future comes in:

Trees for the Future is "people helping people to improve their lives by introducing environmentally sustainable land management projects saving the environment we all share.

Communities around the world turn to Trees for the Future for technical knowledge and planting materials so that they can bring degraded lands and struggling farmlands back to sustainable productivity. With the help of volunteers and community leaders world-wide, our program technicians reach even the most remote areas."

Fast-growing, Beneficial Trees: "Fast-growing, beneficial trees are the key to restoring devastated lands quickly. When the trees are planted, the land is transformed as native species return and thrive in the gentle shade of the fast growing trees.

The trees grow as much as 24 feet a year. When people see the trees grow quickly and the land come to life, they want to plant trees in their community also. News of our programs travels fast, and we get many more requests for help than we can possibly fill."

Trees as Organic Fertilizer: "Farmers near Assa Masa in Ghana have planted trees as an alley crop. The leaves provide high levels of humus and nitrogen, restoring soil nutrients through their deep roots. This practice, used by Maya Indians in Central America one thousand years ago, can more than triple crop yields, sustainably, on marginal hillside farms."

Biological Diversity: "A long-range goal of our work is the return of as much of the biological diversity as possible, to some of the most environmentally devastated land on earth. Experience in over 5,200 villages, under a wide range of soil and climatic conditions, tells us this begins by planting 'pioneer' species to encourage the rapid and natural regeneration of trees indigenous to the area. This is known as assisted natural regeneration.

These trees protect and re-build the soils, while providing a sustained livelihood for the participants and improving the quality of life in the community. They offer ideal habitat for birds and other wildlife. Many of these species coppice (grow back), once harvested. They are not invasive; instead, they provide partial shade and humus to depleted soils, hastening the return of biological diversity."

Project example: "In 1992, the Lun Women's Group of Cameroon (76 families) started planting trees on their threatened watersheds. Now, more than 350 villages have joined with them, each year planting more than a million seedlings. The benefits include: a more plentiful water supply and protection of some 9,000 acres of their degraded lands."

Trees for the Future is also active in the US, educating students and communities about global issues, our role in the environment, and energy efficiency.

Become a member of Trees for the Future, and help this organization plant permanent, beneficial trees at a cost of less than 15 cents ($0.15) each in the world's most degraded lands.

Trees for the Future: http://www.plant-trees.org/main.htm

Join their e-mail list: http://www.plant-trees.org/join_mail.htm

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