300,000With an area the size of 300,000 football pitches destroyed every year,
Zambia has the second highest rate of deforestation in Africa. |
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Picture © WeForest
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50 years ago 80% of the country was covered
in forest. Now it's estimated that at this rate of deforestation, Zambia's trees could be gone by 2030. |
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85% of the population live on less than $2 a day. The exceptionally high rate of poverty has resulted in expansion into forest land, using unsustainable agricultural techniques, to feed the ever growing population.
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The second main cause of deforestation is charcoal production. In fact 90% of households use charcoal as a cheap source of energy. This high demand leads to steep rates of illegal and destructive tree cutting.
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Our reforestation partner in Zambia is using Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) in its approach to give mother nature a well needed helping hand. The technique involves caring and nurturing wild seedlings, then further enriching these areas by planting additional native trees.
High poverty and unemployment levels make the Copperbelt Province one of the most deforested provinces in Zambia. Through our partnership with WeForest we are helping to regenerate and restore the forests in the Luanshya district in the heart of the Zambian Copperbelt.
Pictures © WeForest and © ZEI
The team in Zambia are training hundreds of small scale farmers, providing them with the tools to diversify their incomes while they plant and protect the local forests. One such project is the supply of beehives. The honey provides a sustainable income for the farmers, in some cases even doubling it. The beehives are hung from the trees, providing an even larger incentive to protect them.
In this way the farmers have a higher and sustainable income resulting from protecting the trees rather than destroying them for illegal logging and charcoal burning.
In this way the farmers have a higher and sustainable income resulting from protecting the trees rather than destroying them for illegal logging and charcoal burning.
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