We all talk a lot about planting trees. And surely no-one could deny the importance of these green plants – trees are our planet’s lungs as it has been said many times.
Trees are important for giving us oxygen, absorption of CO2, for creating shade, improving soil and water quality, stopping desertification, and providing habitats. I’m sure there are plenty of other qualities and reasons why trees are important that I could go to mention, but you got the point.
Not all of us live surrounded by nature and have a piece of land to plant our own trees or other plants, especially people who live in tiny apartments built in busy city centres. But even in these cases there is the chance to contribute and take action by supporting tree planting initiatives.
During the last few weeks I was looking for organisations and projects with a mission to plant some trees. Platforma EKO is taking social and environmental responsibility and we wanted to plant trees on behalf of S4 Hosting Clients, Towards Sustainability readers, and other supporters. Finding a tree planting project seems like an easy task, right? Unfortunately, not always.
Let’s start with projects. There is no lack of projects and initiatives around the globe, some are smaller, some bigger, some last for decades, some are just starting up. All of the ones I found or already knew about are super great and well organised. Most of the tree planting actions are much more than just an action of planting, they involve local communities, volunteers, local organisations and businesses, and the international community. Apart from just putting trees in holes, they serve as development and living condition improvement projects, provide jobs, and make real social economical impact.
Sadly, sometimes it is not as easy to support all of the projects we want. In my opinion, it should be an easy and fast task to donate money to these kinds of projects. Because people who want to donate are excited and happy to do it and when they come to a website and their attempts to help are unsuccessful, take too long or become a complicated task they often simply stop bothering.
Another thing I think is very important is to give clear information about each project, to explain where the money goes, why a tree in one project costs 1 euro and in another 15. It is understandable that there are different expenses for transportation, tree nurseries, tools, organisation, and that different trees are needed in different places, the importance of biodiversity and so on, but it would be good to have those differences explained.
In any case, after looking at a lot of possibilities I would say each of us can plant a tree – or donate for a tree according to our budget, and that all it is needed is a bank card. Maybe we can’t all plant a million like Elon Musk, but even one tree really matters. Just by choosing to do it we show our concern, understanding, support and set a good example.
Even though we could not donate to a couple of projects we wanted to because we were not from the list of countries who could donate we still choose some very nice and important projects to Platforma EKO and us personally.
Some trees went to the Andes together with One Tree Planted. Some trees went to mysterious unknown locations with Tree Team. We were happy to plant trees in projects in Malawi and Kenya, as I lived in Malawi for some time and John lived In Kenya. Madagascar has one of the most rich biodiversity in the world, we feel excited to help with planting trees on this Island as well.
Pasodink Medi means ‘plant a tree’ in Lithuanian and it is the first tree planting project in Lithuania which invites people to donate trees for a new ‘untouchable’ or protected forest. It is a pleasure to support this project as well.
We feel proud and happy that Platforma EKO had the possibility to plant, or at least donate, 314 trees in 5 different projects. It is our contribution for 2020 and we hope that 2021 will bring us better numbers.