A project from Wales is helping local communities in Bore, Kenya plant over half a million trees to help in our fight against climate change.
The Community Carbon Link (CCL) in Lampeter have so far grown over 130,000 seedlings and are very much on their way to their target of 500,000.
The project works with resourceful women farmers in Kenya to help them conserve their endangered tropical forest, which is crucial for absorbing carbon dioxide and providing essential shade in times of extreme heat.
Cat Jones Partnership Manager at Hub Cymru Africa recently visited the project and said: “Although we are experiencing a change in the climate back home it is often those in the developing world that feel the impacts the most, we can see this with the devastating drought across southern Africa at the moment.
“Seeing the project first hand helped me understand how the local community of mid Wales are forging important partnerships which can go some way to addressing the impacts of climate change. If everyone plays their part it is possible to make a difference.”
Ru Hartwell of the Community Carbon Link said: “The local communities in Bore have set up and manage three tree nurseries and once the rains come, they will start distributing the seedlings to 124 partner schools and community groups.”
“As well as slowing climate change, planting the trees offers important employment opportunities to local workers, enabling them to educate their children and support their families.”
The ambitious scheme will also bring benefits to Wales with students from the University of Wales Trinity St David learning about the forest eco-systems, while the project monitoring regime will enable postgraduate researchers to gain experience in remote sensing Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and carbon dioxide calculations – all necessary to quantify the benefits of the tree planting.
In Wales there are over 350 community links with African partners, many of whom are supported by Hub Cymru Africa through our grants programme, training and capacity building.
The CCL is supported by Size of Wales and Hub Cymru Africa, which is funded by the Welsh Government and hosted by the Welsh Centre for International Affairs.
