About

The Sahel is considered a hot-spot of climate change and is portrayed as one of the world’s most vulnerable regions because of its low societal adaptive capacity. Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is under threat from rising CO2 levels, resulting in temperature rise, inter/intra annual rainfall variability and prolonged droughts. However, agricultural productivity needs to adapt to satisfy increasing food demand, and for this reason:

Dr. Jorge Alvar-Beltrán, PhD, has spent the last 3 years working with climate-resilient crops in Burkina Faso. Searching for crops that can adapt and cope with increasing abiotic stresses (drought tolerant species, resistant to heat-stress and poor soil conditions), just like having highly nutritional properties.

Moringa oleifera trees, also known as drumstick trees, is a fast growing specie, drought resistant, and has been crowned the champion plant in terms of CO2 absorption. Like most deep-rooted trees, it also prevents soil erosion and increases water retention of the soil. On top of that, the yields of the plant in the form of seeds (to make oil or be eaten whole) and leaves (cooked like spinach; with high iron, protein, calcium and vitamins A and C content) can be sold at the market to generate an income for the crop growers.

What does this all mean?

Moringa oleifera is the plant of the future for sub-Saharan Africa.

Mission

In rural areas of Burkina Faso, nearby Bobo Dioulasso, 1 hectare (with 10,000 trees) of land has been fenced off for growing Moringa. Working with a trust of local experts, technicians and farmers who have been trained on Moringa oleifera cultivation, the goal is to plant 10 ha, equivalent to 100,000 trees, by 2022. The benefits to the local population and the wider population are vast: generating jobs, empowering women in new market dynamics, reducing soil erosion and offsetting up to 500 tonnes of CO2 annually by 2022 (equivalent emissions of 500 passengers making the London-New York journey).

Follow our groundbreaking journey here!

What next and where do you come in?

Living in today’s world, it is impossible not to come across the impacts of global warming (driven by CO2 emissions), and in order to offset larger amounts of CO2 emissions, the project needs to be scaled up.

Once our Mission is completed, we hope to contribute to “The Great Green Wall” (https://www.greatgreenwall.org/): a project which seeks to plant a belt of trees over 8000 km from West to East Africa. This ambitious project is part of a solution to many urgent threats facing the global community: climate change, desertification, droughts, famine/malnutrition, conflict and migration.

YOU can help us and the Great Green Wall project by donating, becoming conscious of your personal CO2 emissions, reducing waste and traveling sustainably. It is our responsibility as global citizens to help such great projects occur, especially in the parts of the world our past and present actions are the most felt. We are here to do out bit. With your help, we will provide the financing and training to more communities across the region and plant 100,000 trees.

...but why stop there? HELP US PLANT! (Please note that we are not currently accepting donations.)

Our project is now almost 3 years in the works. The video gives you a glimpse into what we are doing.