Trees 4 Children is a cooperative charitable effort between the Make A Mark Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, in which forestry principles are utilized to provide an investible model for economic growth through land development.
The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point is a public university in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System. It grants associate, baccalaureate and master's degrees, as well as doctoral degrees in audiology.
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. The science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences.
The organization is the brainchild of American entrepreneur and philanthropist John M. Noel. In 2006, Noel’s Make A Mark Foundation partnered with the UWSP College of Natural Resources in an attempt to apply business solutions to sustainability and subsistence problems in Kenya. [1]
John M. Noel is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for founding Travel Guard International, the world’s largest travel insurer and a division of the American International Group subsidiary, Chartis.
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa with 47 semiautonomous counties governed by elected governors. At 580,367 square kilometres (224,081 sq mi), Kenya is the world's 48th largest country by total area. With a population of more than 52.2 million people, Kenya is the 27th most populous country. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi while its oldest city and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa. Kisumu City is the third largest city and a critical inland port at Lake Victoria. Other important urban centres include Nakuru and Eldoret.
Since its inception, the non-profit organization has been focused on growing and processing trees for lumber to help contribute to the financial self-sustainability of the Nyumbani Village in Kitui, Kenya, a village which supports more than 1,000 HIV/AIDS-affected children and elders. [2] Noel worked in conjunction with local officials to persuade the Kenyan government to donate land to the village in which to plant. Trees 4 Children works with villagers and students and faculty from the UWSP College of Natural Resources to produce innovative crop planning and planting strategies. The students and teachers analyze each year’s results and can then suggest changes to the crop selection, planting frequency, and planting and harvesting techniques for maximum yield.
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Following initial infection, a person may not notice any symptoms or may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. Typically, this is followed by a prolonged period with no symptoms. As the infection progresses, it interferes more with the immune system, increasing the risk of developing common infections such as tuberculosis, as well as other opportunistic infections, and tumors that rarely affect people who have uncompromised immune systems. These late symptoms of infection are referred to as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This stage is often also associated with unintended weight loss.
In Nyumbani, Trees 4 Children has helped the villagers plant more than 50,000 trees on the village’s 700 acres. [3] The goal is to plant 600 trees per acre, with 75 percent of the trees being melia, [4] a fast-growing relative of mahogany. Senna, leucaena, and several species of acacia are planted for timber, nitrogen fixation and fuel, while sapota, java plum, tamarind, and guava are planted for fruit.
Melia is a genus of flowering trees in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. The name is derived from μηλια, the Greek name used by Theophrastus for Fraxinus ornus, which has similar leaves.
Senna, the sennas, is a large genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, and the subfamily Caesalpinioideae and the tribe Cassieae. This diverse genus is native throughout the tropics, with a small number of species in temperate regions. The number of species is estimated to be from about 260 to 350. The type species for the genus is Senna alexandrina. About 50 species of Senna are known in cultivation.
Acacia, commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australia, with the first species A. nilotica described by Linnaeus. Controversy erupted in the early 2000s when it became evident that the genus as it stood was not monophyletic, and that several divergent lineages needed to be placed in separate genera. It turned out that one lineage comprising over 900 species mainly native to Australia was not closely related to the mainly African lineage that contained A. nilotica—the first and type species. This meant that the Australian lineage would need to be renamed. Botanist Les Pedley named this group Racosperma, which was inconsistently adopted. Australian botanists proposed that this would be more disruptive than setting a different type species and allowing this large number of species to remain Acacia, resulting in the two African lineages being renamed Vachellia and Senegalia, and the two New World lineages renamed Acaciella and Mariosousa. This was officially adopted, but many botanists from Africa and elsewhere disagreed that this was necessary.
In 2012 and 2013 UWSP students worked with villagers on the development of food forests. In the food forest, manure and daily irrigation are utilized to grow vegetables and encourage tree growth, while the partial shade and windbreak provided by the trees boosts yields of kale, carrots, onions, cilantro, peppers, pumpkins, passionfruit, and papayas.
Kale or leaf cabbage are certain cultivars of cabbage grown for their edible leaves. A kale plant has green or purple leaves and the central leaves do not form a head. Kales are considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms of Brassica oleracea.
The bell pepper is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colours, including red, yellow, orange, green, white, and purple. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as "sweet peppers".
A pumpkin is a cultivar of a squash plant, most commonly of Cucurbita pepo, that is round, with smooth, slightly ribbed skin, and most often deep yellow to orange in coloration. The thick shell contains the seeds and pulp. Some exceptionally large cultivars of squash with similar appearance have also been derived from Cucurbita maxima. Specific cultivars of winter squash derived from other species, including C. argyrosperma, and C. moschata, are also sometimes called "pumpkin".
Food and wood not used by the village can be sold, and the proceeds used for village improvements.
Each year, Trees 4 Children plants 30,000 new Melia trees at Nyumbani. Once mature, these trees will generate an annual profit of over $700,000 (based on current monetary value) through harvesting and selling the lumber, which will exceed the operating costs of village. The first crop of trees was planted in 2008, and will be ready for harvest in 2018. Until then, villagers will sell the seedlings of the trees to neighboring villages to raise money and awareness for the project.
With the initial harvest of Melia trees several years away, Trees 4 Children is also working in Nyumbani on the Sunflower Project. Sunflowers are being grown for cooking oil to eliminate villagers’ dependence on purchased oil, and to generate revenue from sales of excess oil.
For the next phase of the project, Trees 4 Children will help villagers teach residents of surrounding areas how to replicate the agroforestry initiative. Long-term goals are to standardize processes and techniques and to expand the initiative across Africa and Asia.
