Climate change: My Roots in Africa startup is planting trees

By Miriam Jackson

- scientists at Yale College.

One purpose for that is that folks dwelling in rural areas in Africa nonetheless rely upon wooden from felled bushes for his or her cooking, in keeping with the Africa Vitality Outlook 2019 report.

By means of a social impression initiative, the group needs to plant and assign greater than 200 million bushes throughout Africa by 2024 earlier than the top of the UN Worldwide Decade for Individuals of African Descent.

From any a part of the world, My Roots in Africa Venture, makes it attainable for anybody to put a request to have a tree named, planted or gifted in honor of themselves or anybody they love.

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“My Roots in Africa is…Uber for bushes, connecting native communities impacted by air pollution or deforestation, with world residents seeking to plant their roots in Africa,” mentioned Kamil Olufowobi, MIPAD’s Founder and CEO.

“It presents a possibility the place Africa wins, the diaspora wins, and all of humanity wins. It helps the diaspora to cut back their barrier of entry to Africa.

The brand new initiative might be formally launched in February 2020 on the sidelines of the African Union Summit and goals to drive help for the Nice Inexperienced Wall whereas additionally selling local weather motion one of many United Nations’ Sustainable Improvement Objectives.

“For each new tree that’s planted, we will title one that’s current after you. Many diasporans wish to hook up with Africa and there’s a deep sentimental and emotional connection that this program brings which is ‘now I’ve roots in Africa’,” Olufowobi instructed CNN.

To additional personalize the service, MIPAD partnered with Decagon Institute to deploy information science and synthetic intelligence to determine and geo-tag bushes planted utilizing blockchain know-how.

It will allow its subscribers to know the precise location of their allotted tree and be capable to see it utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery together with Google Maps. It additionally helps stop allocating the identical tree to a couple of particular person.

Planting bushes remotely

MIPAD says it’s already working with metropolis parks and forestry departments in each main African metropolis to assist individuals plant their tree remotely.

“We get the orders positioned and the park and forestry departments are those who do the implementation. They’re the house owners of the bushes, all we’re doing is being the voice of Africa to the diaspora saying ‘you’ll be able to help Africa and in return, you’ll be able to have your root planted,” Olufowobi mentioned.

Ethiopia plants more than 350 million trees in 12 hours

MIPAD is banking on its historical past of connecting Africans to get them concerned within the undertaking.

Consistent with the UN’s declaration of the Worldwide Decade for Individuals of African Descent, MIPAD recognized individuals of African descent from all elements of the world and has up to now honored round 500 individuals in over 60 nations.

A number of African nations are additionally planting bushes.

In July 2019, Ethiopia planted 350 million bushes in a day, setting a brand new world document. The federal government has additionally joined greater than 20 different African nations in pledging to revive 100 million hectares of land as a part of the African Forest Panorama Restoration Initiative.

About 5 months after this feat, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari introduced that the continent’s most populous nation will plant an additional 25 million bushes as a part of the Nice Inexperienced Wall — an formidable undertaking aiming to plant bushes spanning 8000 km and stretching the breadth of Africa from Senegal to Djibouti.

‘Africa is our collective duty’

The continuity of long-term initiatives reminiscent of planting tens of millions of bushes and combating local weather change is a significant concern in a number of African democracies the place incoming governments usually disregard or abandon long-term initiatives by their predecessors.

Olumide Idowu, co-founder of the Worldwide Local weather Change Improvement Initiative argued that afforestation initiatives will assist Africa to sort out threats posed by local weather change reminiscent of floods, droughts and warmth stress and forests.

Idowu mentioned developed nations may help protect Africa’s forests in the event that they scale back the demand for tropical hardwoods contemplating that the timber export market is a giant driver of deforestation.

To restore the injury that has been performed already and to safe the way forward for the continent’s forests, the MIPAD CEO mentioned Africa wants assist from all over the world.

“All of humanity, we had been Africans first earlier than we had been the rest.”