ITF 2018 Impact Report

impact report 2018

Our impact in 2018 Education

Environment

Increase global tree cover, promote reforestation and appropriate tree cultivation

549 Hectares of land protected or restored

2018 was a remarkable year for International Tree Foundation on a number of levels. At the grass roots we are working with some inspiring community organisations who are raising awareness of the urgent need to tackle deforestation and are taking action to restore degraded landscapes.

441,491

6,800

Trees grown

Young people engaged in learning activities

40

324

Projects reporting increases in biodiversity/ ecosystem services

Teachers and youth workers trained

Foster an understanding of the amenity, ecological and economic value of trees

339,657 People reached through awareness raising and campaign platforms

4,577 Community members active in landscape restoration

Livelihoods

Impact Report 2018 Editor: Nicola Doyle / Email: info@internationaltreefoundation.org / Website www.internationaltreefoundation.org Cover Image by Omar Diop’ / Design: youngstudio.co

Enable communities to develop sustainable and productive landscapes by tree cultivation

2,234

1,637

Smallholder farmers with increased yields

Staff, volunteers and members trained

Another highlight of the year was participating in the ‘We Feed The World’ smallholder farmers photography exhibition. ITF was chosen to be photographed by world famous Senegalese fine art photographer, Omar Victor Diop.

His beautiful images of women farmers at our partner project with MKEC in Embu in Kenya feature on the cover of this report and the 2018 Trees Journal.

We are continuing to develop innovative new programmes with our partners, one example being the Mount Bamboutos Initiative in Cameroon which started in April and was formally launched in September 2018 to restore the degraded Mt. Bamboutos ecosystem over the coming 15 years. And we are developing a new Tree Power teaching resource to enable children to explore which foods are healthy for both people to eat and for our forests and biodiversity.

99 CBOs With increased capacity

Andy Egan ITF Chief Executive

2,461

64%

People who have increased their income

Women in leadership roles in partner CBOs

Capacity Building

Build capacity of civil society to advocate for and implement community-based forestry and agroforestry

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ABOUT

ACTIVITIES

International Tree Foundation

Environment

Education

Greater understanding of the ecological, environmental, social and economic value of trees

OBJECTIVES ITF has promoted and funded sustainable community forestry projects in the UK and worldwide for more than 90 years and has been responsible for the establishment of an estimated 27 billion trees… and counting.

OUR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES ARE:

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Capacity building

Increase global tree cover, promote reforestation and appropriate tree cultivation

Livelihoods

Communities improve livelihoods by tree cultivation for sustainable and productive landscapes

As a foundation we operate three grant making programmes. All of these programmes enable us to provide resources to local community based organisations (CBOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement community-led forestry and agroforestry projects.

We specialise in providing seed funding to newly emerging grass roots community groups who are both informed and passionate about protecting the natural environment.

We choose this model for three reasons. Firstly, it is central to our ethos to support community-led forestry and environmental stewardship. Secondly, this model has demonstrated that it is an effective way to ensure the sustained benefits of reforestation initiatives as it is local communities that will care for and protect the trees. And thirdly it is highly cost effective.

We fund projects that are designed around local needs and aspirations, and carried out in partnership with local community based organisations. Addressing issues of gender inequality and promoting social cohesion and inclusion are integral to our approach.

In choosing projects to support, we prioritise those that are most capable of providing replicable models, with scalable potential, for natural and sustainable rural development.

Build capacity of civil society to advocate for and implement community-based forestry and agroforestry

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The Fruit-full Communities project is coming to the end of its third and final year. The project has been led

by Learning through Landscapes in partnership with ITF, The Orchard Project and YMCA England and has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund under the umbrella of Our Bright Future. Over the course of the three years, orchards have been planted at 42 sites across England and Wales and 16 of these have been completed in 2018/early 2019. At each site, we have worked with YMCAs and Foyers that support vulnerable young people aged 11 – 24 years either in supported housing or through associated youth groups.

our work in the uk

Consultants have worked with these young people to help them design, plan and plant an orchard in their grounds or nearby accessible green space. Through practical, outdoor activities, young people have gained new skills and have increased selfconfidence and wellbeing. New habitats have been created, often using heritage varieties of fruit trees to enhance biodiversity, with benefits for wildlife and humans alike. Participants have also made connections with young people from some of ITF’s other projects in Zambia, Kenya and Uganda.

The highlight of 2018 was a celebration event held at the Dutch Farm run by YMCA Liverpool in October.

Participants from across the country came together to share their experiences and achievements and to take part in a variety of activities, including the Fruity Footprints Quiz organised

by ITF.

Revisit workshops have been carried out at the 26 orchards that were planted during the first two years of the project.

Although some trees have been damaged by vandalism, the vast majority of the trees have survived.

More importantly, it has been clear from feedback that the orchards are being well-used and have provided a new focus for outdoor activities at the centres.

Fruit-full Communities has been a new challenge for ITF. We have been working with young people who have had a tough start in today’s unforgiving world and can be very hard to engage as a result. The project has given them an opportunity to find out what it might be like to work with nature, with each other and with local communities to make a positive contribution to their environment. For many it has made a significant contribution in helping them to turn their lives around.

TREES AND WELLBEING IN THE UK There is a huge need for our work in the UK where tree cover is amongst the lowest in Europe and many of us have little access to woodlands.

“Before this project I didn’t really care about the environment. I didn’t know anything about trees. Now I know how to plant and look after them. It opens up a new world.”

Mel Sheldon YMCA North Staffordshire Activities Co-ordinator

In 2018 we supported a Community Tree Planting project on the Somerset Levels in partnership with ‘Reimagining the Levels’. With the success of Fruitfull Communities, we were able to launch a new project based on our learnings, called ‘Wellbeing in the Woods’, which begins in early 2019 with funding from the People’s Postcode Lottery. Like Fruit-full Communities this project will help vulnerable young people to benefit from time spent working in orchards and woods. And in 2019 we will be able to open up funding opportunities in our UK Community Tree Planting Programme, in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, for the first time since 2014.

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In 2018, the third year of our Centenary Campaign, 20 Million Trees for Kenya’s Forests, we have again expanded to new sites and increased the rate of tree planting. This year we supported our partners and communities to plant over 340,000 trees in forests and on farms and school grounds. 1,975 community members took part in tree planting at six forest restoration sites around Mount Kenya, at schools and on smallholding farms in Embu County and at a college in Nairobi.

20 Million trees for kenya’s forests

Through this programme with local communities and our main partners Mount Kenya Environmental Conservation and Mount Kenya Trust, we have restored more than 300 hectares of deforested land over the past year. The trees planted are native, raised from seeds collected locally – aiming to restore a natural forest habitat when fully matured.

Our partners Mount Kenya Environmental Conservation in Embu County on the southeast side of Mt The campaign takes a holistic, three Kenya have developed a multipronged approach to restoring Kenya’s stranded project. This includes forests. Communities living adjacent support for more than 20 Women to the forest are engaged in raising Groups and Self-Help Groups to and nurturing native seedlings to plant operate their own tree nurseries as on and restore degraded forest land. In small enterprises; forest restoration in parallel, these communities are a huge degraded area of the forest supported through training in tree known as Magaca; a school tree nursery management and agroforestry planting programme called ‘My 20 techniques to improve their livelihoods. Trees and Me, Growing up Together’; Their tree nurseries act as small as well as support to farmers to enterprises, raising income to be enhance the integration of trees on shared in loans to group members, their own farms. Farmers in Embu are supporting household investments. increasingly interested in the Half of Kenya’s population is under the opportunity to raise and plant high age of 18, so engaging the next quality fruit trees such as Avocadoes generation in conservation through and agroforestry trees such as the schools programme is a third key Calliandra which provide fodder for component of our strategy. livestock while also improving soil fertility. So far 200,000 trees have Each of these activities is dependent been planted at Magaca, more than on the other. The forests act as water 15,000 trees around schools, and catchments and affect local climates, 89,000 trees on farms. increasing humidity and rainfall and moderating temperatures.

In the Lower Imenti Forest on the Communities rely on the forest to northeast slopes of Mount Kenya, forage for firewood, animal fodder and farmers are planting trees with medicinal plants. Without improving support from the Mount Kenya Trust the livelihoods of communities and and ITF. The natural forest was almost proving an alternative source of forest entirely destroyed here in the 1980s products, the forests will continue to and 1990s, and the invasive shrub be degraded.

Lantana camara covers most of the land. The forest acts as a migration

corridor for elephants, and has now been fenced to protect neighbouring farms from elephant damage. The Community Forest Association allocates farmers small pieces of land in the degraded forest. The farmers clear the invasive shrubs and cultivate the land to grow beans and peas; they plant indigenous trees to restore the forest and care for them at the same time as they care for their crops. The trees grow quickly, as they benefit from weeding and protection – and in three or four years the canopy has closed and farmers will move on to restore another plot. Through the sale of their crops, families can earn an additional income, as much as $1,000 a year. As the invasive shrubs are cleared and the land is tilled native trees also regenerate alongside the planted ones to aid the swift restoration of the forest. So far we have planted 218,000 trees at Imenti.

The environmental and social impacts of this programme will take time to show. This is just the beginning of our campaign to plant 20 million trees and improve the livelihoods of 50,000 households in Kenya.

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Sustainable Community Forestry Programme (SCF) The projects we support are close to the local communities and derive from local understanding of landscapes and livelihoods.

As a result they are diverse, innovative and effective. Projects managed by women are frequently among the most effective. Here are brief notes about 2 projects which were completed in 2018.

Project: Women Empowerment through Enhancing Agroforestry in North West Cameroon Partner: Community Assistance in Development (COMAID) COMAID focuses on alleviating poverty through ‘holistic community approaches’. ITF supported COMAID to create a Food Forest Buffer around the Dom Community Forest.

At the end of this successful project two women groups challenged ITF and COMAID. They wanted to improve their lives by planting trees closer to home. The decision to work with these women challenged local assumptions about male ownership of land and decision making rights over trees.

The project trained women farmers in Dom and Nkor villages and helped them make tree planting plans for their farms. The women established 63 small household tree nurseries to raise trees for soil fertility, and for fruits and medicinal products. Training sessions and practical experience helped the women gain confidence in the practical work of integrating trees on farms. Men complained not so much about the women taking the lead - but rather about themselves being left behind.

Each farmer planted at least 200 trees and included at least five new species on their farm. In total they planted 16,281 trees with 88% survival by year end. While the project contributes to carbon sequestration, the real benefit from the farmers’ perspective is the prospect of improving household health because of the diversity of fruit and medicinal trees close at hand. More than half of the trees are of species that will help restore soil fertility and are also attractive to bees and pollinators. The trees will increase water infiltration and improve the farm micro-climate.

Kenneth Tah of COMAID observes changes in community perceptions: ‘Through the project the men were made to understand the need for the women to be an integral part in the management of family land. This significant attitude change has improved on the access and control of land by women in these communities.’

Two farmers in Nkor village summarised the project like this: ‘With the adaptive agroforestry farming system, my family can rely more on crops for income, medication and nutrition for the long term.’ - Manyi Esther ‘Men now understand that including the women in the planting of fruit trees on family land is protecting the ancestral land of the family for posterity.’ - Nyamjo Florence

Project: Installing Forest Ownership Spirit in our Community Partner: Education, Developpment, Environment Naturel (EDENA)

EDENA is a younger NGO, created by women in 2012 to involve women and youth in environmental protection and rural development. Their work is based around a last vestige of the central primary forest in Madagascar, which provides habitats for an amazing array of biodiversity but is threatened by deforestation and expansion of mining activities.

Their project ‘Installing Forest Ownership Spirit in our Community’ established two community tree planting sites linked to a key forest corridor. They planted more than 15,740 native tree seedlings in and around the forest, 8,370 fast growing soil improving species on degraded land and around schools, and 390 orange trees and 5,500 coffee bushes on their farms. The initial survival rate is over 75% despite great difficulties faced by EDENA. The president of one village would not allow the community to plant trees in the forest and there were even threats and demands for bribes.

EDENA explains: ‘People are more aware of the importance of the forest and no longer accept tree felling or charcoal production.

They have accepted that these sites need to be restored.

Some women are becoming interested in beekeeping which can help to protect the forest.’

Ravoniarisoa Zeline, a single mother from a poor family spoke up during training meetings – not an easy thing in the local context. She wants to lead a women’s association to protect the forest.

‘Women, especially young single mothers are always marginalised in our community. Thanks to this project I have gained more knowledge and have become more involved in community life. People actually listen to me and that has increase my confidence and pride.’

ITF thanks United Bank of Carbon who generously supported this project.

ITF wishes to thank Our Lady and St Edmund Church Abingdon, whose generosity supported this project.

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GROW ING TO GET H ER Our 5 year strategy

In 2018 we launched our new five year strategy.

It’s called Growing Together; for a number of reasons.

First, as ITF will continue to grow trees together with local communities.

Second, ITF needs to grow over the coming years so that we can do more to support the growing number of communities trying to halt deforestation and promote reforestation.

Third, we want to support the growth and capacity of community based organisations to lead the way.

Fourth, we are inviting everyone who appreciates the importance of grass-roots community-led forestry and agroforestry to join with us and work together to restore a harmonious relationship with the natural world. And a world where our children can grow up healthily together with the trees and forests that sustain us and much of the living world.

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ITF has continued to increase its income.

Total income increased to £637,036 (2017 (prorated from 15m period): £484,383), an annual increase of 32% yoy.

Our income in 2018

Our expenditure in 2018

Our plans for 2019 In 2019 we will be focusing on delivering our Growing Together Strategy working closely with our partners and local communities. We will consult with our members on how they can be involved in both informing and supporting our strategy and activities.

We will invest in supporting our growing staff team to lead the sustainable transformation we are seeking to enable ITF to support more communities to implement positive solutions to the growing climate and ecological crises we face. We are reaching out to other organisations, as well as individuals and businesses, who share our values and approach to join together to co-create new initiatives to help protect and restore the living world.

Total reserves at the year-end were £227,665 (2017: £105,005) of which unrestricted reserves increased to £163,317 (2017: £68,643).

With special thanks too...

LLoyd Fund / Henry C. Hoare Charitable Trust

Grants Legacies Corporates Individual Appeals Membership Interest

JM Curry / J Swift / JS Davis / D Graham / P Webster

how our income was spent

£264,620 £232,005 £57,090 £57,053 £19,246 £6,058 £964

42% 36% 9% 9% 3% 1% 0%

Charitable spend Fundraising

£460,431 £53,945

90% 10%

In the UK we have an exciting new pilot project starting, Wellbeing in the Woods, which will provide vulnerable young people with woodland based experiences to help improve their mental health and wellbeing. We plan to issue a new call for our UK Community Tree Planting Programme and continue to support a new tree planting scheme on the Somerset levels. We will be publishing our new Tree Power teaching resource – Healthy Food, People and Planet – and are planning an innovative new offering to schools linking Tree Power with Plant-for-the-Planet’s Climate Justice Academies.

In Africa we will continue our two long-term restoration programmes; the 20 Million Trees for Kenya’s Forests campaign and the newly established Mount Bamboutos Initiative. We have secured new funding to enable our partners in Madagascar to come together and scale up their efforts through the Better Lives for People of the Forest Corridor project. We are also exploring a new partnership concept for a pan African programme to increase support for community-led agroforestry and forest restoration by building capacity, farmer to farmer training, embedding agroecology, empowering women and sharing and replicating best practice on a large scale.

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Planting trees with and for our future

planting trees with and for communities

planting trees together to restore our green spaces

INFO@INTERNATIONALTREEFOUNDATION.ORG / 01865 922 430 / WWW.INTERNATIONALTREEFOUNDATION.ORG