Kawaza

The Reforest Nsefu Project

Last November, during Jo’s time at the annual UK trade show, she became very aware of the whole “Carbon” issue. She had a great idea – calculate the carbon consumption of RPS and then offset it. She wanted to develop a formula that could then be used by other Zambian safari companies. How wonderful it would be to say “Zambia’s Safari Industry is carbon neutral”. Imagine the concept of African tourism being carbon neutral!! Well big ideas, but you know Jo. I was given the task of investigating how all this could be achieved.

After many emails with carbon neutral companies, I came up against a brick wall. As soon as they discovered that we were not going to “buy” offsets (most of these are tree projects!) from them but try to develop our own, their interest in our project quite naturally faded away. However, we decided that step one was to start a tree nursery with the Nsefu community planting 1000's of trees. All was going well until the flood put paid to this first attempt and although this has been the lowest of the flood recovery projects it has been rebooted. This week we moved the nursery to ROJO (Robin and Jo’s house).

To keep the community interested in the project I have designed a plan that will involve a combination of indigenous species, fruit trees, and agro-forestry species. The idea is that we will not only help to reduce carbon, but also help to reforest the Nsefu area and create a lasting benefit to the communities as a whole.

Kids Posing with Seedlings Most of the indigenous species will be used as part of the reforestation part of the project in which we will plant species that are fast growing and popularly used for firewood and building, etc. to replace trees that have been cut down and to try and reduce the further deforestation of the Nsefu area. During my research I got learn quite a bit about trees and one interesting fact I learned was trees tend to release carbon when they are first planted and only offset a small amount of carbon in the first couple of years, so fast growing trees are not ideal for carbon offset projects as they will not make a significant difference for the short time that they are in the ground and will ultimately most likely be used for something which will release more carbon.

The fruit trees and agro-forestry species are trees which will be used for the carbon offset portion of the project. These trees are all species which will benefit the local community and so hopefully will not be cut down. There are also some indigenous fruit trees which we will try to concentrate on using. Looking to plant variety of fruit trees which will contribute to overall health of the community, Neem, a plant which has a large array of uses and can also help to increase the fertility of the soil, Jatropha, which can be used to create an alternative fuel source (can be used to make bio-gas, but also can be pressed and oil can be used in lieu of paraffin), to name a few.

In addition to the tree planting projects, we are also looking into trying out solar cooking methods. The usage of solar stoves will significantly reduce the amount of firewood that is used by each household and therefore reduce carbon emissions as well as slow the deforestation process. It will also save the women the agony of collection and facing the wrath of local forestry officers hell bent on getting payment for their efforts!

Although all a bit technical we are really looking forward to getting the project up and running. Kawaza Basic School and Nsefu School have already designated land for their nurseries and are planning to start clearing this week. It will be a great opportunity for the kids to learn more about trees and also to contribute to the environment and the community.

For more information on the tree project and how you can help, please contact us

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The Reforest Nsefu Project