GIZEH sponsors the "World Forest Climate Initiative", a partnership between the Economic Senate in Germany and the World Forest Foundation. The initiative principally aims to undertake reforestation and forest conservation projects across 500 million hectares of land around the world and achieve an annual CO2 reduction of around 5 billion tons.
As simply sponsoring isn’t enough for us, we are also taking part in other reforestation programmes with CO2OL and Forest Finest, with the following promise:
We will plant one tree for every million containers we produce!
As such, GIZEH will be responsible for planting around 4,000 trees in Ethiopia each year.
The project
Local communities in Soddo have developed the reforestation project together with the non-governmental organization World Vision. The objective is to protect the forest on the slopes of Mount Damota, which has been severely damaged, as well as to plant new trees and, in doing so, contribute to the long-term regeneration of the region’s ecosystem. The members of the five communities around Mount Damota are directly responsible for implementing the project and have already planted 48,000 new trees. The project is one of the first in the world to be certified according to the Gold Standard for Land Use and Forest Projects. In addition, the ecological and social benefits have been validated according to CCB standards.
Uses and benefits
Social fairness:
- Participation and self-determination for local communities.
- Long-term, social employment for the local population (over 100 workers)
- Training in sustainable agriculture: construction of a tree nursery with regional vegetables such as spinach and corn, as well as medicinal plants.
- Part of the income goes to training, health and environmental protection projects.
Ecological importance:
- Protected spaces for biodiversity.
- Protection against erosion and water through reforestation.
- Protection against mudslides.
- Stream restoration.
The location
The reforestation area is located in the mountainous region of South Ethiopia, 300 kilometers southwest of Addis Abeba, the capital. The area stretches across a total of 503 hectares, reaching the Mount Damota highlands to the north of the town Soddo.