Chintsa Greening: our FOOD & TREES FOR AFRICA story

As part of holding a major BMW event in the area in October 2013, BMW Motorrad SA, through Food and Trees for Africa, donated 600 indigenous and fruit trees to Chintsa East Village. Friends of Chintsa staff and champions provided support to the Food and Trees team by liaising with local community and assisting with the coordination of volunteers who were tasked to look after the trees. Where a surplus of trees was found to be left over, Friends of Chintsa, through a local champion, had the remainder of trees planted and maintained around sports facilities and open green spaces. This is the story:

Food and Trees For Africa (F & T) began by giving a brief presentation at Chintsa East Public School, introducing their company and their ‘Trees For Homes’ initiative to attendant villagers, and inviting those interested to come on board their program.  The gist of this BMW Motorrad SA/F & T project was a ‘corporate responsibility’ exercise where BMW, with the aid of media, could be seen to be doing some positive community greening work in exchange for ‘carbon credits’.  This is presumably one of many nationwide projects in the rural and peri-rural areas of South Africa started by BMW (and no doubt many other giant corporations) in a concerted effort to comply with the new Carbon Tax regulations.  F & T were part of the implementing process which included sourcing of trees locally, delivering the rudimentary training program, and carrying out the year-long monitoring system to ensure the trees that BMW donated would be taken care of in their sapling phase.

F & T provided a very brief workshop to instruct volunteers in becoming Community Based Educators (CBEs), who would be paid R2 per person per tree planted initially, and a further R2 per person for each of the trees that survived under their monitoring at each check-in by F & T.  The check-in was to take place after one week, six months, and finally, one year.  The 'Trees for Homes' model stipulates that these trees were to go to individual homes, however this model had to be bent slightly to accommodate the geography of Chintsa East village.  The workshop was designed to instruct CBEs to approach home owners in order to place the trees at individual home gardens, and engage the home owners in the value of and need for ongoing care of the trees.

The facilitators brought posters to illustrate Climate Change and how planting trees will aid communities to ward off the negative impacts of this, and also provide food, shade, and protection, prevent soil erosion, and inspire a mindset change about utilising home garden space to grow other plants and veggies etc.  We split off into groups to do role-playing to help us get our heads around how to approach people door-to-door and get interest.  The facilitators also explained how the CBEs were to engage people in the process of  digging, planting and long term caring for the trees, and handed out contracts to each of the CBEs to sign. 

  

 

Shots taken during the workshop, and some of the colourful posters used during the training session

To distribute the 600 trees F & T had bargained for 25 -30 CBEs to come on board, making that 20 – 24 trees for each person to put into the hands of householders, and check up on regularly.  With their particular approach and the scant amount of research they had conducted on our Village, the reception was not nearly the anticipated volume of community interest F & T was perhaps hoping to stir up.  Only eight people attended the meeting to sign up as CBEs, including Noxy and Nosipho from Thuba Bamboo & Nursery, and they were joined by Phikisile of Thuba, and four members of Friends of Chintsa (FoC) also attended to glean what they could from this greening workshop.  It may have been a small turn-out, but all present had gardening knowledge or were ecologically minded and understood the fundamental value of trees on our planet.  And the Village is certainly big enough to take on 600 trees, and hundreds more!

 

From top left: trees were planted at Chintsa sports field, public spaces e.g. around Emjojweni Community Centre and the playground, and Chintsa East Public School.

Left: some of the local volunteers who lent some muscle to the digging and planting process

Thuba  Bamboo & Nursery served as receiving and distribution point for the trees, and also as storage point for the excess trees which were kept aside here in the event of fatalities, and also to wait for further planting zones to be determined.  A FoC champion oversaw planting of trees around the netball court at the sports field, around the Emjojweni Craft Centre and main Village thoroughfare, at the playground, at Chintsa East Public School, and other public areas.

Here is a breakdown of trees planted so far:

• 30 shade trees planted at the sports field next to the netball court, because of fences protecting young trees from animals (all CBEs and home owners were alerted to the importance of protecting the trees from the marauding feral goats and pigs.  Protection was not provided by F & T, so FoC tried, where possible, to provide fencing, sacks and poles for this purpose)

• About 30 planted in the craft centre/clinic area

• About 50 fruit or shade trees planted in at Chintsa East Public school. Most of these are doing reasonably with about a 5/10% loss

• About 100 planted in the village at homes with mixed results. There has been a big failure rate due to lack of care and the ravages of goats etc.  

  

Right: Chintsa village resident Dora 

in her home garden with 

her fruit tree sapling.  She has 

protected her tree from feral 

animals with barbed wire and poles

•  20 trees planted at African Angels Independent School

• A further number of trees are planned for planting at Bulugha Farm School as a conclusion to FoC's involvement in seeing this huge donation through to fruition!

All of the trees besides those planted between CBEs and private home owners were planted by FoC champions and volunteers (from the Village as well as those in Chintsa on volunteer educational and environmental programs) engaged by these champions.

Left: Friends of Chintsa's Odwa Shaun Mtshini showing growth of one of the trees planted at the sports field

There are a further 170 trees yet to be planted. Our FoC champion has had these sorted into fruit / indigenous and has had them rebagged /watered / and outlined a plan for their planting. The project goes on: may all the little trees survive, grow, and start to thrive, and may we start to see greener village!