A Luphisi teenager has become the first “tree-preneur” to purchase a laptop computer by trading trees he had grown in the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme.
Moris Nkosi is fifteen and has propagated 5600 trees since the Indigenous Trees for Life project started in his community in 2008. He exchanged the trees at “green future stores” for goods such as food for his family, a bicycle, a dictionary, two wheelbarrows, and now, a brand new laptop.
Indigenous Trees for Life is part of a Sustainable Communities Programme run by conservation NGO The Wildlands Conservation Trust. The programme aims to support the transformation of marginalized peri-urban, squatter and rural communities through tree and vegetable growing projects, recycling, as well as creating the means for people to harvest rainwater and solar energy.
Indigenous Trees for Life is their flagship project and runs in over 24 communities across KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape. Known as tree-preneurs, individuals are shown how to propagate trees from seed and care for them until they reach a certain height. The trees are then traded for groceries, clothing, school uniforms and other goods at stores set up by Wildlands called green future stores. Wildlands then plants the trees back into the community or into reforestation projects.
Funded by the Old Mutual Foundation, Luphisi Indigenous Trees for Life was the first project that Wildlands introduced to Mpumalanga. There are now 283 tree-preneurs and 55 289 trees have been grown since its inception R280 920 worth of goods has been traded in this community, making it an important contribution to households. The tree-preneurs in turn are learning about the value of trees to the environment and are supplying a large number of trees for planting into reforestation projects run by Wildlands.
Hlengiwe Mthembu, Project Manager for Luphisi’s Indigenous Trees for Life said “The impact of the project is apparent in Luphisi. There are hippo rollers and bicycles going down the street, and many children have new blue school bags on their backs. Moris is a tree-preneur who has taken the opportunity that the project has given him, and has just flown with it.”
Moris Nkosi set himself the goal of having a laptop, and saved up the credit for his trees in order to purchase it. He says he would like to be an electrical engineer one day, and it seems this young man achieves what he sets his mind to.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)