Growing KwaMashu ‘Tree-preneurs’: A community success story

“Last year we were able to collect the trees in one day, and now it has taken us three days to collect all the trees from the “tree-preneurs”.”  Project manager Paul Makhanya is reflecting on the massive growth of the KwaMashu Indigenous Trees for Life programme run by the conservation NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust.

Tree-preneurs are individuals from township and rural communities that are taught how to grow trees from seed and how to care for them until they reach a certain height. The trees are then traded back to Wildlands in exchange for goods such as food, clothes, school fees and uniforms, and the trees are planted back into the community or into Wildlands’ forest restoration projects. Wildlands has more than twenty such projects across KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng, and the KwaMashu project  which started in September 2008, had tree-preneurs trading 9000 trees last year, and already in January 2010 a massive 17 383 trees were collected.

What is especially encouraging about the growth of this project, is the fact that the tree-preneurs are now nurturing their trees from seedlings into larger plants. They begin by growing seedlings in trays, but they are encouraged to transplant the trees into larger containers such as yoghurt tubs and 2 litre plastic bottles, in order for the trees to grow to a larger size. The larger the tree, the greater the value the tree has when being traded for credit.

S’bongile Mkhize’s enthusiasm for trees is contagious. As a facilitator with the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme in KwaMashu, she teaches tree-preneurs to grow and care for trees, visiting door-to-door in the community. “It’s helped the people of KwaMashu a lot. Because of the high unemployment people are living on government grants and pension. Some of the people were applying for these government grants but not getting it. [The project] reduces the poverty in the lives of the people in KwaMashu. With this project the matriculants have hope to further [their] studies if they plant indigenous trees. It helps people pay school fees and buy school uniform for their kids.”

Unilever South Africa has partnered with the Wildlands Conservation Fund in the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme. Louise Duys of Unilever South Africa said “The success of the KwaMashu project has given us the opportunity to partner with our other existing projects in this area, like our Thokomala Homes. This in turn amplifies the overall impact of Unilever’s presence in this community – and as they’re on our doorstep, provides our employees with wonderful volunteer opportunities. ”

S’bongile comments on the growth of the programme in KwaMashu “[It is]running like a train in a way that I did not even imagine. I have people stopping me on the side of the road asking me that they want to be part of the programme. What is even better is that we have school kids that also want to be part of this change.”

Photo:  Indigenous Trees for Life facilitator S’bongile Mkhize with two of the young tree-preneurs, from right to left, Nkululeko Mabaso and Nokuqola Nxumalo, both aged seven and attending Roseland Primary School in KwaMashu.