Mr Johnson Myeni lives in KwaNdaba and has recently traded 500 of the indigenous trees growing in his back yard for groceries, a hosepipe and some bags of cement. Mr Myeni is a tree-preneur with the Indigenous Trees for Life project and he has over 2500 trees at his home.
This project is run by the conservation NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust and started in the Tembe area in 2008, where there are now over 250 “tree-preneurs” from the Bhekabantu, KwaNdaba, Sicabazini and Phelandaba communities.
Facilitators find needy people in the community and teach them how to grow trees from seed and how to nurture them until they grow to a certain height. The trees can then be traded back to Wildlands for goods such as groceries, school books, stationery and uniforms, bicycles, Jojo tanks, and other goods such as wheelbarrows and cement for building.
Wildlands first started the project near Mkhuze in 2004, and in 2008 Wildlands saw the opportunity for the project to thrive in the Tembe area, where unemployment is very high. Mr December Matenjwa, Project Manager of Indigenous Trees for Life in the Teme area said: “This project helps our community as most of the tree-preneurs and their families are unemployed, so it brings food and creates a hope for the future, of perhaps sending the children for further education. He explained that many local people make crafts for sale to tourists that visit the area using natural resources such as the Ilala Palm.
Dr Roelie Kloppers is the manager of the Conservation SPACE Programme, another of the Wildlands Conservation Trust’s Programmes. “We believe in an integrated approach to conservation and development and realise that poor rural communities with limited access to resources and economic opportunities cannot be expected to conserve large tracts of wild lands if their survival depends on the use of the natural resources in these areas”, said Kloppers.
“However, if we can create sustainable communities living on the buffers of the conservation areas, we can limit the pressure on the conservation areas and at the same time improve rural livelihoods. Indigenous Trees for Life, and similar livelihoods projects and programmes are therefore essential in supporting our conservation aims and ensuring an integrated and sustainable conservation and development model.”
The Wildlands Conservation Trust is therefore using funding from its Conservation SPACE Programme to implement the Indigenous Trees for Life Project in this area.
Many of the tree-preneurs are learners and have purchased bicycles for transport to school. At the most recent tree store, the market place set up by Wildlands for trading trees for goods, Mr Myeni and his wife Nomazulu exchanged 200 of their trees for cement, and now hope to add on to their one-roomed home.
Picture taken by : December Matenjwa / Wildlands Conservation Trust
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)