FWD 2 HerbalEgram

HerbalEGram: Volume 6, Number 3, March 2009


Trees for the Future: Helping to Plant
Millions of Trees Each Year


Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Trees for the Future (TFF) plants millions of trees each year on rural lands that have been devastated from years of over-harvesting and deforestation.1 The nonprofit organization works with local communities, using trees to help the people improve their economic and physical wellbeing, as well as the health of the earth, for many generations to come.

In order to return the land to sustainable production, TFF creates agroforestry systems, which integrate agriculture, people, and trees in the same space.2  What was once dry or barren land, becomes vibrant with green vegetation, livestock grazing, and people working. Since Dave and Grace Deppner created the organization in 1988, it has assisted in the planting of 65 million trees in countries around the world.1

The process begins when TFF teams up with a community that has a strong need to revive its land and livelihood. TFF provides training, educational information, planting materials, and seeds for community members and volunteers from other organizations, who then plant and cultivate the trees.2 The planted seeds quickly grow into multi-purpose and ecologically appropriate tree species that help make it possible for the villages to survive on their surroundings.

Many of these trees produce products with nutritional and medicinal value, such as the horseradish tree* (Moringa oleifera), also commonly referred to as the Moringa tree. Growing fast and tall, Moringa is one of TFF’s most common trees, planted in almost all of their programs.3 This tree’s leaves, seeds, pods, roots, bark and flowers have a long history in Ayurvedic medicine and harbor many medicinal properties, including antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-tumor effects, and are also used to treat blood pressure and cholesterol.4 The tree’s products are also reported to contain 7 times the Vitamin C as in oranges, 4 times the Vitamin A as in carrots, and 2 times the protein as in milk.5

Among a variety of trees, Moringa is planted in TFF’s Ethiopia tree program and has become very popular as knowledge spreads that it helps increase lactation in women, said Gorav Seth, international programs coordinator for TFF. While the Ethiopian communities plant the tree primarily for its medicinal properties, programs in Burundi and West Africa, India, and Brazil plant the Moringa tree mostly to ingest its highly nutritious products.

Other medicinal trees planted by TFF include prairie acacia (Acacia angustissima) and sesban (Sesbania sesban). Among many uses, prairie acacia has been used to treat diarrhea and rheumatism,6  and sesban roots and leaves are reported to treat scorpion stings, sore throats, and jaundice during pregnancy.7 Trees planted by TFF programs also have many potential uses in natural cosmetic products, and some of the organization’s agroforestry training materials teach how to create such goods. Moringa seed extract, for example, can be used to protect, condition, and strengthen hair,4 and neem (Azadirachta indica), which TFF plants in India, Haiti, East Africa, and Honduras, produces oil that can be used in antiseptic soaps and lotions.8

Though trees’ medicinal and nutritional properties are an important factor when considering which trees to plant, they are not the primary reason a species is chosen, Seth said. The organization focuses on planting fast-growing and tough trees to restore stripped-down land. Though many of the trees planted by TFF are not native to the area, the organization tries to plant trees with which the community is familiar and that are already naturalized in the region, he explained.

The trees’ potential uses are another important factor when deciding which species to plant. In Senegal and Haiti purging nut (Jatropha curcas) seeds are used to make biodiesel, and the program in Cameroon, Africa plants several species for livestock fencing and also uses acacia and calliandra (Calliandra calothyrus) trees for large-scale bee keeping.3 In the Philippines, trees are planted to serve as “living firebreaks” to protect orchards of papaya, bananas, and pineapple. Most trees in TFF’s programs serve as sources of renewable fuel wood and construction wood, which saves old-growth vegetation and provides the local people with a sustainable and accessible supply of this necessary resource, Seth said.

Helping TFF plant millions of trees each year, many companies partner with the organization to provide funding, including several herbal and natural products-related companies, such as Celestial Seasonings tea company (Boulder, CO),9 whose project with TFF will support the planting of up to 1 million trees.10

Because the trees’ products and benefits are generally meant for the local communities and semi-regional areas where they are planted, TFF’s business model does not currently include selling trees’ products back to companies, Seth said.

One partner company in particular does request a specific tree to be planted in its name. Orgnx™, the natural hair care line of LaCoupe®, requests the planting of Moringa trees because the company believes in the global advancement of the tree, from which the Orgnx line is based on and inspired.11 Last year, Orgnx helped to plant 123,950 Moringa trees.

Many of these companies partner with the organization because of similar goals to benefit the environment and disadvantaged communities in developing countries. Himalaya® Herbal Health Care (Houston, TX) has helped to plant almost 50,000 trees in India, the location of the company’s global headquarters and a country whose high population density, and serious overgrazing and deforestation have left major scars on the landscape and impoverished farmers, said Nabeel Manal, president and CEO of Himalaya Herbal Healthcare in North America (written communication, February 24, 2009).

“This is a project that needed to be done in our home country of India, and from a corporate social responsibility standpoint, something we were happy to participate in,” he said.


—Lindsay Stafford

* Horseradish tree, the standardized common name for Moringa oleifera in the American Herbal Products Association’s Herbs of Commerce, comes from the use of the tree’s taproots, which are sometimes eaten as a substitute for the culinary root horseradish (Armoracia rusticana). (Ref: Agroforestree Database Moringa oleifera. World Agroforestry Centre Web site. Available at: http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sites/TreeDBS/aft/speciesPrinterFriendly.asp?Id=1169. Accessed February 26, 2009.)

References

1. About Us: Mission. Trees for the Future Web site. Available at: http://www.treesftf.org/about/mission.htm. Accessed February 13, 2009.

2. About Us: Sustainable Agroforestry. Available at: http://www.treesftf.org/about/sustain.htm#diversity. Accessed February 13, 2009.

3. Programs. Trees for the Future Web site. Available at: http://www.treesftf.org/projects.htm. Accessed February 17, 2009.

4. Oppel M. Review of horseradish tree (Moringa oleifera). HerbClip. December 14, 2007 (No. 070678-342). Austin, TX: American Botanical Council. Moringa oleifera: a food plant with multiple medicinal uses by Anwar F. Phytother Res. January 2007;21(1):17-25.

5. Beating the drum for the Moringa tree. Environment Society of Australia Web page.
Available at: http://enviro.org.au/article_moringaTree.asp. Accessed February 18, 2009.

6. Agroforestree Database Acacia angustissima. World Agroforestry Centre Web site. Available at: http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sites/TreeDBS/aft/speciesPrinterFriendly.asp?Id=1762. Accessed February 12, 2009.

7 Agroforestree Database Sesbania sesban. World Agroforestry Centre Web site. Available at: http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sites/TreeDBS/aft/speciesPrinterFriendly.asp?Id=1522. Accessed February 12, 2009.

8 Agroforestree Database. World Agroforestry Centre Web site. Available at: http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sites/TreeDBS/aft/speciesPrinterFriendly.asp?Id=271. Accessed February 18, 2009.

9. Plant-a-Tree Partners. Trees for the Future Web site. Available at: http://www.treesftf.org/partnerships/plantatree.htm. Accessed February 20, 2009.

10. Celestial Seasonings® Asks Tea Drinkers to Make a Difference by Planting “Virtual Trees” Online [press release]. Boulder, CO. Celestial Seasonings; February 3, 2009.
 
11. Philosophy: Buy one, plant a tree. Orgnx Web site. Available at: http://www.orgnx.com/index.cfm?pageID=philosophy&subPageID=howyouCanHelp. Accessed February 20, 2009.



 


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