qNEWSLETTER

“PLANT A TREE”
Letter from Director,

I am extremely happy to use this medium to report about activities

concerning our tree nursery and planting project which you supported at
different levels.

The seeds of this project were sowed by me and Miss Luise Meyer. We
decided to create a network of youths who would be involved in
Environmental issues. To do this we had to come up with activities and small
action projects for the kids. However this is not always evident as youths
don’t have a voice in issues concerning their futures, talk less of the
environment but we had to start from somewhere.

We were happy to receive funding from the Futurist which helped us build a
nursery and Nurse 750 seeds and seedlings from different tree species.
Initially most of these seeds did well. We took the seed species from all over
Cameroon.

However the dry season was long and harsh and we had trouble with our
water supply, as the stream we took water from to water the trees dried off.
We started to dig up a well by the Nursery but the water level in this area is
actually very low and we could not get water after two attempts at this. We
resorted to using SNEC water which is fairly expensive. We are currently
looking at other solutions. Due to this situation some of the seedlings dried
up as they could not have enough water.

Despite these challenges I am extremely happy to say the pilot year for the
project has been very successful we have learned a lot and are looking
forward to another year. The rains have come again and we are currently
planting the seedlings in schools around Limbe with great enthusiasm.

This project is called “Plant a Tree Campaign”. Through this project we

are using tree planting to instill a sense of environmental awareness
amongst youths of school going age in Limbe. The project has been received
well by the schools and we consider this as a form of green activism through
tree planting.
‘lets plant a tree’ THE EXPERIENCE:
‘Plant a Tree’ has been an extraordinary experience for us. We have been
able to see the joy of kids who want to do something for the environment.
The students were extremely happy to participate in this initiative. The
project is youth-led and youth-implemented. The planning was coordinated
by Awani Mireille of AFREDECC and some members of the Limbe Green
Youth Movement Ketcha Njobet, Forti Adolf, Mbamjo Nelson, Dara Marion
etc. All dates and arrangements were made by this team. They sent out
letters and made contacts with designated schools. From then on they
arranged project dates in the various schools. This was facilitated by the
fact that the dates arranged for were actually the last weeks of the school
term and the students had time to participate in this project. Participation
was high, some students participated out of curiosity others understood
pretty well the importance of what they were doing.

Kids having fun while planting trees

‘lets plant a tree’ GHS BONADIKOMBO MILE 4 LIMBE:

Government High School Bonadikombo, is a new Public Secondary School. The
school has just three forms at the moment and approximately 200 students.
The school has been allocated land formerly owned by the Cameroon
Development Corporation (CDC). This land was formerly filled with Oil Palms
so when the school took over the land they had to rehabilitate the land. The
“Plant A Tree Campaign” provided them with an opportunity not just to
rehabilitate their school also for students to learn valuable environmental
lessons through tree planting sessions.

Vast available land

We took 25 Luceana seedlings to GSS Bonadikombo. This trees are very
good for Agro-forestry and the take a fairly short time to grow. This trees
would help the school to carry out vegetable farming and other small
agricultural practices due to the benefits of Luceana as a agro forestry
plant. So this trees would have multiple benefits to this school and to the
environment.

Youths planting tree in GHS limbe.

‘lets plant a tree’ Government High School Limbe:

Government High School Limbe was a little different from Government
Secondary School Bonadikombo because the Government High School is an
old school. It is one of the first schools in town and a local Legend. However
we met the Vice Principal who is a botanist an extremely interested in tree
planting so she facilitated everything. She made it possible that everything
was easiliy organized for us and they had a project to farm an Orchard so
she requested we come along with some fruit trees. We went to GHS limbe
with thirty seedlings mainly Luceana and a couple of fruit trees species. The
trees were planted and we had a chat with some students and the Vice
Principal who expressed interest in more seedlings if they were available.
We accepted to work together in future.

LGYM Volunteers Assisting In Tree Planting

‘lets plant a tree’ NATIONAL COMPREHENSIVE HIGH SCHOOL Limbe.
N.C.H.S Limbe can be considered as a partner college. The land were the
Nursery is on belongs to NCHS so we were always going to carry out the
project in this land. The project went on smoothly and we planted 10
seedlings in this school.

Project Coordinator explaining trees to kids

‘lets plant a tree’ THE FUTURE:

After planting 65 seedlings in three schools and receiving much love while
doing so ‘lets plant a tree’ has a bright future. Schools are now on a break
now so the project would also take a three week recess. When schools would
reopen we would plant more seedlings in over 6 schools in limbe for the first
phase of the project.

The next phase would take a while longer as we would expect the seeds we
are saping now to reach the level when they can be transplanted. So the next
phase of the project would be a youth service learning project during the
holidays.
 Students Planting Trees

SUSTAINABILITY:
Sustainability of projects like this has always been a problem. In considering
the schools and were we planted the trees we ensure that these factors
applied.
1. That the school showed a genuine desire to have the trees.
2. That the school agreed to take care of the trees
3. That the trees planted could provide other functions that would
relate to the schools.

This would ensure that the school takes care of the project and ensure that
the trees last and the real benefits could last longer.
We would also pay periodic visits to these schools to supervise the trees.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED.
We encountered very few problems while executing this project. The
biggest problem we have encountered has been with water a problem that
has cost some money without a solution. As previously mentioned the stream
were we fetch water from dries of during the dry season and the wells we
dug could give us water. Right now we are using water from SNEC and the
periodic rainfalls are helping to ensure that the cost is reduced however we
hope to sought this out before the dry season comes around again. We are
seeking advice for best solutions.