Current Trees4Good Jatropha Projects

How Jatropha can protect and preserve rainforest in Borneo The bio-fuels market is commonly perceived as a threat to the environment and this is potentially true. However the problem is not inherent in bio-fuels it is in the crops used to produce them – notably palm oil, rapeseed, soy and other food crops. The problem arises when land that is currently rainforest or that could be used for food is used for fuel crops. Forested areas are being torn down to make way for palm oil plantations but this is totally unnecessary. Jatropha is part of the answer. Many environmental groups campaign for an end to the logging but offer no solution to the reason for the logging in the first place. The reason is simple – poverty. Many local people have no other source of income so will do whatever they have to in order to survive. For many the answer is to log trees, even when it is illegal. Trees4Good gives the locals another option - the ability to make a living from farming Jatropha. It is an opportunity that hundreds have taken, and thousands more want to take. You can help them to take part and change their lives by sponsoring tree planting in Borneo with Trees4Good.

Borneo is the world's third largest island and is well known for its wild east tag. The wild people, head hunting and cannibalism are just too familiar stories. Early explorers saw a different Borneo – the magnificent tropical rainforest and its inhabitants. The human-like orangutans, gigantic crocodiles and ferocious two-horned rhinoceroses captured the imagination of these explorers. On the smaller scale they talked about the ravaging rivers, the blood sucking creatures and always, the friendly natives.

De-forestation has taken place here on a massive scale as the image (above, right) shows. Trees4Good is helping to stop the de-forestation (which often occurs through no employment) by providing jobs for locals cultivating Jatropha. They no longer need to chop down rainforest to survive, they can make their living from farming Jatropha. This is exactly what is required to stop the destruction of Borneo, and start repairing the damage.

Click here to see a video of the area that Trees4Good operates in. Help us preserve the rainforest, help us alleviate poverty and help us start to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. All via planting trees.

Borneo was once covered with dense rainforests. With swampy coastal areas fringed with mangrove forests and a mountainous interior, much of the terrain was virtually impassable and unexplored. Head-hunters ruled the remote parts of the island until a century ago. In the 1980’s and 90’s Borneo underwent a remarkable transition. Its forests were levelled at a rate unparalleled in human history. The wood from the island’s rainforests went to countries such as Japan and the United States in the form of paper pulp, chopsticks and garden furniture. Initially the timber was taken from the Malaysian part of the island – the northern states of Sabah and Sarawak.

More recently, the primary source of tropical timber has started coming from the forests in the southern part of Borneo, the Indonesian area called Kalimantan. Today the forested areas of Borneo are a shadow of what they once were and those that remain are highly threatened by the emerging bio-fuels market.

Jatropha in Africa

The African continent, which at 29 million square kilometres in size is nearly as large as Asia, is relatively sparsely populated by comparison. It is also a continent of spectacular natural wealth, having vast reserves of land with climates ideal for growing oil-producing crops, particularly Jatropha.

Over half of the land in Africa is considered suitable for Jatropha cultivation. If only 2% of that land was used to cultivate Jatropha, it would yield as much oil per year as U.S. oil companies expect - best case - to remove from Alaska's north slope over the next 20 years. And after 20 years, these fields of Jatropha crops would still be producing oil, whereas the Alaskan oil fields would be dry. This is one of many ways to save the environment.

If, to use an extreme case, 25% of Africa's land deemed suitable to grow oil-producing Jatropha crops were used for that purpose, the yearly output would match 100% of the current oil consumption in the USA. Needless to say, such a way to save the environment would also erase forever the landscape of poverty that has plagued Africans for decades. And where the Sahara and Kalahari are on the march, Jatropha can grow, storing moisture, stabilizing soil, and slowing if not reversing desertification alongside offering biofuel production opportunities. Trees4Good has ambitions to plant as much oil-producing Jatropha crops on land as we can feasibly plant. bringing trees to areas that are barren, wealth to the poorest and helping to reduce the global dependency on oil.

Brazil - starting 2008

In Brazil Trees4Good will be working with local tribes to help them turn non-productive land into profitable Jatropha plantations. With Jatropha as a cash-generating crop, the tribes can be encouraged to start their own businesses and offer a great way to save the environment at the same time. This means rural people can remain in the countryside they love, and not be forced by economics to move into the huge cities of Brazil, where again poverty is rife.

Mexico - starting 2008

Mexico is of course very close to the USA, but is a poor country. Poverty is widespread, and there is a huge amount of land that can be used for Jatropha. With a ready market for biodiesel oil in the USA, the Trees4Good Mexico projects can change the lives of thousands of Mexicans for the better, as well as eliminate huge quantities of CO2 in the earths atmosphere.