Do something different this year for Father’s Day on 20th June 2010 and give a gift of new Trees.  Plant at one of our Family Tree Scheme sites located around the country, from Cornwall through to Scotland. For as little as £35 you will receive a Gift Card, including your choice of wording, choice of planting site and a Dedication entered into a Record book at site for all to see.  Trees will be planted during the Autumn planting season. 
 
Click this link to take you through to ’Plant a Tree’ for site details. Make your selection and follow the simple payment steps.

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Trees 4 Devon have been granted Start Up costs for their new Tree organisation, following affiliation to ITF.   
 
A Tree Planting grant has been awarded to South Hams District Council, overseen by Trees 4 Devon, to support an ongoing project to complete an Arboretum in the grounds of Follation House at South Hams District Council.   The Arboretum is open to the public and enhances the grounds of this wonderful old house.

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Recent Corporate Support and Donations received. 

Pearson Education Europe, Middle East and Africa are supporting ITF overseas projects with sales of a Sustainable Marketing book.  An educational publisher, through their life-long learning programme, their books and online resources help school children and students to learn, teachers to teach and professionals to develop throughout their careers.  Find out more about Pearson here 

Namecheap.com, USA are a Webhosting Company who are supporting ITF overseas projects in Africa.  They provide web hosting, domain name registration, renewal and names transfer.   
Learn more about Namecheap.com here 

The Economist Group recently conducted a global community survey of their staff.  £1 from each response received was donated to ITF, raising over £500.  Find out more about The Economist Group here

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The Prince’s Rainforests Project – Updates April 2010 :

International Conference on the Major Forest Basins        

The PRP Directors attended the International Conference on the Major Forest Basins in Paris last month. The conference, opened by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was the first major international meeting since the Copenhagen Summit on climate change. Fifty-four countries, representing the world’s major forest basins and the main donor countries for forest preservation met to deepen and implement a *REDD+ partnership.  

At the meeting many donor countries stressed the importance of forestry in the fast start funding agreed at Copenhagen and outlined their intention to devote at least 20% of their fast-start funding pledges to REDD+. Australia, France, Japan, Norway, the UK and the USA confirmed their collective pledge of $3.5 billion for the 2010-2012 period, while Germany, Slovenia, Spain and the European Commission agreed to join this group.  

The next conference will be held in Oslo at the end of May so that this transparent process can contribute throughout the year until the next UNFCCC conference in Cancun this December. During this period the PRP will continue to work with governments to try and facilitate the rapid deployment of this fast track financing. It is our firmly held belief that this funding should not only be invested in forest protection but also to addressing the real driver of deforestation – namely agriculture.

International Year of Biodiversity 

The United Nations chose 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity.  Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, essential for sustaining the natural living systems that provide us with food, fuel, health, wealth, and other vital services. 

Leading Retailers form Timber Retail Coalition              

On the 6th April 2010, Kingfisher, Carrefour, IKEA and Marks & Spencer launched the Timber Retail Coalition (TRC) to urge the European Council and Parliament to agree regulation to control the illegal timber and wood products trade within the EU by the end of 2010.

Illegal logging is a key threat to official efforts to control deforestation. The PRP welcomes such industry led initiatives and hopes that this regulation will help to create a level playing field, which currently does not exist as the illegally logged timber products industry still has easy access to the EU marketplace. 

To learn more about the work of The Prince’s Rainforests Project, visit : http://www.rainforestsos.org/content/home/

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Registration is now open for the 18th Commonwealth Forestry Conference in Edinburgh, UK, 28 June – 2 July 2010. 

• Exciting additions to the Conference programme, including speakers and field trips .         
• Jan McAlpine (Director, UNFF Secretariat) will speak on opening day

For latest information, more details and to register visit : www.cfc2010.org / email: cfcc@in-conference.org.uk

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05/03/2010

Scotland will plant 100 million trees by 2015 as part of a drive to cut emissions, the Scottish Government pledged today.

The initiative represents Scotland’s contribution to a global pledge made by the Climate Group States and Regions to plant one billion trees by 2015 and will result in a 3.7 per cent increase to Scotland’s forest area.

The group of self-governing nations and regions hopes to persuade governments, businesses and communities worldwide to plant a tree for everyone on the planet to help counter climate change.

To read this article in full, please visit:  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/03/05131411

Related items: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Home

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Trees for Cities (an independent charity which plant trees and landscape public spaces in urban areas) is working with the Brenchley Management Association and Southwark Council to create new community gardens and orchards at the Brenchley Gardens Estate on Saturday 20 February.

Residents have been consulted on what features of the gardens they would best suit the area, and what species they would like to be planted. Through workshops and demonstrations local people will be given the skills to enjoy a tasty harvest from raised vegetable beds, orchards, fruiting bushes and shrubs.  In addition new fruit and nut trees will be planted around the housing blocks. These will provide a vital home for wildlife as a shelter in cold weather, and will increase biodiversity on the estate.  Trees for Cities will also be constructing new seating so that the residents will have the chance to relax in their new surroundings and enjoy fruit from the trees in this urban space.

The work is part of Trees for Cities’ mission to improve urban spaces for residents by increasing the number of plants and trees, bringing local communities together to learn how look after their trees and benefit from them, as well as attempting to lower crime rates by increasing the popularity of public spaces.  In total, the charity has planted over 140,000 trees worldwide on streets, in parks, local woodlands and community projects nationally and internationally.

This project is supported by the London Tree and Woodland Grant Scheme, through Groundwork and the Forestry Commission, the London Borough of Southwark’s Grow Nuts scheme, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the City Bridge Trust, and ITF.  Please visit www.treesforcities.org  / or email S.Gray @ stephen.gray@treesforcities.org  for further information.

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Our partner BIADA (Bagurugu Integrated Agro-Forestry Development Association) near Tamale in Ghana, West Africa has been given repeat funding following the success of previous work in the region.   The project is located in Bagurugu, Tamaligu and Zankali Communities in the Karaga District of the Northern Region of Ghana and is primarily for biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction.

BIADA’s project currently supports 60 farmers and will target another 45 farmers this year.  Four different species of economically beneficial trees will be planted including Mangoes, Cashew, Acacia and Teak. The project aims to tackle the extreme poverty in the area, widespread losses in crop production caused by bush burning, deforestation and intensive soil erosion and inappropriate farming practices have left arable land bare and have resulted in these communities becoming increasingly vulnerable to poverty  with a massive urban drift of their youth to greener pastures to urban centres.

The project will promote sustainable land management practices together with natural resource management and tree planting activities where farmers are trained on preparation, planting and nurturing procedures.  Rural communities will recover land and have an enhanced sustainable livelihood for their future and their youth.

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