We work with women around the Sierra Leone rainforest, planting alleys,fruit and native medicinal trees to store carbon and reduce deforestation.Climate smart alley-cropping improves soil & crops.We train women facilitators and local tree champions to support tree care and microfinance loan schemes.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
In Sierra Leone women carry the double burden of looking after their families and doing much of the farming, whilst having very little financial independence. Climate change is leading to more extreme rainfall and flooding whilst 'slash & burn' land clearance causes deforestation and soil degradation, exacerbating the difficulties faced by families and forcing them to clear more trees.Valuable native trees are lost by destructive harvesting and investing in fruit trees is too costly for families
Solution
Since 2018 we have been developing women's community farms and agroforestry, planting crops within alleys of nitrogen fixing trees to enrich the soil and create permanent farms. Our first 4 women's farms had very good maize harvests this year and we plan to plant crops and teach tree care in 16 more farms as the alleys mature. We will include a further 6 women's groups in our successful microfinance scheme and support local tree champions to grow native medicinal and fruit trees in 12 villages
