Earth Child Institute has been leading One Child + One Tree campaigns in dozens of countries with thousands of children and young people, planting and caring for hundreds of thousands of trees in communities and schools for more than 20 years, beginning in partnership between Donna Goodman and Dr Wangari Maathai, who knew that planting trees alone would not suffice, it was most important to care for the sapling for at least one year to ensure its survival.
In Togo, Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Book “Like A Tree” featured the ECI program and provided one dollar per book sold. Schools in forest communities in Northern Togo. Children who cared for their tree throughout the school year toward survival, were granted scholarship toward the next school year.
Through ECI Ghana, thousands of trees have been planted and cared for, including donations of fencing to surround the saplings to protect them from animals and other threats to their survival with students learning how trees can prevent flooding, provide shelter and healthy food and medicine in the case of many species.
In the Amazon region of Brazil, many hundreds of trees have been planted by children in areas that can surround and protect source (called the eyes) of the Amazon and Tapajós Rivers to ensure water quality and quantity for generations to come.
In the mountains of northern Thailand, students have been planning for and planting trees to prevent mud and land from sliding during rainy periods. In these cases, children are providing disaster risk reduction and learning how tree planting can help to combat impacts of climate change.
In India in partnership with Parmarth Niketan, ECI planted thousands of trees in hilly and mountainous areas with hundreds of students in the state of Uttarakhand.
To learn more about ECI’s work in Forest Community Schools, please review the attached research paper.
In the second paper, ECI contracted an Environmental Economist to help us to quantify the potential impact of trees planted and cared for by the 2.2 billion children on our planet.