Tree Aid

Tree Aid was established in 1987 by Neville Fay and others in the forestry arboricultural industries, in response to the famine in Ethiopia. Its aim was to provide a long-term solution to the challenges of poverty and environmental decline once the emergency relief efforts ended. This was to be achieved by local teams working with people to manage and maintain trees for fruit, fodder, shade, and soil consolidation.[10] In a speech on 19 July 2017 at the 30th Anniversary of Tree Aid, Neville Fay said of the founding of Tree Aid:

Inspired by the community-based African Green Belt and the Indian Chipko Village movements, we saw the possibility of how arid landscapes could be stabilised to recreate a sustainable future for the heroic inhabitants of those environments.[11]

Two gentlemen planting a tree in Ghana during tree planting initiative

Tree Aid's approach is to work with people local to the areas they are working in, supporting them with tools and training to grow trees, protect land, and start sustainable businesses.[12] This approach aims to tackle poverty by increasing the project participants' nutrition and incomes, as well as protecting and restoring the natural environment. Tree Aid's work contributes to the following United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals: goal one which is about ending poverty, goal five on gender equality, goal eight about developing opportunities for decent work and economic growth, goal 13 about climate action and goal 15 about managing life on land sustainably.[13]

Tree Aid's approach is focused on four themes:

• Natural Resource Management – Working with local people to use the trees on the land to improve soil and crops, rather than clearing them. Helping farmers to grow back trees that have been cut.[14] Pushing for government policy that protects trees.
• Forest Governance – Campaigning for forests to be managed by the people who depend on them. Working with communities and local governments so they can agree rules for using forests and their resources.[15]
• Food and Nutrition – Working with communities to grow and protect trees to keep land fertile and help crops to grow. If crops fail because of flooding or drought, trees survive, providing nutritious fruits, nuts and leaves, to eat or sell. This gives people stable supplies of food.[16]
• Enterprise Development – Working with local people so they have what they need to make and sell products from their trees. That includes everything from production skills and tools, to storage warehouses.[17] Supporting the creation of village enterprise groups.[18]

• On 17 January 2019, Zoë Wanamaker made an appeal on BBC Radio 4 on behalf of Tree Aid where she told the story of Petra, a Tree Aid project participant who learnt how to produce shea butter from the nuts of shea tree.[19] Tree Aid reported that this appeal raised over £20,000.[20]
• Between 1 April and 30 June 2019, Tree Aid ran the "She Grows" campaign, the donations for which were matched by the UK government.[21] The appeal aimed to help one thousand women in Mali to set up small businesses that process and sell shea butter and honey, and give them tools and training to save and replant their local forest.[22]
• Tree Aid launched their second UK Aid Matched appeal, called the "Future Forest" on 12 April 2021.[23] The aim of this appeal was to help save the Metema frankincense forest in Ethiopia, by supporting communities with tools and training to sustainably use frankincense trees, protecting them for the future.[24] This was expected to help tackle the effects of the climate crisis The Future Forest appeal was backed by public figures including Joanna Lumley, Chris Packham, and Zoë Wanamaker.[25]

• Tree Aid Website
• Royal Forestry Society
• Tree Aid on Twitter
• Tree Seed blog