Trees for Cities

Working with the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS) funds were used to plant over 1,100 fruiting trees across the city of Addis Ababa, engaging over 1,500 local community members in the work. The planting of the fruit trees improves the livelihoods for many people within the community, creating a healthier diet and developing skills to enable them to improve their standards of living. The trees have also led to environmental improvements such as shade and soil stabilisation whilst preventing land degradation.

Of the 1,597 adults who were involved in the project, 600 were HIV/Aids suffers and 73% were unemployed. Families are encouraged to use the income made from selling their fruit to purchase additional tree seedlings to increase their yield and to create a sustainable way of living. A variety of fruit trees were planted, including apple, plum and pear varieties. These all grow well in the region but are expensive to buy in the local markets.