Trees and Humans Reciprocating Climate Resilience in the Tropics

Thanks to big support from Tree-Nation this year we have been able to implement a serious upgrade of our main community nursery infrastructure - namely the repair and enlargement of our water storage capacity. These storage tanks hold a lot of water but half a million seedlings can get pretty thirsty in the dry season down at the Equator so you can't really have too much water in reserve.  The climate in the tropics is changing faster than it is in temperate latitudes like Europe and the seasonal rains are becoming ever more unreliable and the mains water supply to the nursery is also prone to serious outtages (which generally come in the driest times when everyone needs more of the stuff!) so one key way that we can build climate resilience is to make sure that when the dry times come our tanks are strong, full and capacious.

Here Musa Safari the nursery security warden pours water onto the repaired concrete tank stands to make sure that they set slowly and dont crack in the heat. The tank stands need to be high to ensure that the water is able to reach the furthest seedlings in the enlarged nursery

Now we have an increased capacity of over 60,000 Litres held in 7 tanks but ultimately we are aiming to get to 100,000 Litres and if we can do that, these seedlings below will be a lot more secure in their first few months of life.

Tree seedlings are similar to human children. If they get what they need early on, they generally grow strong and develop well in the rest of their lives but the interesting thing is that like kids, trees also give back much more than they recieve. If we can give these babies plenty of life-giving water now then once they are established, they'll pay us back ten-fold in terms of our own climate resilience. 

How is that? 

Well, apart from the obvious benefits of carbon sequestration, they'll put out strong root systems that will reduce soil erosion and run-off which removes agricultural fertilty, they'll produce edible crops that can supplant vegetable harvests that are vulnerable to extreme weather events and they'll give people much needed shade in the heat of the day, like these 3 year old Neem are doing below..... Thanks Trees ;-)