The earth is an interdependent system. All living things play a part within it. No one segment of the system has dominion over another. Once one part of the system begins to fail, we all are affected by it. Once part of the system thrives, we all benefit.
The forest plays a large part in keeping the Earth’s system in balance. Deforestation impacts life in a massively destructive way. When we deforest the landscape, we solidify the inevitability of irregular rain patterns. When nature’s response turns in that direction, food insecurity follows quickly. Once hunger sets in, abject poverty trails closely behind and life spirals into scarcity. Like quicksand, once you are in scarcity, it is very difficult to get out. Scarcity affects all species, human, animal and the environment.
Reforesting the landscape is an essential part of helping the earth regenerate her ground water resources, her soil moisture levels, regulating rainfall and insuring the transpiration process.
Developing countries rely heavily on wood fuel, the major energy source for cooking and heating. So when contemplating our reforestation effort, we needed to find trees that would not be suitable for fire wood use. The Moringa tree is a perfect fit. It was one of the trees selected to be distributed through the reforestation program because:
- It grows very quickly – 7 to 14 feet in the first year. It comes into leaves at the end of the dry season, when other foods are scarce. Once matured, one can cut a limb from the tree, plant it and it will re-propagate a root system.
- The leaves can be cooked for food and contain high levels of carbohydrates, vitamins, protein and fiber. Only a 200g serving can supply a child with all his/her daily nutrition.
- The tree grows a seed pod, the seeds can be crushed into a fine powder which will remove 90% of bacteria from dirty water.
- From that same pod, one can extract oil that is said to be better than extra virgin olive oil.
- It is also drought and flood tolerant and grows natively in Tanzania.
Our nursery has flourished because 7 acres of land were donated from the Serena hotel in Tengeru, Tanzania. Because there is no recycling in the country and people are consuming bottled water, we collect used bottles from hotels and Safari companies, cut the tops off and use them for our tree start farm. Trees nurtured in the Save the Rain nursery in Tanzania are distributed to each woman enrolled in the Women’s Water Initiative and to each of the village schools.